If you want a book to change you, you’ll need to do it the long, hard, stupid way. 

The saying goes you need to pay twice for a book; once when you purchase it, another when you read it the first time. 

In the case of a particular book (e.g., 50 Cent’s Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter), I have paid a dozen times over with my time for the information I’ve acquired. I plan on paying a dozen more.

There’s no “most important thing,” that I could summarize for you like a Blinkist note. I had to listen to the whole thing—a dozen times—in order for it to change and shape me the way I wanted it to.

There’s no substitute for this level of repetition and care. At this point, if the book hasn’t reached my bones yet, it is deep in my muscles. I can practice it without listening to it; I can practically imagine what 50, as this narrator, would say to me.

I remember a lot from it, of course, and I’ve even written about it at this blog. But the most important things are the ones that I don’t need to call to mind; I know and feel it at a subconscious level, and it has introduced new perspectives to me that help me get where I want to go.