A best-seller is a bet-seller

Every best-seller, no matter how good the book or the author is, is just a bet-seller.

In other words, a non-fiction book is basically trying to sell you a bet. It's trying to convince you that the idea it contains will make you rich or happy or powerful, etc. IF you "invest" your money and your time into that idea.

It's very much like gambling. Except that in normal Las Vegas-style gambling, the odds are the same no matter who the gambler is.

In the case of a book, the odds of success depends on the prior knowledge of the reader, her experience, her discipline, her ability to adopt the idea and adapt it to her own situation, etc.

This is why I believe that reading a book will not make an impact in your life unless and until you have thought SO MUCH about the book's ideas, that you completely master what the author is trying to say.

That's the difference between knowledge and understanding. After reading a book like Rich Dad Poor Dad, you might have knowledge that other people do not have. But it only becomes understanding if and only if you have used the knowledge in real-life situations.

So the saying "knowledge is power" is not exactly accurate. It is one's understanding which gives one power.

One good way to test your understanding is to try to "teach" your knowledge to someone else.

The more you increase your understanding of a best-selling book, the greater the odds that you will apply its knowledge correctly in order to make a difference in your life.