AWESOMENESS METHODOLOGY - Step 2 is the easiest part - read. Read more. Read even more. I can attribute a huge part of my success to my reading. Reading is the only way to get close to enough people who've made it already. Reading is the only way to get multiple points of view from the best in business. Reading is the only way to get motivated by the greats.
I hated reading. Hated it - it was so slow and pointless. Now I love reading. Want my secret?
Don't waste your time reading lies. That's my word for fiction. The 'lies' section of the book shop. No, you want the 'non-lies' section of the bookshop. You want the biographies, memoirs, visions, advice of amazingly inspirational people in this world.
Only read books written by or with contributions from people who've actually achieved something. Don't read books by generic researchers - e.g. "How to win deals by A.Anon"... instead read "No B.S. Sales Success: The Ultimate No Holds Barred, Kick Butt, Take No Prisoners, Tough and Spirited Guide by Self-Made Millionaire Dan Kennedy". Don't read "Passion To Profits by A.Anon" instead read "How To Get Rich by self-made almost Billionaire". Don't read "Business the Richard Branson Way by A.Anon", instead read "Screw It, Let's Do It: 14 Lessons on Making It to the Top While Having Fun by self-made Billionaire Richard Branson".
Refuse to use libraries. Buy your books - it's the same concept at work as owning the expensive note book. Make yourself a library and re-read the best ones. Even better - lend them to other people regularly.
Always read with a pen in one hand. Take a pen and scribble on your book. Scribble all over your books. The more scribbles the more value you got from the book - and it makes it easy to re-read quickly later. Underline things. Mark out paragraphs. Star things. Write your thoughts on how you can apply an idea to your life in the margins. Own that book. It should look used when you're done - not crisp.
There is only one way I can enthuse myself to read in quantities - without this method I move very very slowly through a book. The old 5 pages a night method will kill the point of the book - you will be unable to piece the method together. Read the book in big chunks, minimum 1 chapter (a concept) in one go. Trains & planes are great.
Keep a wish list and buy books in batches of 5. There will always be one you want to read most - place this one at the bottom of the pile. Place the pile beside your bed or on your coffee table and get started working your way through the books one by one. When you start the last book - buy another 5.
Read voraciously. Guy Kawasaki said that to me first in his book - my point made?
1. A better strategy for your brain health and overall capability is to read a different type of book each time. So if you read a starting your own business book, your next book should be a fiction book, then the next book should be a science book, and then the next one another business book, and then a science fiction book and then a psychology book. By reading the same genre/field of books over and over and over you are seriously narrowing your focus and creativity. Spread your bets. And 'not liking fiction' ... means you just haven't read the right fiction. There are many works of fiction which can easily be as valuable in terms of insight as your business biographies.
And a far less important one:
2. I find it personally offensive when people write on books. I think it's just a big fat crime. I know you bought it, you can do with it whatever you like, but I think it's just _awful_ to scribble all over a book. Scribble down things in your awesome moleskin. Leave the book intact, so it can be passed on. I think this is just a personal pet peeve but I stand by it.
But yes, read voraciously!
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