In this interview, a young adult (Speaker A) recounts a lifelong struggle with learning that began after a severe head injury in kindergarten, which caused focus issues, memory problems, and a two‑year delay in learning to read. Throughout school, they felt overwhelmed, introverted, and compared unfavorably to peers. A pivotal moment occurred during a weekend visit to a successful West‑Coast family, where the host’s father asked probing questions, handed the guest a journal, and forced them to write a detailed bucket‑list of life goals. The mentor then read the list aloud, reinforcing the guest’s aspirations and urging them not to let formal school impede true education. Motivated, the guest attempted to read one book per week despite a heavy academic load, leading to exhaustion, a collapse in the library, hospitalization, and severe malnutrition. A nurse’s Einstein‑themed tea sparked the insight that "the same level of thinking that created the problem won’t solve the problem," prompting the guest to reframe their self‑label as a "slow learner" and ask new questions about how to become a faster learner. Over the next 60 days, they immersed themselves in brain‑science, adult learning theory, and related literature, experiencing a rapid mental awakening: improved focus, memory, reading speed, and grades. They began teaching speed‑reading, helping a freshman read 30 books in 30 days. Throughout, they critique the outdated, one‑size‑fits‑all education system and advocate for brain‑training. The segment concludes with a promotion for Jim Kwik’s Kwik Brain course, offering a discount code for listeners.
Chapters
How I got started on this is I actually grew up with learning challenges, and a lot of people don't know that. But when I was in kindergarten, I had a really bad accident and I had a head injury, and it left me feeling like I was broken, that my brain didn't work. And I had these focus issues, I couldn't remember things, and it took me an extra 2 years to learn how to read.
Wow.
And I struggled, you know, privately and then also publicly. And, you know, when you're that age, you, you know, you get very self-conscious.
Sure.
You know, you become very introverted, very shy. You don't want to connect with people because you feel like there's something wrong with you. And so that was, that was my academic life. You know, I just worked so much harder. And I don't know if people watching this can relate, but just, you know, struggling with overwhelm or overload, too much to learn, too little time, and it stresses you out. And you're like, why can't I do this? Why is everyone else succeeding so much faster? And I have to do all this, like, not even fair.
Right.
And that's, that's what happened.
Wow. So that, that's kind of early on made you want to then master it since you were having such a hard time.
It did. I mean, I think our struggles really could be some strengths, and you know this.
Of course.
You know, like, you know, when, when challenge, you know, with these kind of challenges come change, you know, and problems become, you know, help you progress. And so when I got to college, I remember first freshman year at college, I wanted to start fresh, and I thought that I could really make my family proud. proud, because they sacrificed a lot, and I was doing so poorly. And I took all these classes, and I thought I would do better, and have a clean slate, but I actually did worse.
Wow.
And I remember, I wanted to quit school, and at that time, you'd appreciate this, a friend asked me to come visit him and his family out on the West Coast, 'cause I was on the East Coast, and he was like, go out there. I was like, yeah, I'll just take a weekend, get a little space from school, 'cause I was thinking about quitting. And when I get there, the family is extremely successful, and I don't just mean financially, they had an amazing home on the water, But they were happy, you know, they were givers, they were learning all the time. And the father, before dinner, asked me these kind of questions. We were walking on his property, and he asked the kind of questions you would ask somebody who just started college, like, how's school? And, you know, that kind of stuff.
Right.
And I broke down crying. I was like, you know, and to a stranger I just met, like, you know, 10 minutes ago. I said, I'm ready to quit. School is just not for me. I'm not one of those, I'm not smart enough. And he's like, well, why are you in school? You know, what do you want to be? What do you want to do? What do you want to share, if you will? And it's funny when people— when you're not asked a question in life, you know, it takes a moment to pause to come up with an answer. You know what I mean?
Sure.
