For my whole adult life, I’ve read about 50 books/year. I read in 2 general categories:
- Business and personal growth – mostly work related books, but also theology and philosophy
- Pleasure – great novels, history, biography or whatever strikes my interest
I do this because it’s a passion for me, but also because I know that as soon as I stop learning and growing, everything associated with my life, both work and personal also stops growing.
We’re good at seizing opportunities: a door opens and we jump through it. But we’re not as good at innovating, because innovation requires intentionality. Innovation is an engine that has to be deliberately pull-started. How do you create new value, and new streams of income? How do you fashion a workplace that engages employees? How do you keep ahead of your competition? How do you change the whole landscape of your life so you keep loving what you do and get better and better at it? These are all questions that require innovative thinking; that require you to be growing personally.
The point at which you stop learning and growing is the same time your business stops growing too.
Do you want to be a success? Of course you do! Then get learning. Here are some great ways:
- Read a great book
- Watch YouTube videos of great leaders telling you how to do it
- Listen to podcasts and stop wasting your commute on junk radio
- Enroll in a class; get a new certification
- Find a mentor to have coffee with once/month
- Fly somewhere and take in a conference
If you don’t do some of these things, you’ll soon become irrelevant to your business.
We’re entering in to a historic time – a time that will offer more opportunity than perhaps any time in history – but it will look different than the past and require new approaches from you.
Are you ready to seize the future?
