BY VICTOR OCHIENG’
Business guru Brian Tracy once commented that whenever he interviewed a prospective employee, one of the first quality questions he would ask was, “What is the last self-help book you read?”
I am guessing that the answer had a lot to do with how long the rest of the interview would last, and the candidate’s chances of being hired.
With finding good jobs becoming difficult, this is a question worth considering at all times. But maybe, you are asking yourself, why anyone, especially a prospective employer, would care about what people read.
From where I sit, it is quite simple. If you are not interested in your personal growth and professional development, would a level-headed employer be really ready to bring you on board?
Jim Donovan in his well-worded book titled Happy at Work posits that it is a fact that many successful people make a habit out of reading and listening to stuff that entice personal development.
A man called John, a car salesman, augmented his income by 15 per cent during one of the worst automotive slumps in history. What was his sweet secret? He stuck like a tick to the practice of reading self-help books for 15 to 20 minutes each day before going to work.
The research and findings about how many books people read after completing their formal education are just appalling. Upon graduation, colleges and universities hold commencement ceremonies. The word commencement itself holds the clue that life is beginning, and that education, rather than coming to an end, should be commencing as well.
By and large, the information you learned in school was just the genesis. It is not sufficient to bolt you into the fabulous future. Rather, the learning you acquire regularly is what will determine how far, and how high you will reach in your work life. Education is a lifelong thing. It begins at birth, and halts at the pensive point of death.
People who matriculate into the University of Self-Education sometimes shine more than those with advanced levels of formal education.
That explains why many people with modicum levels of formal education, but committed to self-education have scaled majestic heights, and touched the acme of stunning success in business, and life in general.
Successful people commit themselves to prodigious reading habits. They don’t just read for the sake of passing exams. Every high-achieving individual I have met here and there, doing this and that, reads heroic books to a great extent.
Many of the largest, most successful companies that grace the globe encourage people to participate in the book-of-the-month club. Why? Because they know that the more their employees work on their personal development, the better the company will rise to stardom, and attain peak performance.
Sadly, startling statistics postulate that most people have not read a book since they left school. It is said that a ⅓ of the population in the United States, according to a Huffington Post – US government poll in September 2013, have not read a book in a year. In Korea, in 2006, more money was spent on cigarettes than on books. Sadly, a ⅓ of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives. 42 per cent of college graduates similarly never read a book after college.
Publisher David Godine claims that only 32 per cent of the US population has ever been in a book store. You know what Afro-pessimists with a condescending attitude have penned about Africans: that in case anyone wants to conceal something from us, then they should stash it in a book. If you have a tinge of doubt, then just ask your friend the book s/he is reading this week or month.
Reading voraciously is the germane gist. People who are conscious about personal development are intellectually omnivorous. That is why you should make personal development part and parcel of your daily routine or ritual. Begin. Learn. Win. If you want to lead a fulfilling and successful life, make a daily habit of reading good books. The habit of reading even the sacred scriptures is the secret of living a happier, healthier and holier life.
This is the conclusion of the matter. Read a book per week, or a book per month, or more. Focus on the puissant impact the written word. For this is what will help you sharpen your skills. It is what will lift your gift. In the long run, it will help you develop a Positive Mental Attitude. Because, as the title of Jeff Keller’s book suggests, Attitude is Everything.
The late Charlie Jones, a personal development legend, taught: “You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet, and the books you read. Allow me to stop there; for that is the gist of the matter.”
The writer is an author and orator. vochieng.90@gmail.com.
