By: John S. Morlu II, CPA
I read close to 100 books a year and complement that learning with carefully selected educational videos and lectures, not to impress anyone and not to keep score—though I do quietly compete with my four boys—but because curiosity has always been how I learn; reading is how I think, how I test ideas, how I challenge assumptions, and how I understand people, and along the way I’ve learned that people are both more interesting—and more predictable—than they first appear.
1. What I Read (And Why It Matters)
I don’t read in one lane; I read across disciplines, because real life doesn’t fit neatly into categories, and the more you study the world in compartments, the more you miss how the same human forces keep showing up under different names and in different costumes.
In a typical year, my reading spans:
- Philosophy — how humans search for meaning
- Religion — how belief shapes behavior and power
- Physics — how reality works when opinions are removed
- Psychology — how people justify decisions
- Anthropology — how culture shapes behavior
- Classical literature — timeless stories of ambition, pride, and failure
- History of emperors and presidents — how power repeats itself
- Biographies of business leaders — vision, risk, ego, and consequence
Over time, a simple pattern becomes clear, and once you see it you can’t unsee it: every field eventually explains the same human forces—fear, ambition, loyalty, greed, hope, and survival—only the language changes.
2. Maps, Geography, and Early Perspective
Long before digital maps and GPS, I spent hours studying geography—borders, rivers, trade routes, and how land shapes history—because geography doesn’t just describe where people live, it explains what they fight over, what they protect, what they trade, and what they become.
That interest led, in 1988, to a full scholarship to study geography at the University of Amsterdam, an opportunity I valued deeply; but it also clarified something important, because after six months I realized I was not finished exploring ideas or the world, I wanted broader exposure, a faster pace, and different challenges, and that realization led me to move to the United States.
3. The Discipline of Reassessment
In the U.S., I began studies in medicine, and I respected the profession—and still do—but it became clear that it was not the right long-term fit, so I moved into accounting, where I again paused, reassessed, and redirected; from the outside these transitions may appear uncertain, but from the inside they were deliberate, because I was not drifting, I was refining.
Each stage contributed something essential:
- Medicine taught responsibility
- Accounting taught discipline
- Economics taught systems
- Policy taught incentives
- Finance taught consequences
What never changed was the commitment to learning, and once that commitment becomes a habit, reassessment stops feeling like instability and starts feeling like integrity.
4. How the Pieces Came Together
Over time, the exploration became structured, and the path eventually led to qualification as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), formal training in economics, studies in international commerce and policy, and an MBA in finance, and the journey was not linear—but it was intentional—because I was not searching for a title, I was building a framework for understanding how the world works.
Why This Perspective Matters
Reading widely and working across disciplines changes how you approach problems, because it trains you to separate signal from noise, to recognize patterns instead of getting trapped in headlines, and to stay calm when the room wants quick answers more than correct ones.
You become:
- Less reactive and more analytical
- Less distracted by noise and more focused on fundamentals
- More patient with complexity and clearer in decision-making
History teaches humility, philosophy teaches restraint, economics teaches realism, and books—taken together—teach judgment, which is what most people actually mean when they say they want wisdom.
5. Final Reflection
Some people choose one path early and follow it straight, and that works for them; others take the longer route—reading broadly, reassessing often, and slowly assembling clarity—and that is the route I took.
I would not trade it, because curiosity, when disciplined, becomes wisdom, and wisdom compounds longer than talent ever will.
Author: John S. Morlu II, CPA is the CEO and Chief Strategist of JS Morlu, leads a licensed public accounting and management consultancy firm. He has more than 20 years of professional experience in auditing and advisory work, including service as Auditor General of Liberia and FAR and DCAA compliance work at Unisys Federal Systems. The firm’s technology products include AI-powered reconciliation software (ReckSoft.com), a handyman services platform (Fixaars.com) and advanced cloud accounting solutions (FinovatePro.com), built for finance and operations teams.