Like when you're asking questions, and no one's ever asked me those questions before. And when I started to answer, he paused. He said, wait. And he takes out of his back pocket, I swear to you, like a journal and like a diary. And I always thought like 12-year-old girls carry diaries. And he makes me write— tears out a couple pieces of paper and he makes me write down All the goals, like, of what I wanted to do in my life. And I've never— something very powerful about taking pen to paper and just writing, like, those dreams, your aspirations down. And after maybe 20, 30 minutes, he asked me if I'm done. And I maybe have 40, 50 things there, which is like a bucket list.
Right.
This is before I knew what a bucket list was. And I start folding the sheets of paper thinking I'm done with the exercise, put it back in my pocket, and he grabs them from me. And I was like, I freaked out because like on that was like, like everything.
Your life.
Yeah, exactly. And I don't even know who this guy is and he's very successful. And he starts to just read it and I'm so intimidated. Out loud to you? No, in his mind. And I, and I feel this small because everything I just, I didn't know somebody was going to look at it. Right. And he looks at it and he says, Jim, and I'm like, I don't know what he was going to say. Cause this guy's very successful. He says, Jim, you are this close to everything on that list. And I'm just thinking, there's no way. How could it? Give me 10 lifetimes, I couldn't put a dent on that list. And then he goes like this.
Ooh.
Yeah. And he says, like, as if this was the key here. And he takes me into his home. And it's this beautiful home. He takes me into a room I've never seen before. And it's wall to wall, ceiling to floor, covered in books. I mean, I've never seen a library in somebody's house before. And he starts grabbing these books. You'll love this. He starts grabbing books and starts handing them to me and starts pile up really, really, really high. And when I started looking at the titles, because I'm curious, there are these biographies of amazing men and women in history and some really early personal development books like Napoleon Hill, Thinking and Growing Rich, and Power of Positive Thinking, Norman Vincent Peale, and, you know, Psycho-Cybernetics and all these books. I'm just like— And then I kind of get an inkling of what he wants me to do with these books. And he asked me to read like one of these books a week. And I'm just thinking, and I say to him, there's just no way. I just told you I have all this schoolwork.
And you're what, 19 now?
I'm 18 years old.
Yeah.
I'm like, there's no way. I have all these. I can't even finish one book. I have these reading challenges and I have these learning challenges and I have all this schoolwork. And he was like, Jim, he said, he looked me right in the eye. He said, Jim, don't let school get in the way of your education. Ooh, that's powerful. And I didn't even realize that's a Mark Twain quote. But this is like, you know, a couple of decades ago. And I'm just thinking, Wow. And it hit me like that. But still, I'm like, you know what? I still can't do this because I have all this work I need to study. And then he, you know what he does? He takes out that list, which he still has in his possession, my dream list, my bucket list, and then he starts reading it out loud. Every single thing, line by line. And I get chills thinking about it because there's something about watching a man who you just met, who's, you know, very, one of the most successful people that you've met, and he's incanting and putting it out to the universe out loud. you know, your dreams.
Sure.
You know, and it's very unnerving. And honestly, Lewis, a lot of stuff that was on that list, and I think about it, it was things that I wanted to do for my family. You know, these were all things that my family, you know, because I mentioned they sacrificed a lot, like a lot of, a lot of hardworking people do. And, uh, and I want to do things for them that they couldn't do for themselves. So with that leverage, it commits— I commit to reading one book a week.
Wow.
And then I go from that, I go back back to school, and now I have all this pile of stuff that I need to learn and then a pile of stuff that I want to learn. And that puts me over the edge because in order to keep up, I have to sacrifice the things that, you know, are important to you, that your sleep, things like eating, things like working out, things like relationships. And so no one sees me. I'm just in the library all the time. I don't sleep. I don't eat. And, you know, that's a recipe for, like, you know, disaster. It is. And how it came up, how it showed up, was I was at the library and my body actually is a Scariest time in my life. It actually just gave out, like, like the battery just ran out, and I just passed out, and I fell down a flight of stairs. I hit my head again, and I woke up in the hospital 2 full days later.
Whoa.
And I was down to— I was hooked up to these IVs because I was malnourished, dehydrated. I was down to 117 pounds.
Wow.
And I thought I died. And when I had that thought, I was thinking, you know, what's going on here? You know, because I was ready to check out. Like, check out of school, check out, check out, check out.
