cre8Buzz Blog

How do you stay hip to how your industry is changing? How do you add a new skill to your repertoire? How do you gain a new perspective on an old process? Did I hear any of ya’ll say reading . . . business books, industry blogs, rags etc.? I hope so. I have seen and heard a lot of unscientific arguments for and against the value of business books, but what I can tell ya, is that ya better be reading and reading often. If ya wanna grow, gain a great perspective and broaden your own personal view of your industry then get readin.

Seth Godin says it well in this slammin post. Would you wanna lawyer who doesn’t read law journals, or a Dr. who hadn’t read a scholarly article since med school? I didn’t think so. Unfortunately, according to Seth, not many folks subscribe to this idea; considering the annual U.S. per capita purchase rate for hardcover books is just one.

I made a commitment to read a book a month 3 years ago. I read only business books. It was a crazy mad goal at the time, but it is without a doubt the phattest goal I have set in a while. In the 36 books I have read I learned a few things besides what they were about:

1. There is a lot more stuff that you don’t know, no matter what you think you know.
2. There are a lot of powerful ideas out there and there are a lot of really bad ideas out there, both are equally valuable
3. It is not what you read and learn, but how you digest it. You have to make the ideas your own
4. The more you read the more you’ll realize you have some pretty good, unique ideas yourself
5. No matter how good the book, there are no absolutes, no magic bullets, have a good filter
6. There has never been a book that wasn’t worth it, sometimes you learn what to do, other times you learn what not to do
7. You experience tangible growth; you make better decisions, have more successes and experience a greater sense of accomplishment
8. Your context expands, your ability to assess, articulate, and analyze increases dramatically. Takin’ apart a problem and constructing a solution is far more fluid

I’m not gonna tell ya to read or not to read, and according to the stats it appears that most of ya’ll don’t like it anyway. But, if ya committed to anything, blogging, politics, marketing, crafting, cooking, under water basket weaving hit the books! It’ll be good for ya!

Now, any of ya’ll gotta English grammar book for me? Naaah, never mind!