Five inspirational reads

Five books that will rock your world

By STEVEN BARTLETT Yellow Kite “My personal goals: to be a millionaire by age 25. A Range Rover will be my first car. To hold a long-term relationship and work on my body image.” These are the goals that Bartlett set himself at 18 after dropping out of university.

And true to his word, within seven years he was a multimillionaire, having created a social media marketing agency worth $300 million (R4,3 billion) from his bedroom in his home in Manchester, England. He thought that having achieved his goals he’d be the most contented person on Earth. So he was stunned to discover that consistent happiness still eluded him.

“The world had lied to me,” he writes. He hopes his book will serve as a wake-up call for those who are mindlessly chasing success.

A lot of what he says has been said before – such as the importance of gratitude, finding satisfying work and not constantly comparing yourself to others – but the nice thing is that he’s very much in tune with what’s going on in the social media world so his message will really resonate with millennials.

As Bartlett explains: “I’m writing it as a desperate plea to you – our attentionless, pleasure-chasing, lost, instant gratification-led, mental-health struggling generation who are obsessed with money, changing the world, being considered sexy and being happy so you can tell your followers what you did, be your own boss and have it all.”