When a Book Finds You

I started reading Stories Sell by Matthew Dicks because I wanted to become a better storyteller. Not just for writing or giving talks — but for life. For how I run my business, how I connect with people, how I understand myself.

Storytelling always felt like an art to me. Something intuitive. Messy. Human. But halfway through the book, I started to feel… off. Like I was forcing it. Too many tactics. Too many formulas. It felt like trying to learn salsa dancing by memorizing footnotes. Maybe it’s the book. Maybe it’s me. Maybe my moment just isn’t aligned with it right now.

Sometimes it’s just that. Don’t force it.

So I paused. Closed the book. No guilt. No pressure. Just space.

And that same morning, as I was finishing this podcast with Leandro González Sicilia (Inversión Racional), he casually drops a book recommendation: Capital Returns by Edward Chancellor.

Never heard of it. But the title stuck.

I open Goodreads and mark it as “Want to Read.” Done. Cool. Move on.

But the universe wasn’t done.

Later that day, I’m cycling back from work, headphones in, half-tired brain cruising… and I hit play on another podcast episode from We Study Billionaires — TIP 729. And there it is again: Capital Returns. The entire episode is Clay talking through the ideas in the book. The same one I’d just bookmarked. Twice in one day.

Call it coincidence. Call it serendipity. Call it pattern-seeking bias.

I call it a signal.

It reminded me of something Naval Ravikant once said: “Read what you love until you love to read.” You don’t owe any book a finish. And you definitely don’t owe your curiosity a straight line.

Sometimes, we pick books.

And sometimes, books pick us.

So yes, I’m putting Stories Sell on pause. Not forever. Just for now. And I’m diving into Capital Returns — not because I’m supposed to, but because it showed up twice in a single day, from two completely unrelated sources.

That’s enough signal for me.