⚓ tired, wired, inspired

books that inspired me to self-publish my first book

my life, for lack of a better word, sucked.

I was about to finish college. I had no ambition and no path to a good-paying job…majoring in something I didn’t even want to do for a career.

(I admit that these are the sort of #FirstWorldProblems you only get on in your late teens and early 20s)

to make matters worse, I was hanging out with my parents in Las Vegas. in the City of Sin, I was poolside reading a book.

luckily, that book happened to change my life.

a good book can do that…here are 3 that have done that for me:

ALPHA⚓

Choose Yourself by James Altucher

as many of you know, I just self-published my first book.

I couldn’t have done that without James Altucher’s Choose Yourself.

this is the book that inspired me to self-publish, start this newsletter, and also quit my job in the fall of 2017.

(the latter didn’t work out so well…but it lead me all to here)

Choose Yourself is a self-help book written from the perspective of a self-loathing and independent man (so you can see why I relate).

it’s prophetic in that it saw the gig economy on the rise in 2013 and urged people to take action with their skills.

if they had no skills, James Altucher urged people to go find them…and fast.

in the NFT world, I see people all the time “choosing themselves”, whether it’s starting their own NFT project, podcast, or Discord channel.

I know that my fellow degens would love reading this book (if they haven’t already).

BETA ⚓

The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss

what kind of “modern man” would I be if this were not on the list?

every optimization and productivity nerd on YouTube is singing this book’s praises.

I regret to inform you that they’re 100% right though. this book will change how you view your work.

Tim Ferriss is the OG podcaster and productivity hacker. he’s teetering on being a robot now, but his most prolific book still has a lot of life and a lot of great advice.

like Choose Yourself, it has a bent towards self-realization. take control of your career, it urges you. tell your boss what you bring to the table, what you’ve done, and let him know that you’ll walk if your demands are not met.

it’s about knowing your worth, which I know artists in the NFT space could relate to.

(you may notice that the cover of The NFT Survival Guide is very inspired by The 4-Hour Workweek)

GAMMA ⚓

IV by Chuck Klosterman

cut back to me by the pool in Vegas.

as I sat by the pool, I was reading IV by Chuck Klosterman. in it, he was writing about his experience as a music critic in the early aughts and also about how he decided to eat McDonald’s chicken nuggets every day for a month.

this is the book that taught me you could write about anything.

better yet, writing about some weird stuff could be an actual career.

from that read on, I was no longer going to be an accountant (my grades had already told everyone else that).

I didn’t know what I was going to write about yet, but I was going to be a writer dammit.

DELTA ⚓

The NFT Survival Guide by Nic Bivens

(yes, that’s me)

then, NFTs came along.

I’m not sure anything inspired me more to write than the vibes that came from Discords and Twitter in 2022.

every day, there was something new and exciting. the technology was emerging…and it was an absolute game-changer.

many on the outside didn’t understand NFTs, but I thought I did.

so I wrote…

…and kept writing.

soon, after writing about 1000 words per day, I had more than enough to publish my first book.

my dream of being an published author had come true. and it’s all thanks to Chuck Klosterman, James Altucher, and Tim Ferriss.