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When I was 18, I asked one of the greatest coaches in history for the "key" to success in the field. He didn't give me a secret workout or a grand philosophy. Sitting in his living room, he told me: "Read as much as you can. Never stop reading." This advice is more important today than it has ever been.
This wasn't just any coach. Tom Tellez coached Carl Lewis, Leroy Burrell, and a roster of world record holders and champions. This was a master of the craft. And his "key" wasn't about drills or splits; it was about the mind. He understood, fundamentally, that elite performance is built on a foundation of deep thinking.
Why reading? Because reading is the "cheat code" for developing your ability to think. It's not about passively accumulating more knowledge; it's about fundamentally changing how you process information. It's one of the few things we do that is a pure, active, deep engagement. You are battling and building, not just consuming.
Unlike listening to a podcast or watching a documentary, reading is demanding. It forces a cognitive dialogue. It's like having a back-and-forth with the page—you critique, you question, you make notes in the margins. You have to stop and ponder a concept. You're not just a consumer; you're an active participant in the argument.
Tellez went on to explain the process. "At first, when you're reading something new, it might not even make much sense to you." He was normalizing the struggle. That friction and confusion isn't a sign to stop; it's the very sign that your brain is being challenged to grow and build new frameworks.
He continued, "But you keep reading, and eventually the light breaks through. You start making connections to other ideas, and sometimes you read the first sentence and can spot the flaws in the argument." This is the payoff. You aren't memorizing; you are building the mental models to think critically and make novel connections.
We all know serious reading is on the decline. We live in a world that relentlessly pushes us toward the superficial: the quick skim, the hot take, the apps that curate soundbites. But in this environment, depth is the ultimate superpower. Because reading pushes a kind of thinking and processing that is increasingly neglected.
This is why my posts here are almost always 9+ images long and filled with text. I'm not trying to game the algorithm. It's a deliberate attempt to fight the superficial tide. It's my way of trying to get more folks to read more and think more.
The goal is to build your capacity for deep thought. To resist the pull of the easy and superficial. To sit with an idea long enough to actually wrestle with it. Tom Tellez knew this was the foundation for mastery, in coaching and in life. Don't just skim; engage.