Oscar Wilde, an Irish poet, and a successful playwright said, “it is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.”
Name a successful entrepreneur and you will see he has a reading habit. This is a common quality which you will find in every entrepreneur. From an entrepreneur who builds a rocket to an entrepreneur who is an owner of windows, you will see that they love reading.
Elon Musk, when he was asked how he learned to build rockets, his answer was simply that he learned it by reading books. Bill Gates, one of the richest entrepreneurs in the world, says that he reads 50 books every year.
All the famous and successful entrepreneurs are mostly dropped out of schools or are said to have no interest in formal education and getting degrees, they are self-made and they give credit for their success to few qualities and three habits; hard work, staying consistent and reading books.
You see reading books is not just a random or casual habit but it is a key to success. We have often heard that reading opens up our mind, helps in generating new ideas, many times reading gives us life lessons, helps us in understanding things but that is not it!
Every human being has a limited life span and every person has different experiences and learns different life lessons, one man cannot experience all types of circumstances and situations in his life.
When you read a book, you see the world from another person’s eye, you learn about his life experiences, this helps you learn different lessons. Reading can help you lead a planned life, you will understand what is the purpose of your life and how will you deal with your future.
There are many reasons because of which they are big fans of reading books; one of those reasons is that reading helps a reader grow. By growing I do not mean physically but mentally, emotionally, and psychologically.
Books of all types whether they are biographies, novels, fictional, informative, scientific, detective, classical, literature or historical, they have some lessons in it and when a reader understands the lesson and tries to imply it in his life, he starts growing in a better version of himself.
A reader can always relate to the situation of the book he is reading while reading he uses his imagination where he compares his life with the situation being discussed in the book, this helps him discover himself, his personality in different situations. He gets to know how he will react in an unusual situation, he discovers his likes and dislikes.
As I mentioned above that entrepreneurs become successful when they stay consistent, book reading also helps in developing a habit of staying consistent and in line. This is actually a very hard thing to do and most people who start their own business being very motivated to fail badly because they cannot stay in line for a long time.
When you read a book, you learn how to focus on a thing for a long time, how to prepare your brain to give attention to a particular thing, and how to stay patient.
While reading when you move forward, you have to keep in mind the previously discussed things, characters, situations, names, and events, etc. This helps your brain learn how to remember stuff; this eventually improves your memory. While talking about Elon Musk, Jim Cantrell said that Musk has ability to literally memorize books.
Last but not the least, reading broadens the imagination and enhances the creativity of the reader. This is very important for a person to be a successful entrepreneur because if you see the most famous or rich entrepreneurs are the ones who came up with unique ideas, who were creative in their field, who did what others never thought to do.
This can be done when you have the ability to see the world from a different eye when you try to see what is missing and what is needed by the people. Reading teaches you to ask questions and to find their answers, it teaches to do things in a creative manner.
When an entrepreneur comes up with a unique and creative idea which eases people’s need, that idea is always successful. So if you want to be successful, start developing reading habits.
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