Who is Jim Kwik? Everything you need to know about the brain genius

Jim Kwik is known as a leading expert in brain optimization, memory improvement, and accelerated learning.

Behind his work, his own personal story is equally as fascinating.

He hasn’t had an easy path to get where he is today after a childhood brain injury left him learning challenged.

But these early struggles were ultimately the driving force behind his now world-renowned strategies to dramatically enhance mental performance.

Here’s everything you should know about Jim Kwik

Who is Jim Kwik in a nutshell?

Jim Kwik is an American entrepreneur whose self-proclaimed life mission is helping people unleash their true genius with sheer brainpower alone.

Most famously he is known for his speed-reading and memory techniques.

His methods focus on teaching people how to learn quickly, how to optimize the brain for high performance, and overall memory improvement.

For almost 3 decades he has been a brain coach to students, entrepreneurs, and educators across the globe.

Kwik has worked with some of the world’s most rich, famous, and powerful people with Hollywood stars, political leaders, professional athletes, and huge corporations as clients.

He has also created two hugely popular Mindvalley courses, Super Reading and Superbrain.

(Mindvalley are currently offering limited-time discounts on both courses. CLICK HERE to the best price for Super Reading and CLICK HERE for the best price for Superbrain).

What happened to Jim Kwik? The “boy with the broken brain”

Like many great success stories, Jim Kwik’s starts with struggle.

Today his mind is held in high esteem by some of the world’s most important people, so it’s perhaps difficult to believe he was once known as “the boy with the broken brain”.

After falling down one day in kindergarten at the age of 5, Kwik awoke to find himself in hospital.

But after regaining consciousness his head trauma had left him with difficulties in some of the most basic brain skills that many of us take for granted.

Simple memory retention and problem-solving skills were suddenly an obstacle he couldn’t seem to overcome.

Kwik has publicly spoken about how these challenges left him falling behind in school and wondering if he could ever be as good as the other kids when it came to learning.

“I was very poor in processing and teachers would repeat themselves over and over and I didn’t understand, or I pretended to understand, but really I didn’t understand. Poor focus and poor memory took me an extra 3 years just to learn how to read. And I remember when I was 9 years old, the teacher pointed to me and said “That’s the boy with the broken brain” and that label became my limit.”

It was a passion for comic books, rather than the classroom, that eventually helped Kwik to learn how to read.

But his fascination with superheroes did more than that. It gave him hope that he too would one day be able to find his unique inner superpower.

From brain damage to superhuman powers

Today spectators marvel as Jim Kwik appears on stage or in Youtube videos with memory demonstrations that are enough to make the average person’s head spin.

His impressive “tricks” include confidently reciting back the names of 100 people within an audience or memorizing 100 words which he can reel off both forwards and backward.

But these displays of seemingly superhuman brainpower, according to Kwik himself, arose from very humble beginnings.

“I always tell people I don’t do this to impress you, I do this to express to you what is truly possible, because the truth is, everyone who’s reading this, they could do this too, regardless of their age or their background or their education level.”

A turning point for Kwik was meeting a family friend who was to become a mentor.

This relationship would start him on the journey of learning exactly how his brain works and how best to use its potential.

By discovering different learning habits he was able to not only meet but ultimately excel all expectations he once had for himself.

Rather than hold him back, ultimately Kwik credits his difficult start in life for where he is now.

“So I struggled through life and I think my inspiration for doing what I do, is my desperation that our struggles can make us stronger. Through our struggles, we can find more strengths and that’s been a pin roll that shaped who I am today. I believe challenges come and change, and that for all of us, adversity can be an advantage. I discovered that no matter the circumstances, we can rebuild our brains. And after working on myself, I realized my brain was not broken…it just needed a better owner’s manual. This shattered my own limiting beliefs – and over time, it became my passion to help others do the same.”

Why is Jim Kwik famous?

At first glance, Jim Kwik’s expertise in speed reading and accelerated learning may seem more geeky than glamorous.

But perhaps one of the explanations as to why Kwik himself is fast becoming a household name lies in the countless celebrity endorsements he and his work has gained over the years.

Being famous amongst the rich and famous sure gains you plenty of kudos.

During his career, Kwik has shared the speaking stage with global leaders, ranging from Sir Richard Branson to the Dalai Lama.

He coaches Hollywood celebrities to remember their lines and improve their focus: including the entire cast of movies like the X-Men.

He has endorsements from A-list actors like Will Smith, who credits Kwik as someone who “knows how to get the maximum out of me as a human being.”

World-ranked number one tennis player Novak Djokovic has called Kwik empowering, saying his brain-enhancing methods “will take you incredible places you never expected.”

