People don't really read, but if they did, they could be a lot richer.
I have realised that downloading a new book to my kindle, isn't the same as actually reading it. (Does anyone else do this?)
Here's where I am going with this.
They did a study recently at Harvard Business School where they asked the attendants (mostly very smart people) before a seminar, via e-mail, what they wanted to discuss as topics. At the bottom of the long e-mail, they asked what they wanted for lunch, sandwiches with ham and cheese, or monkey balls (or something equally disgusting). When the attendants all showed up, they got the monkey balls. 'Why do we have such disgusting sandwiches?' someone asked, at which point, it was revealed they question had been asked. Guess what. Nobody read the email fully (and these are super smart people).
My point is that very few people take the time to read. Books, blogs, trade magazines. And yet, I am constantly asked, what it takes to be successful, to launch a business, to market effectively. My answer, just read.
Never before has human development, business history, practices and experiences ever been so widely documented digitally, in print and available online. If you want to know how to do something, read about it. It's all out there.
We all love to see what Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos reads, but do we actually read what they read? Really successful people, read. One of my guru's, Mark Cuban (Founder Broadcast.com & HDNet) reads 3 hours a night.
I probably read about 2/3 books a week on my Kindle - more over the holidays which is awesome. I read about business histories, (Starbucks, Amazon) how to market effectively (Contagious, Viral Loop, Purple Cow), how to start a business smartly (lean startup/startup owners manual). I read online news oppress like Huffington Post and Tech Crunch and blogs from idols such as Seth Godin (Marketing Genius) as well as industry press such as Retail Week here in the UK. Despite all this, I always have a wish list and I feel guilty I am not reading more.
So, my point is that if you're reading this, it can make you rich (financially, spiritually, whatever), because everything you need to know on how to do something amazing - like build a business, create a movement, launch a cause - you can read about.
Action Points:
1. Make a list of what you want to do in 2014.
2. Work out how you will fit these into your life
3. Then, go to www.amazon.com and search for 5 books that can help you achieve these goals.
4. Lookup on www.google.com 'best books on - your goal name' and before you buy, read the reviews. This part is important because there is a lot of nonsense out there. Whilst we're drowning in information, very little is high quality.
Once you've read these, at least you'll know what to do.
Doing it, is of course the subject of another post :)
Good luck.