Given the aversion to reading that owners and executives of businesses of all sizes apparently have, you’d think that b-o-o-k were a four-letter word. In this context it isn’t. And nor is i-d-e-a. And it is from books that ideas come.
So if you don’t like reading books, you’re cloistering yourself from ideas that could be hugely beneficial to your business and that you’re not otherwise going to encounter.
But don’t just take my word for it. Kimanzi Constable, author and consultant, asked in an article how, if you don’t read, do you expect to learn how to run your business better? Then there is what Charles William Eliot, President of Harvard University for forty years said: “Books are the quietest and most constant of friends, they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.”
Well, how about a suggestion to get you over your aversion-to-reading-but-need-for-ideas dilemma? How about easing into the reading habit via the salami technique? Read a page, two pages, three pages, or a chapter at a time. Then put it down. Come back later and repeat. Nobody says you have to eat the whole salami in one sitting. One or two slices at a time will get it done and you’ll probably even look forward to each session. I think you get the picture . . .
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