Reading one book a week has countless blessings. Just think about it: it totals over 50 books every year. It’s really a lot, and such amount of information and wisdom can make a big impact in your life.

It has been said, for example, that if one would specialize and read one book a week about a certain topic for five years, that person could thus become an international expert in that field. That’s huge, isn’t it?

It’s all for the best – and it doesn’t even require that much effort from you. It’s never too hard to find the time to read at least one book a week. I’ve embraced this habit late last year and fully put it into practice ever since. While I didn’t read 20+ books yet, I’ve read considerably more than I did before.

The aim of this post is to show you how you can build this habit yourself. Following are my top five picks and strategies about how I achieved this myself.

1- Try Audiobooks. Audiobooks are a real blessing – the perfect solution for all those who don’t have the time to sit down and read. They have been extremly effective to me – their versatility is, my friends, unmatched. You can hear audiobooks everywhere: walking down the street, on public transportation, in the gym… I’ve charged my Ipod with dozens of these audiobooks – a total winner.

It’s true – audiobooks are not the same as good old paper books. But they still work wonders – especially if you are, just like me, a bit of a freak and carry a notebook everywhere. I note the highlights, what interested me most and the ‘time’ of the parts I would most likely would like to hear back again.

2- Carry a Book Everywhere. While the audiobooks are unbeatable when it comes to versatility, carrying a book everywhere you go comes close second. You can’t read on the gym (or at least I can’t!), but you can on any waiting line, public transportation and even while walking. Sometimes it takes a bit of effort to get used to it, but you can make it happen.

While big, heavy books are a con, there are thousands of worthy small books you can carry around. If you make a habit of reading when you have the window, soon enough the pile of completed books will start to grow. If you have a Kindle, Ipad or another similar device, you just don’t have excuse – take it everywhere!

3- Stock Books You’ll be Interested About. Books are cheap – just buy many of them. Many people have called me weird, as I buy more books than I’ll be able to read. But that pays off – I always have at least two or three books to take up and read.

As I buy different kinds of books, I always have one that will suit me for that exact time. For when I’m bored of finance, I have some good piece about traveling. If you stock books, you’ll always have something appealing waiting for you.

Did you ever hear about Umberto Eco’s antilibrary? On his bestseller The Black Swan, Nassim Taleb points the following:

“Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you don’t know as your financial means, mortgage rates and the currently tight real-estate market allows you to put there. You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection of unread books an antilibrary.”

Taleb is right, and I believe everyone should start building their antilibrary. In a way, want it or not, it makes you start reading more, plus its value as an important research tool.

4- Be Open About Your Goal. Some of you might have found it, some might not – but here it is: Mario’s list of all the books I’ve been reading so far in 2010. I started this list only a few weeks ago following the inspiring one Everett has written for himself. It just helps out to know that I’ll disappoint friends, readers and even myself if I don’t add one new book to that list every week. It’s bad enough already as most of what I’ve been reading (or listening!) is usually longer than the average!

Why don’t write yours? You don’t need a paid website to do it after all. You could sign for a Posterous or Tumblr blog, for instance. Otherwise, there are countless widgets here and there for your favorite social networks that will let you keep track of what you read.

5- Learn to Read Faster. This alone has the power to make your goal achievable. Perhaps you do have the time to read, but just not enough, right? Learning to read two, three or even four times faster than you do now will then certainly help you. Heck, it will help everyone.

I’m still slow for super-human standards, but I’m slowly getting better. Tim and Scott have both written great guides with two different (and complimentary) approaches about how you can speed up your reading.

Tidbit: there’s this video about a university student asking Bill Gates and Warren Buffet (the two richest Americans – smart guys, both) the following question: “If you could choose one super power, what would you choose?” While I expected him to answer “flying”, “making Bing interesting to the people”, etc, Gates answered something like this “I wish I could read much, much faster than I do now.”

If from all people he says that, guys, imagine it is big stuff.

Photo credit: Pedro Simoes.

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You must watch the 2005 hit comedy Wedding Crashers (pictured). It’s funny, boosts some great performances and might even change your life.

Whoever watched the film, which is mainly about two guys who ‘crash’ wedding parties to drink and meet girls, will surely have thought ‘I have to do it once I my life.’ So did I, and so did one of my best friends, and one good day we went for it.

