“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest”
by Benjamin Franklin.
I have a deep admiration for former US President Barack Obama. He has achieved great historical milestones. Along with his charming good looks , eloquence and unmatched charisma, I got to learn that when President Barack Obama was in office he would read for an hour each day. Got me thinking, why would the busiest, most powerful person in the world read so much?
Why has the best investor in history Warren Buffet invested 80% of his time to reading throughout his career? Why does the richest person in the world Bill Gates read a book a week and takes a two week reading vacation every year throughout his entire career?
lets take time to unpack this, the worlds smartest and busiest people find one hour a day or more for deliberate learning while most of us make excuses about how busy we are and cannot simply spare one hour a day to read and learn.
Unemployment is a current pandemic in Kenya yet the irony is that employers across industries are complaining about the lack of skilled workers. It is not so much the lack of jobs but the lack of people with the right skills and knowledge to fill in the gaps.
Most of us fail to read because we are in pursuit of money, unlike money which can get finished when shared, knowledge cannot be lost through sharing. knowledge can be converted into many things that money cannot buy such as helping us accomplish our goals, makes our brains work better, makes us better communicators, helps us think bigger, and put perspective in our lives since we are able to learn from other peoples wisdom.
I like Alvin Toffler’s quote “The illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.
We all have friends with the same skills than us or even less and they command wildly different salaries and fees based on how well they are able to communicate and persuade others. making it paramount for us to find the right portfolio of books, online courses and postgraduate programs to help us achieve our goals .
Consider Jude who reads a book a week and his friend Mark who reads a book every 10 days. In the course of one year, Jude will have read 85 more books than Mark. That my friends is the power of compound interest.
Just like we have the recommended minutes we should exercise per week, recommended hours we should sleep per night to remain healthy and fit. Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. We need to be more rigorous about the minimum dose of deliberate learning that will help us maintain our economic health. The long term effects of long term complacency are just as bad as the long term effects of not exercising, eating well and sleeping right.
In case you have very tight schedules, that is not an excuse big enough to forego learning, you can find mini learning periods during your downtime such as commutes to work, lunch break and during slow times. Reading for just 15 minutes everyday will add up to nearly 100 hours in one year. We cannot afford not to read, learning is no longer a luxury but a necessity.
The richest, busiest and most successful people in the world find time to read and so can you.
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