BOOKS| If I Could Tell You Just One Thing

Imagine a book filled with inspirational quotes from different notable people in the world. That’s what If I Could Tell You Just One Thing by Richard Reed is. I’m a quote lover. Before I even started writing, I’ve been penning down quotes and trying to apply them to my life. So, it was no surprise that I grabbed it when I saw it in my office library.

Richard Reed did something special for us. He spoke with a lot of remarkable, powerful, iconic, influential, famous-I could go on-people and asked them for their life philosophy. Then, he documented his encounters and what they said in a book. Isn’t that something???

Of course, I had to do a little digging on the author himself. How can one person have access to all these people? Richard Reed is a British businessman, entrepreneur, and public speaker. He is the co-founder of Innocent Drinks, an international company producing fresh fruit smoothies and vegetable pots sold in various outlets worldwide, and of Jamjar Investments Wikipedia.  Explains why he was partial to British people and owners of charitable organizations. 

He dedicates each chapter to a different person, and I especially liked how he personalized it with their portraits. He starts with a brief history of the person, and then he tells us where he is with them and the details of their conversation. He ends it with a quote from them that they want to pass on to everyone. 

Besides being fascinated by the many quotes in the book, I was also happy to learn about people I should know about but didn’t such as the Global CEO of Pepsi Co; Indra Nooyi, Niklas Zennstrom; founder of Skype, Dambisa Moyo, Nancy Hollander, Jony Ive and so many others. To give you a little snippet, there are conversations with ex-Presidents, Prime Ministers, Actors, Authors, Musicians, Chefs, Designers, Global CEOs, Veterans, etc. 

Every quote was unique because it’s personal and a reflection of the life of the person sharing them. It’ll be weird if I talk about a book of many quotes and not share some of them with you, right? I decided to share ten of them with you all. It was so hard to select just 10, but I can’t exactly copy every quote on here, LOL.

“The secret, darling, is to love everyone you meet from the moment you meet them. Give everyone the benefit of the doubt.”

— Joanna Lumley 

“Question everything. If you don’t question things, there’s no knowledge, no learning, no creativity, no freedom of choice, no imagination.”

— Heston Blumenthal

“The only place barriers exist is in our heads. We create them, we feed them, and we choose to keep them alive.”

— Katie Piper 

“There is always someone who can do what you can do, so you’ve got to make sure you do it first.”

— Mike Bloomberg 

“Put in the hard work, discipline and focus and just keep going. Remember there are numerous people, both similar and dissimilar to you, who are rooting for you to stay strong, and to prove the naysayers wrong.”

— Dambisa Moyo 

“You somehow need to find a way to believe, to keep going. But it’s not enough to just say to yourself “be confident”, you can’t just be confident, you have to surround yourself with people who bring the best from you, who will help you, who will help you grow that confidence.”

— Michael McIntyre 

“Find the thing that makes you passionate and do that… in the end, the things that give the most fulfillment are the things you do for others.”

— Tony Blair

“Foster a love of reading. It’s our core skill as human beings. Its the gateway to everything else. It gets you involved.”

— Bill Gates

“What we know is shockingly little and the rest is all unchartered waters.”

— David Eagleman

“We all have what it takes, inside us. Trust yourself, trust your intuition. Don’t let someone else be in control of your destiny, and don’t not go after your passion because of fear. Look fear in the eyes and say, I’m coming for you.”

— Laila Ali

Which quote is your favourite?

Mariam Shittu