We suited up, checked the paper for the hottest wedding of the weekend and there we went. It was awesome, ridiculous and one experience I’ll never forget.

Why Crash Weddings Anyway?

The movie doesn’t exaggerate: wedding parties are awesome. They are crazy and filled with gorgeous women (and men, girls), all elegantly dressed. Alcohol flows, food is fantastic and most attendees are horny, leading to one of the best situations to pick up in the world.

It’s plain fun, and it usually turns into nights hard to forget. While the movie exaggerates some aspects, the whole picture is quite accurate.

Once we decided to crash, we realized that we would need to work on a few key aspects.

We Had to Look Amazing

We were both 20, and though we were bigger and more mature-looking that the normal 20 year old, we still looked young. We took out our best suit, our best ties and shiniest shoes, so as if it came to the appearance, we would be fine.

This is a no-brainer. If you are well dressed, it will give you more credibility in the front door and during the party. Many people never saw the movie and would still think it would be ridiculous for people to, all dressed up, crash to a wedding.

And, of course, the nicer you look, the more girls (or boys) you’ll be likely to meet.

A Compelling Story & Getting In

Unless you know or bribe the guys at the entrance, you’ll need to tell them a really good story to let you in. If you crash, you won’t be on the guest list, and there must be a reason for that ‘mistake’ you should think about.

We thought up different strategies to go around this. The first was to be amazed and completely indignated that we were not in the guest list. We spent at least a complete minute discussing what could have happened, and not with the guards, but among ourselves. That raises credibility, as we both start coming up with possible reasons for the incident.

Our goal is to make the guys show us the guest list, and give us the chance to finger-point where our names are. We make fake phone calls and set the entire situation up, all while we scan the list and choose who we will be.

For that purpose, we always use fake names – usually a more common one as would be John or Bob in English. As for the surname, we say one weird first, one of those hard to spell Eastern European ones, all with the goal of confusing these guys. Then, as the situation unfolds, we discuss whether we were signed up with our ‘mother’s surname’, as the other one is too hard to spell.

If they check our IDs we would be doomed. Thankfully, however, they never did. And if, we would never show it and say we left it in the car, at home or something like that.

The First Lessons

However, our first crash didn’t go smooth as planned. Soon after our successful incursion, once we were drinking our whiskies in the bar, a number of people came up and started questioning our identities and so on. We just left before things got messy – but heads up, realizing all the mistakes we had made and celebrating that we had made it in.

These were the top lessons:

Go to a Big Wedding

Our sin was to crash a small wedding. The place was great and the people chic, but it was small. There were less than a hundred people and that made us immediately stand out. In smaller weddings, people know each other better and any outsider will immediately look suspicious.

On the other hand, the more people there are, the easier it will be to meld into the crow and do the work. It’s a non-brainer too. After all, in bigger weddings you’ll usually have more everything – more girls (and boys), more drinks, etc. It’s always a better choice.

Keep a Low Profile

For the same reason you must keep a low profile. I like to make noise and stand out. So does my friend, and that’s what Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn do in the movie: they are the stars of the party. In reality, however, it’s not the best path to take. At least it wasn’t for us.

The reasons are obvious: you don’t want to stand out. Even if the wedding is big, if you cut the wedding cake or make a solo dance, people might start asking ‘who is that’. It’s not a safe path, at least not until the party is dying off.

Go to the Church Ceremony

It’s better to visit Church before heading to the party. Church is where the flirting starts. You won’t dance, you won’t party and you might not even speak – but there will be plenty of seductive eye contact.

One of the best details of Wedding Crashers is when Owen Wilson goes as far as to fake a cry during the ceremony. No matter how cheesy you might think that is, it really works.

But it’s not all about sex. If other people, old and young, see you at Church you’ll have a better possibility of fitting at the party. People won’t ask about you during the party – they’ll remember that you were at Church. We went as far as to personally kiss and congratulate the bride and groom during the Church ceremonies – a big win for what was to come later.

If you really want to get into one special wedding, then you must go to Church first. It will raise your stakes considerably.

