Reading is a time-tested, tried and true way to become an authority. The greatest men of history and the multi-billionaires of today have all read their way to the top. More importantly, they continue to read even after amassing their fortunes.
In today’s society, it’s the nothings and nobodys that choose not to read. It is the people that claim to have “no luck” in life and the ones that settle for mediocrity. Like Jim Rohn once said, “Poor people have a big TV. Rich people have a big library.”
The most successful people in the world choose to read every day.
I just finished a course on Udemy that was about reading 300 books a year. This would require reading almost a book a day, which the author of the course had done. He claims it is the reason for his success. He cites the knowledge gained as indispensable.
I realized that everything I want to learn and all of the information I desire is already available. Books are how the smartest people in the world, the authorities in their field, choose to share their information. They have already solved the problem. Then they sat down and wrote about it. Why spend time trying to figure it out on your own when you can get the answers directly from the best? The authorities in their field.
The path to success is in the continuous pursuit of knowledge.
Reading shapes your thoughts. Instead of spending all day pondering about the next episode of some zombie series, you will be thinking about the words that you just read. Your mind will be stimulated and you will start to visualize positive outcomes and generate productive ideas. Readers are often stoked about life and its possibilities because they know that other successful people have excelled in much tougher circumstances.
There is nothing more inspiring than reading the first-hand account of someone that started with nothing and went on to make millions of dollars. They will talk about the risks they had to take. They will describe in detail the hours they spent visualizing, hustling, grinding and how they circumvented the low expectations of today’s society. They will talk about how they put it all on the line.
They will give you the answers to the questions you are asking. They will give you the motivation you need to get moving and the source of inspiration necessary to push past the naysayers. The people around you saying you can’t make it because you’re not smart enough or educated enough or rich enough. Naysayers don’t write books and they aren’t authorities.
But why a book a week?
The main reason that I read a book a week is that I want to become an authority. I want my words to mean something and I want what I say to make a difference. I am already college educated with a Masters degree. I already have years of life experience and I have led Soldiers in combat. I’ve spent most of my life overweight, middle class, and I come from a small island where everyone mostly does the same thing. I have been mediocre and I have fought my way out of it.
I already have something to say, but that is simply not enough. I want to be an authority and I want my words to have meaning.
The successful people in the world choose to read every day. The authorities in their field.
Onward,
Chief
Click on the picture below for the course I mentioned on Udemy.
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