Book Review: “I am gifted, so are you!” – Adam Khoo
Long story short, this book changed my life.
I still remember so clearly the first time I laid my eyes on that blue cover. I bought it from an old bookstore in the Ninh Xá market, which was all the illegal copies and the most worn-out books that you could find and buy for a cheap price. Apart from the cover, the book was in black and white, with so badly printed pages that I couldn’t make out what the added pictures were about.
Despite all that, I was intrigued by the title cover and skim through a bit. It talked about neuroscience, about how powerful the mind really is and how overwhelmingly capable everyone really is. Yes, the book goes on and on about how each and every one of us has potentially waiting to be unlocked. And by sharing his own story from zero to hero, the author really convinced me of that statement right there, right then. A vision spun out into existence: this book will be my bible, just like in all those Chinese kung fu movies where the main protagonists find the lost teaching hidden in some buried and forgotten scriptures.
I insisted my mom to buy it for me. Carrying it back home, I smiled with excitement.
The first few chapters talked about the necessary mindset of a winner. It stresses the importance of goal setting and envisioning, visualization of those goals being actualized. I was deeply inspired. I felt my confidence rose up, the mountains could be moved, the sea could be parted, the clouds could be pinned down. Humans are limitless creature, only bound back by our imagination. I’m a slow reader so I enjoyed sipping tiny snippets of that book while daydreaming and creating a vision of myself and all the possibilities. For a couple of weeks, everywhere I went, I carried that book with me.
After putting a great emphasis on the importance of mindset, Adam Khoo laid out the strategy and then the tools to actualize them. To me then, this book truly was the best thing that could ever be given to a student. It seemed that every possible problem has already been diagnosed and elegantly listed out. A major problem has to do with memorization. A good brain is the one that could remember things that it read once from 2 weeks ago, at least in terms of academia. So Adam whipped out the Mindmap concept, a cutting edge tool that allows us to memorize faster and easier using colors, keywords, visualization, symbols… And we could draw while we were studying, which activates the fun part during those long and draining lessons. Another tool was the concept of coding all numbers into symbols or phrases, which enables us to create a whole story out of the digits. This would help with the specific dates of history that we have to deal with, the equations of math, physics or chemistry, you name it. It put the imagination and creativity into those timid numbers.
Then he adds some more “pro-tips”: time-management, how to schedule the revision for an exam, how to tackle hard subjects that require not only memorization but also application of theories… and on and on.
It got me drawing mindmaps, writing out my visions and goals, thinking about what my future can be. Overall, it boosted my confidence. I wasn’t the shyest kid or the one that got really bad grades during the time that I read this book, I was doing quite good actually, but I could still appreciate all the insights and lessons that it poses.
However, I am not a success story in the credit of this book. Far from it, I actually have never finished this book. For some reason, I could never really got to the end of it. Sure, I have read all the words of those last chapters, but I didn’t analyze, didn’t reflect, contemplate what those chapters have to offer with the same intensity that I spent on the first few chapters. I also didn’t really apply all the coding numbers methods that the author has presented. And after reading this book, my grades didn’t really soar up nor any of those “goals” that I set in that particular moment of hyped up with adrenaline actually got actualized.
But still, it has changed my life for the better. It may fail in boosting my grades, but it managed to instill in me a love for reading books, for seeking knowledge and wisdom and for an open mindset that is eager to learn and experience new things. And all those characteristic traits, I hope to say that I would still carry until the days I turn to dust. For those traits have shaped which friends I hang out with, what books I continue to read, what school I want to enroll in and what field I want to dive into and study.
Looking back now, it actually still is quite an impressive book, especially for its targeted audience. It provides the whole package that any student needs, mixed up with a bit of creativity, fun exercises and inspirational stories. If I had been more serious and discipline in applying all the tools and techniques, I may have seen better results.
It may be just a book, but it’s my beginning.
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