Your Story, the Crasher Rules and the Last Advice

• Be free to invent whatever story you want. There’s, however, one point you always need to make: you are not from town. Usually an obscure, remote place is the best option.
• Teams of two are best: no more, no less. Don’t go alone – if things get nasty, you’ll need a backup. More than two is also not good – it might gather you too much attention and get you into trouble.
• Check the Wedding Crashing Rules, straight from the movie, as an inspiration. There are a few gems in that list.
• Take conversations where you want them to go. Avoid family, your connections with the bride and groom and move the chat to where you want it.
• You are at the party to have lots of fun. The moment you put the grim face, the insecure look, etc it’s all over.
• It’s never bad to run away. When things get nasty, escape.

You’ll have the time of your life when crashing a wedding. Do it for fun, food, drinks, sex and for the amazing anecdote you’ll have for the rest of your life.

Last – never give up. As I wrote above, we were kicked out of our very first wedding. Instead of going to mourn and cry, we got better at this and prepared to rock another party. Persist until you win!

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Choice is good. It means opportunities and it means freedom. Isn’t freedom just what we all want? Freedom to do what we want, take the path we want and be where we want – that’s exactly what most people dream about.

I believe that a life of complete freedom, where I can do whatever I want, it’s the perfect life. It’s hard to achieve complete liberty – there are (and will always be) responsabilities, things to do, etc. But it is possible to get very close. It all comes down to being smart and taking the right decisions.

My Personal Example

I just sat for GMAT last week. I scored high – perhaps not for a Harvard/MIT level, but strong enough to almost guarantee me a place in any European Masters Program. That’s a big relief – all of the sudden my options multiplied by hundreds.

In the meantime, I was already accepted by for one top-tier program in Denmark even without the GMAT. Now I don’t know whether to go to Denmark, apply to the #1 Uni next year or to do both. I love this. I love to have the choice to go where I want.

I don’t need to worry about money either. Now I’m earning enough on auto-pilot to live a good life even in places as expensive as Northern Europe is. As I run a location-independent business, this gives me the possibility to keep working no matter where I am – be it Denmark, France, Korea or back home in Buenos Aires.

It’s perfect, just what I wanted, and it all comes down to my desire for choice. It took me a while and plenty of work, but now I can do whatever I want. It’s a BIG feeling, and I’m still not really sure If I am aware of all this. But once I see the cash in my hands and read the letters of acceptance, it kind of makes sense.

Of course, achieving this was not easy. For starters, GMAT was a pain in the ass. No matter how smart you are,  that exam it’s really a killer – it took me a lot of time and dedication to get my high score. I could have done better, and I could have done it in less time, yeah, but it would still be hard. Same with business – I could have achieved this before, be making even more money, etc.

But well, now it’s done. There’s no better feeling that knowing I will do what I want, and that I don’t depend on nobody’s decision to approve it or not.

Build Your Own Choices

My story is just one among thousands. Just as I did, people around the world are building their choices right now. And it’s not an exclusive club – you can and everyone can build choices.  As I wrote in the Manifesto, there’s no impossible for the willing heart. Discover where you want to go and start walking into that direction.

Money and studies are the classics, but you can build choices everywhere. For example, in Dating Beautiful Women I suggest guys to date multiple girls, not just one. Their chances of having a happy relationship grow with the number of choices they have. If you are planning to settle for one girl or boy, having ten to choose will always be better than if you had just two or three. It’s not too complicated – it’s plain common sense.

Choice is freedom. Embrace it.

A Bit Off Topic: Why Go to University Again Anyway?

It doesn’t make that much sense, right? I don’t want to get a corporate job, I don’t need new degrees and my time and effort could probably be better invested on growing my business instead of going back to the books.

But there’s an honest answer for all this: I like studying. I love student life – it’s fun. I like meeting people, learning, and the atmosphere in general. Masters are cool too – the higher you go in this education thing, the more specific and interesting it gets. When I studied Business I got lots of boring and tedious stuff that I didn’t care about. But for a Masters, I’ll see no more Mathematics IV or Microeconomy III – thank god I’ll have cool topics as Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship to learn about.

I could do a Masters in Buenos Aires, or even go back to my beloved Vienna. But that’s not the point – I want to live in a new city, get to know a new culture, a new language, meet new people and more. That’s what I want to go to Copenhagen, Lyon, Milano or somewhere else. The more milage, the better.

Last, I believe this is the right time to study. I don’t want to do a Masters in my late 20s or 30s – I just don’t feel that would be the best moment for me. If there’s one best time to be a student, it’s when you are in your early 20s. I could keep postponing Masters and go to Italy, France and Japan to work hard on these three countries’ languages, but perhaps that would be a better choice for later.

