A few months ago I had lunch with Verne Harnish, writer of the Rockefeller Habits, and a long time coach to Gazelles (companies that are growing 20%/year for four years running).
He said that if he had to narrow the demographic of strong Gazelle leaders who extend their growth beyond four years to two factors, those factors would be:
- A leader who is willing to invest in people
- A leader who reads 12-24 books per year – half of them personal reading and half business reading
The reason that Gazelles stop growing is because the leader loses the ability to see what’s coming next. That’s because he has no new information coming into his head from others who have already been down that road.
Leaders are readers!
