Casey Neistat’s First Selection for His Book Club May Surprise You – Entrepreneur

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From filmmaking to vlogging, Casey Neistat is now sharing another one of his passions: reading.

Thats right, the YouTube personality, filmmaker, vlogger and entrepreneur has started his own book club. In a recent vlog post, Neistat shared his plans of the book club to express the joy that reading brings him. And he wants his fans to share the experience with him. Reading is like leaving the house," he says in the video. "Yes, you can go your whole life without doing it, but youre not really experiencing all life has to offer if you never leave the house.

Related:5 Lessons for Success From YouTube StarCasey Neistat

So whats first on Neistats list? The YouTube star made a rather dark choice, kicking off the club with journalist Nick Biltons American Kingpin. The nonfiction book tells the story of Ross Ulbricht, the man behind Silk Road, a billion-dollar website hosted on the dark web where people could buy and sell drugs, firearms and more.

While his first choice might come as a surprise to some, if you read the book, youll find you might relate to some of Ulbrichts characteristics and the events throughout his journey. In so many ways, the programmers and entrepreneurs Ross met were just like him, a line from the book says. Like Neistat, Ulbricht was an entrepreneur (a criminal, nonetheless) himself -- building a billion-dollar business, taking risks (perhaps too many), pushing boundaries and creating something that people wanted.

Related:10BooksEvery Leader Should Read to Be Successful

Still curious? Check out these three excerpts from American Kingpin about entrepreneurship, inspiration and pushing boundaries.

The CEOs of these other startups were no different from Ross, either. They had all read the same Ayn Rand books. These chief executives shared the same quotes on Facebook as he did: The question isnt who is going to let me; its who is going to stop me.

Ross vehemently disagreed. As long as we dont cross [a] line in our pursuit, DPR wrote to Variety Jones, then we are only doing good.'

Ha, dude, were criminal drug dealers, VJ responded. What line shouldnt we cross?

Murder; theft, cheating, lying; hurting people,' DPR replied, resentful of the question. That line. We are drawing a new line I guess you could say. According to that line, we arent criminals.

Related:ReadingBooksMakes You Smarter, Richer and Surprisingly Healthier

In the current version of the site, it was Rosss world, and he got to decide what went and what didnt. He dictated who got a raise and who didnt. People who worked hard were rewarded, as he has recently done with some focused employees, giving some of them an extra few hundred in Bitcoin when they excelled.

Rose Leadem is an online editorial assistant at Entrepreneur Media Inc.

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Casey Neistat's First Selection for His Book Club May Surprise You - Entrepreneur