What do you think about all this? Let us all know by writing a comment! Maybe you can help me out decide what to do

Photo credit: Davichi

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People often ask me how did I do it. People wonder how did I manage to achieve my objectives and now travel full-time, do what I want and make money at the same time.

I won’t go too deep into detail – but if you have been reading the Inspiration Palace for a little while you might get the idea: I sell information products, I have a small consulting business and I have many small websites. The three are the pillars of my location-independent lifestyle.

I do work a lot though. Staying in the sandy beaches of Rio de Janeiro is lots of fun – but it gets old soon enough. Once you ran your own business, you are almost inclined to keep working 24/7 and all year long – actually much more than if you would have a standard corporate job.

But it’s fun,the results are incredible and I wouldn’t change it not even for the best jobs around.

So what’s the trick?

There are many things that make up success – hundreds, perhaps. But there are two, I believe, that stand out:

1- Building a Success System.
2- Speed of Implementation.

Taking risks, luck, a right team, etc are all very important. However, a success system and speed of implementation go a step beyond. They are the two fundamental pillars to achieve almost anything you want.

Building a success system may first look as the tough part, but it’s actually the other way around. Building the system is the easy part – putting it into action (implementing) the system is where most people fail. After all, we all know the steps to success for most projects, right?

If you want, as I do, to become a writer and travel around the world, the path is clear. Hundreds did it before - and they have documented and taught us the way to do it. It’s tougher than you might imagine, but it’s possible as long as you keep going.

The same applies to almost any other thing in life – there’s a proven way to find a perfect match, to rock any exam and so on. There are few impossibles if you know the path and are willing to give everything to get to the end.

In case you didn’t get it yet, the Guide to Inevitable Success explains you step-by-step how to build your own success system from the ground up and focused on your unique personal goals. The guide is free and you can get it if you subscribe via Mail or RSS – just check at the bottom of this post and you’ll find the link.

The Speed of Implementation is the other side of the deal. Specifically, it means the distance between the time you learn something and the time you put that into action. Like most things, it’s a skill. You’ll need train and practice your speed hard.

You can have the best skills and tools in the world, but you need to put them into action. Only with action you’ll succeed – and the biggest success comes from fast action.

Be fast implementing ideas, concepts and things you learn. It will help you personally and it will help your business. When I learned about the benefits of eating every two hours, I gave it a try the next day (not the next week!). It was the same when I first read about building affiliate websites – I went and made one that same day.

When the idea or method is of high value, strive to put it into action as soon as you can. Finish off with what you had to do and then work on it.

Photo Credit: Hector Guerra.

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Do you have your very own Inspiration Palace? Do you have one place in the world where you enter down and depressed and leave with a big smile and full of hope? If you don’t, it has to be your priority to find one fast. You must have a place where you and you alone are recharged of energy, where your dreams come closer and your will to make them real starts burning.

Mine is church. I like churches, especially big, quiet ones. I always have one to go to, no matter where I am in the world. Be it in Buenos Aires, Vienna, Rio or even in some random city in my travels, I always find one place, one palace of inspiration. I stay, always alone, a couple of minutes or sometimes hours… I take all the time I need to and feel necessary to feel great again. And, amen, it always works! I’m so grateful to have a place like this.

It’s just great to be there unmolested and connecting with my deeper self. I examine the situation, the world and life overall – And then I think deep which are the paths I should take. Be it issues about job, study or love, it’s just perfect that there’s one place where you can go and really tackle seriously all these things.

I’m quite religious, so Church is a special place for me as I feel I’m more in contact with God. I feel power flowing and, despite I’m alone in that moment, I still feel that He is there giving me a hand. That makes me love the place – But you don’t have to be religious nor go to Church to have your own Inspiration Palace.

You must find one place in the world where you can have the same feeling, where you can achieve that deep talk with yourself too. Most probably it’s not going to be home, so go out and search for a place like this. It could be a building, a park or even some place in the countryside. It has to be the place where you are the most comfortable at.

Finding a Palace of Inspiration is just for the better. Go ahead and search for one! Anything can be one, just let your imagination fly and look for the place where you are sure to get the best of you out.

Photo credit: reinante

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