The One Habit

Warren Buffett, the world's 3rd richest person, credits many of his great money decisions to his avid reading habit. When asked about the key to his success, he pointed to a stack of books and responded, "Read 500 pages like this every day. That's how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest."

He once remarked, "I read and think. So I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulse decisions than most people in business."

Here are a few other top business leaders who make reading a major part of their daily lifestyle:
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1. Bill Gates reads about 50 books per year. For decades, he maintained his famous "Think Week", devouring a record 112 books, articles and whitepapers during one session.
2. Mark Cuban reads more than 3 hours every day. His goal is to find just one idea he can use to give him and the over 150 companies in which he's invested an edge in the marketplace.
3. Elon Musk is an avid reader. When asked how he learned to build rockets, he said, "I read books."
4. When Larry Page, CEO of Google, was asked how he learned to run a company, he responded, "I read a lot." For instance, he read three books on how to name things.
5. David Rubenstein, Co-Founder, The Carlyle Group: Rubenstein reads up to eight newspapers a day and six books a week — and attributes his extraordinary capability to a laser-like sense of focus. Six books a week makes him arguably the most voracious reader among active business leaders today.

According to Tom Corley, author of Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals, rich people read for self-improvement, education and success. Meanwhile, poor people read primarily to be entertained.

People who read regularly find it easier to make decisions, plan and prioritise; are more satisfied with life, happier and more likely to feel that the things they do in life are worthwhile; and have greater respect for and tolerance of others' views.

The journey to being a Master of our Craft has five stages:

Stage 1. Passive Learning: In this stage, we read to expand our thinking. We work on increasing our focus and attention to get to 24 books a year. It is not more time we need to read so many books. What we need is laser sharp focus, concentration and stillness of mind to read more pages per hour.

24 is the number of books Topgrading author, Brad Smart, found separated A-player executives from B and C players. Topgrading is a rigorous hiring and talent management methodology that helps organisations identify, hire and develop A players.

Stage 2. Active Learning: We learn actively by implementing ideas, from the books we are reading, with the commitment to contribute at home, at work and in the world. Implementing deepens our learning and accelerates our growth.

Stage 3. Immersive Learning: In this stage, we learn through Apprenticeship, when we learn directly from an existing Master of our Craft.

Stage 4. Transformative Learning: We become a mentor as we coach others to become Experts in our domain. This is when we start writing articles. We transform as we transform others.

Stage 5. Generative Learning: We become a Master when we coach Experts to become Mentors in our domain. This is when we go inside our craft and become it. This is when we start writing books to learn, grow and contribute by generating knowledge itself and being the source of our domain.

The first step in the Craft Mastery journey is to develop a reading habit and become an avid reader.

Here's a great article on how to build a reading habit: How Changing your Reading Habits can Transform your Health 

As per research shared in this article, reading doesn’t just improve our knowledge, it can help fight depression, make us more confident, empathetic, and better decision makers.

When we read avidly and voraciously, our kids are the first to benefit. Our kids have shorter attention spans because we have shorter attention spans. Our kids prefer screens to pages in a book because we prefer screens to pages in a book. The biggest beneficiaries of us being on our good to great journey are our kids because they learn not by what we tell them to do but by how they experience us living our life. The same is true of our people.

Are you willing to start reading hours and book clubs at your workplace, and a family reading hour and family book club at home to give an opportunity to your own self, your kids and your people at work to travel on their good to great journey with greater ease, grace and velocity?

Let's enjoy coming home to ourselves through the books we read and progress on our Craft Mastery journey to become a Master Contributor through our thought leadership.

Loving you,
j.
RYD Learning Bytes
Wednesday Theme: Craft Mastery
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Original Version of the Article: 30-July-2018
Next Version: 22-Apr-2026