Im all forpretending to read books.

So Ive decided to honor Blinkist by summarizing their summaries of three popular advice books, for free.

Specifically seven of them.

Its more effective to improve your character than to learn skills as a shortcut.

Someones mother died once.

Be proactive.Dont let the weather dictate your mood.

Viktor Frankl was so serene in concentration camps that he inspired the guards.

Blame your problems on yourself for a month.

Begin with the end in mind.Houses need blueprints.

Visualize doing things before you do them, like competitive sprinters do.

Write a personal mission statement.

No, like, work on it a few times, come on, be serious here.

Put your ladder against the right wall.

Put first things first.Sort all your to-dos by whether theyre important and/or urgent.

You should spend more time on the important non-urgent stuff.

Think win-win.Most situations in life arent competitions.

And if you and a potential partner are thinking win-lose, youll end up with lose-lose.

Relationships are like emotional bank accounts, and the biggest deposit is understanding people.

Seek first to understand, then to be understood.What if doctors sucked at their jobs?

Dont hand people a prescription based on your own experience and not theirs.

Practice empathetic listening, and do it by learning body language.

Sharpen the saw.If you want to stay healthy, exercise.

If you want to stay smart, read books.

Breaks and vacations are important.

Read Stephen Coveys next book.

When he got caught, his dad acted not mad but disappointed.

This is why Richard Branson is rich now.

Once he caught an employee stealing merch and didnt fire him.

Donald Trump is a dick.

Richard Branson is a good listener, who takes notes.

So is Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who listened to Branson and took notes and then founded EasyJet.

Talk about company culture, and people will think youre talking about yogurt!

But seriously, culture eats strategy for breakfast, as management consultant Peter Drucker says.

Early on at Virgin Records, they had bean bag chairs.

And once, a Southwest cabin crew hid in the overhead bins and surprised the passengers!

Fun place, Southwest.

Making your own luck means being prepared to take unexpected opportunities.

One of Virgins first albums wasTubular Bells.

The company was Google.

Have $10,000 and make friends at Stanford.

Branson started Virgin Atlantic without much research.

Now Branson has a strategy of purposeful procrastination, which is apparently just planning.

Goldman Sachs failed to convince Virgin to invest in subprime mortgages.

An Ottoman sultans engineers rejected Leonardo da Vincis plans for a bridge.

Similarly, people thought a Virgin megastore would never work in seedy 1996 Times Square.

Branson thinks schools should train more children to start businesses.

Teachers focus on algebra and calculus instead of emotions and critical thinking.

So more entrepreneurs should talk in classrooms.

Men arent scared of ruining friendships.

Men arent too busy to date.

If a man likes a woman hell ask her to be his girlfriend.

All these statements are based on a poll of 20 men who were friends with the authors.

Look, this is a 200-page book adapted from aSex and the Cityepisode.

If a man is married, he is not into you.

If a man has just broken up with you, he is not into you.

No but really dont let him keep calling you after the breakup.

If he doesnt want to get married, hes not into you.

If he says its because he doubts the institution of marriage, hes lying.

And at a certain age your babymaker will run out.

Yes, there are exceptions to all these rules.

Dont focus on those.

Focus on how good it feels to be free of a man who wasnt into you.

Mixed messages dont exist.

Record yourself telling the story of your relationship.

If you were your best friend, how would you advise yourself?

Is this book written for women without close friends?

Maybe thats exactly who needs it!

Youre welcome for saving you 15 hours and $100/year.