BOOKS ARE IMPORTANT IN EXPANDING YOUR MIND AND YOUR BUSINESS. HERE’S WHY AND HOW.
Book, books, books. I read so many articles on Inc.com and Forbes about the books Bill Gates thinks you should read or the books Mark Zuckerberg reads and to be honest it’s overwhelming.
How is the average entrepreneur who’s trying to make it supposed to keep up with the books everyone recommends or ‘thinks you should read?’ They’re millionaires and billionaires, so they can hire people to do the work and they have time to read books, right?
Right now I have a list that’s about 65 books long that I need to read. One of the things on my resolution list was to read a book a month. That happened for the first couple of months, but as soon as June hit, I got busy. When I got home from work I didn’t want to read about business because I just got home from my business.
As I continued to get emails from the publications mentioned above, they flooded me with different ideas of WHY you should read. I never thought of the ‘why.’ I just thought, “Well, I don’t have time and frankly I’d rather do mindless activities like watch TV.”
But then I read this article. Then came this one and then this one. Ugh. Once again, I was defeated. The point of reading wasn’t to waste time. People were learning and growing and more importantly learning skills that they used to make their businesses grow.
I recently ran across an article that made me take the, “Okay, I get it, I need to jump on the reading train,” route. To paraphrase it said that the point of people reading was not to waste time or to have a ‘lovely afternoon tea,’ it was to learn; it was to grow their business.
I never thought of reading like this. I thought of it as something people do to pass the time, not necessarily to learn and I didn’t think of it directly being able to help my business. This may be a no-brainer to some people, but maybe there are entrepreneurs out there like me. Here’s what I did about it.
Any free time I have at night, instead of watching TV, I’ve decided that I will dedicate it to reading. For me, prospecting new clients, networking and making sure my pipeline is full and business is running is my number one priority. However, I’ve decided to dedicate time before bed to reading. I read a chapter or 30-minutes, whichever is longer. This also has helped me sleep better. Before, I tended to be on my phone scrolling through Instagram or Facebook and have heard that’s not good for you before bed.
The books that I’ve read that I would recommend to any entrepreneur are:
The Crossroad Between Should and Must: This is about the choice between doing something and saying you’ll do it. It’s a fun, very light read that has a lot of animation in it.
Pour Your Heart Into It: This is the story of Starbucks. This is a pretty hefty book. I thoroughly enjoyed it, though. It was amazing to read about all the obstacles Howard Schultz overcame and how he grew Starbucks to what we know now.
The Power of Nice: This is a light read and a good starter book. This about an ad agency in New York’s promise to be nice to everyone, no matter what. They share their stories about how it came to their benefit in the long run and even ten years down the road.
From Grit to Great: This book is by the same authors as above and talks about how people started from nothing to becoming something. It has a lot of great stories within it.
How To Become A Rainmaker: This is a quick and easy read, and it’s perfect for any sales person or entrepreneur who is the sales person along with everything else
Lean In: This book is a MUST READ for any female in business. Whether you’re working for yourself or thinking about it, or working for someone else, this is essential. The book talks about how women need to ‘lean in’ to more responsibilities and how to overcome obstacles.
All of these books have very different personalities but are great reads to expand your mind and make you think differently. I hope you gain some insigh nto reading as I have in this article. Tweet me at @MarketingGal_ to tell me which books you enjoy or if you’ve read any of the ones above.
