Ravi - Everything Is Possible You Just Have To Believe in Yourself (Founder of Mindset From India)

 

Books changed my life completely, and still they are adding so much of value in my life. Sharing learning and recommendations of books have changed a lot of things I received many messages about how my content of books inspired them to read books and become successful in life. I think this is the biggest achievement in my life to make changes in people's minds through nonfiction books.

1. Tell us about your background and journey?

Hi, my name is Ravi, I graduated in computer engineering. My journey of reading books started when I was dropped from my diploma college because of subjects KT's. In that one-year gap, I discovered my love for books especially, self-help, and personal development books. I started uploading book pictures on Instagram by looking some of the accounts that were doing the same thing, I thought I can also do the same and share my book recommendations, reviews, quotes, etc.

 

2. What inspired you to read books? Any experience you would like to share that made you love books or was it your passion?

I was not into books at all in my college days, I used to hate reading self-help books. But when I got one year gap I accidentally discovered a book called "Think And Grow Rich" my brother bought this book it was placed on my computer desk, I noticed it in the morning and the title of the book got me thinking and was so attracted to me, so picked the book read it. That was how I got into reading. It becomes my passion now, I have a curiosity to explore more books with different genres and topics.

 

3. How did the idea of making blogs and reviewing books on Instagram come to your mind?

The idea of reviewing books on Instagram came to my mind when I saw a couple of guys doing the same things on Instagram. So it was very new to me, back then set up I didn't even know it was called Bookstagram. I decided to create an account immediately and setup all the things, by the next morning I started uploading content because I knew what I set up was doing.

 

4. How did you manage to make a presence on Instagram and YouTube? What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

You have to give time to the things which are important in your life, first, I didn't I was only doing Instagram and now I wanted to explore more social media platforms that's why I started making content on YouTube and Twitter as well. 

Video content is everything that is one of the reasons I started uploading videos and I also wanted to speak confidently which is one of the reasons as well. You have to manage accordingly where you want to give your time, planning my content for Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter it takes time so I have learned it how to do it properly by doing it every day.

 

5. Is it financially sustainable to be a book blogger and how do you earn from it? 

I'm earning a good amount of money by just only reviewing books, and it just only books you can also earn through various ways if you have a certain amount of followers base. I sometimes get brand deals as well from educational companies, apps, organizations, etc. 

You can always earn a lot by expanding your business, you just have to think that way what's working and what's not working.  Many book bloggers are not earning that much I don't know what is the reason behind their strategies but you have to know your worth and know your market, and have experience.

 

6. How and where do you find books to read and do you have criteria to select a book for reading?

Most of the books I buy online, specially reason the books I wanted to read for some reasons and if that book is available at Flipkart with a good price then I buy it from Amazon or Flipkart or some other book stores if the deals are good. There are also some books which are that given by individual bookstores in exchange for a shout-out. I read only those books that come under my exploration category for example in Psychology, philosophy, business, spirituality, etc.

 

7. After reading so many books what learnings from them would you like to share with others?

There are so many books available and each book have something important to say, you can say every book has a core message you just have to understand it. I have a collection of learnings from books in my notes, but the most important learning would be "everything is possible you just have to believe in yourself" through this quote and lesson, have achieved many things in my life. It looks simple but it's so powerful.

 

8. What impact did books make in your life? 

Books changed my life completely, and still they are adding so much of value in my life. Sharing learning and recommendations of books have changed a lot of things I received many messages about how my content of books inspired them to read books and become successful in life. I think this is the biggest achievement in my life to make changes in people's minds through nonfiction books.

 

9. How much time do you take to read a book and what is your strategy to finish a book on time?

It depends on the book like how big is the book and the content of the book too. Sometimes I got review books for promos and most of the books talk about the same things, as many books are business books and personal development books, so it takes very less time to finish. 

You can read the table of contents before reading the actual book this is very important to understand a little bit about what you're going to read and understand. If you find something similar concept in the book you can skim through it and read the next page. But this will help you when you have already read many books and you have an experience of it.

 

10. Do you follow everything that a book states or do you sometimes disagree with it?

I read the book with an open mind so I can understand it with every expects and think about it from different perspectives.  Yeah, it happens a lot of the times where I disagree with the author, so you don't have to be Fully one-sided in your mind while you're reading a book. You have to have a growth mindset attitude while reading any book so that you can take important messages and learnings from the book.

 

11. Some underrated books from self-help and top books in fiction which you would like to recommend? Also, suggest some best books for a beginner.

Some underrated nonfiction books:

1. Happy Sexy Millionaire by Steven Bartlett

2. The Defining Decade by Meg Jay

3. The Art of the Good Life by Rolf Dobelli

4. Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg

 

Some books for beginners:

1. Atomic Habits by James Clear

2. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

3. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

4. The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson

5. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

 

Interviewed By - Shashank Sehgal