Music legend Quincy Jones— a 28 Grammy Award Winning Record Producer—had this to say about Kwik’s work:

“As a person who has quested for knowledge his entire life, I fully embrace what Jim Kwik has to teach. When you learn how to learn, anything is possible, and Jim is the best in the world at showing you how.”

Arguably, when it comes to having friends in high places it doesn’t get much higher than Elon Musk.

After initially bonding over science fiction books and ‘Lord of the Rings’ the billionaire hired him to teach his methods to SpaceX’s researchers and rocket scientists.

Kwik later told CNBC that:

″[Musk] brought me in because he realized, [like] the most successful people on the planet realize that in order to be successful, you have to always be learning.”

What is Jim Kwik best known for?

Jim Kwik’s pioneering brain training work has featured across many platforms.

With one of the top 50 Podcasts in the world, “Kwik Brain with Jim Kwik” has seen over 7 million downloads.

His work regularly appears in media across the world, including publications like Forbes, HuffPost, Fast Company, Inc., and CNBC.

As a published author himself, his book ‘Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life’ became an instant NY Times bestseller when it was released in 2020.

But perhaps Kwik’s increasing popularity can be attributed to bringing his learning techniques to a far wider audience with the launch of two online courses.

Teaming up with leading online learning platform Mindvalley, Kwik is one of the site’s most popular teachers, through his programs Superbrain and Super Reading.

Jim Kwik’s Super Reading course

Mindvalley is one of the biggest names in the self-help space, so it makes sense that the two partnered up to bring some of Kwik’s most famous methods to the masses.

The first offering came in the form of Super Reading.

The premise is pretty simple: learn how to not only read quicker but comprehend things faster.

Of course, the science behind it all is a little more complicated.

The basic idea: to speed up the way we read, we have to understand what goes into the thought processes behind reading.

If like me, you thought reading was just looking at words on a page, you’d be wrong.

According to Kwik, there are three processes that make up reading:

  • Fixation: When we first look at the word. This takes approximately .25 seconds.
  • Saccade: When the eye moves on to the next word. This takes around .1 seconds.
  • Comprehension: Understanding what we just read

If you want to become a speed reader, the trick is to cut down on the lengthiest part of the process (fixation) and increase your comprehension.

The Science of Super Reading

The reason reading takes so long usually is because of a little habit we all have that’s known as subvocalization.

That’s the technical term for using the voice in your head to read words as you see them.

The reason it’s a bad thing is that it is limiting the speed at which we process words when we don’t need to.

Effectively it makes you read in your head at about the same speed you could say a word out loud.

But your brain can actually work way quicker than your mouth, so you’re slowing yourself down.

The idea behind the Super Reading program is to teach practical tools to stop you from doing this, as well as installing a new habit known as “chunking”.

This lets you break down information and group it up in a far more understandable and digestible way.

If you want to check out the Super Reading program, and take advantage of a big discount, click on this link here.

Jim Kwik’s Superbrain course

After the popularity of the first Mindvalley program, next came Superbrain.

This course had the wider focus of teaching memory, focus, and vocabulary techniques to improve your overall brain performance.

Whilst it also touches on aspects of increasing reading speed, it’s also aimed at anyone who wants to generally improve their memory and focus.

Those of us who’ve found ourselves on too many occasions to mention instantly forgetting the name of the person we were just introduced to.

It essentially does this by offering up a collection of practical “hacks”, which work on your comprehension, memorization, and overall “brain speed.”

The “super technique’s” behind Superbrain

One of the key components in Superbrain is a system that Kwik developed himself, which he calls ‘The F.A.S.T. System’.

Think of it as an optimized method for learning, which looks like this:

F: Forget. The first step is all about approaching learning anything new with a beginner’s mind.

That starts with “forgetting” or letting go of negative blocks around learning.

A: Active. The second step is the commitment to be active in learning.

That involves being creative, applying new skills, and stretching your brain.

S: State. State refers to your emotional state when learning.

Kwik believes how you feel is critical to your learning outcomes.

The idea is that when you are in a positive and receptive mood you learn far more efficiently.

T: Teach. Maybe you’ve heard before that teaching is one of the best ways for a person to learn? Apparently, it’s true.

For example, when you explain something to someone, it’ll actually give you a better grasp of what you’re talking about in the process.

In that way, rather than just absorbing information, teaching others is a better way to increase your own knowledge.

Click here to learn more about the Superbrain course, including access to a big discount.

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Lachlan Brown

I’m Lachlan Brown, the founder, and editor of Hack Spirit. I love writing practical articles that help others live a mindful and better life. I have a graduate degree in Psychology and I’ve spent the last 15 years reading and studying all I can about human psychology and practical ways to hack our mindsets. Check out my latest book on the Hidden Secrets of Buddhism and How it Saved My Life. If you want to get in touch with me, hit me up on Facebook or Twitter.

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