Got a life.
And I was just like, because I just, I was just like, I'm a total failure. I can't do any of this, you know? And then when I was thinking about it, I was just— a nurse came in and she had the answer in the form of a mug of tea. And this is a true story. She gives me a mug of tea, of like green tea, and it has a picture of a pretty smart guy. This is Albert Einstein. And there's a saying on there that you've heard 100 times. It said the same level of thinking that's created the problem won't solve the problem. The same level of thinking that's created the problem won't solve the problem. And it made me think just, you know, the power of questions.
Did she bring that to you to say, hey, here's the answer?
Or was it just like part of the book? No, it was just like that.
Yeah.
And it's funny when you put things out in the universe, you know, ask a new question, you get a new answer. And it made me say, well, what's my problem? And I was like, you know, my problem is I'm a really slow learner. That's what I came up with. I was just like, I'm a really slow learner.
Was that your problem or was that your story?
That was my— that was definitely my story and my perceived problem there. And so, and I was owning it too, because I was fighting. No one could tell me different because I was fighting my limitations.
Right, right.
And so I got to keep them.
And it became true every day.
Yeah. And I was really— and, you know, I had this whole story. I had this brain injury and everything. But I was like, well, if my problem is I have this— I'm a slow learner, how do I think differently about it? And it was like, well, you know, how do I learn how to be a faster learner?
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And then I thought about school and I was like, no, school doesn't teach you those things. Much like, you know, school doesn't teach you a lot of things.
Like a lot of stuff. The things that are most important, right?
A lot of things that you have in, you know, in your podcast, right? The things that are just, you know, move the needle on people's lives in terms of their joy and their health, their relationships, their success, their finances, everything.
Most important things.
Yeah. And so, and this is not like a diss on schools. I mean, I think they're, they're, I mean, my mother's a school teacher and my aunt's a professor. I mean, the teachers work so hard, right? It's just the system itself is a challenge, you know, because if you're stressed, if you were watching this and they're stressed, they're overloaded, there's too much that people keep up with, it's not their fault. It's because we all grew up with a 20th century education.
Yeah.
That prepared us for a world that doesn't exist anymore. That 20th century world of working in factories and working on farms, doing manual labor, you know, like, you know, because the school system back then, which is now, it's like one size fits all, assembly line, cookie cutter, don't talk to your neighbors, sit quietly by yourself. That doesn't work in the digital age anymore. You know, so right now, like, you know, when we're talking about the brain, how important the brain is, you know, we're not paid for our brute strength. We're paid for our brain strength. We're not paid for our muscle power. It's really our mind power, you know. And so the challenge is, is where, you know, your brain is this unbelievable supercomputer, but it doesn't come with an owner's manual. You know, it's not always user-friendly either.
Right.
And so when I got out of that hospital bed, I decided to study this subject called learning, like learning how to learn. I started to pick up every single book I could on brain science, adult learning theory, multiple intelligences, focus and concentration, you know, things, early works by, you know, like on flow and stuff like that. And in a very short period of time, 60 days, I swear to you, it was like a light switch just went on and I started to understand things for the first time.
Wow.
I mean, I would sit in class and actually, 'cause I can't tell you growing up when someone's talking to you and not understanding, it doesn't make sense, you're not making the connection. Things there, and then all of a sudden you're focusing, all of a sudden you're remembering things. I start reading faster, and I started getting like better grades in less time, and it started transforming my life. And the reason I teach this to this day, because this is 2 decades later, is after you have that kind of like awakening, you can't help, like with what you do, share that greatness with other people.
Of course.
And one of my very first students, I'll never forget, she's 18 years old, a freshman, She— I teach a speed reading program to teach anyone to read 2 or 3 times faster with better comprehension. But she struggled for a few days, and then that same light switch went on, and she ended up reading 30 books in 30 days.
Whoa. Yeah.
I mean, can you imagine, like, what books you would read if you go to Amazon right now, pick out 30 books, and know in 30 days you, like, you own that information?
