There is an immense amount of written information available and it’s yours for the taking. Content is everywhere these days and its massive, untapped source of riches. Books, articles, periodicals, reports, whitepapers and ebooks on virtually every topic under the sun offer tremendous value to readers and knowledge-seekers everywhere.
It pays you to become a reader and an investigator and a seeker of useful information and wisdom. The written word is a miracle – right before your eyes. You can get helpful information, learn new methods of doing things, discover tasty recipes, see how others resolved similar problems and so much more. Picking up a quality non-fiction book gets you reading and most importantly — thinking — and this is what helps you advance in the world.
Reading is a trigger to thinking — a catalyst. As you’re reading information, you’re learning as you get your mind involved processing and evaluating that information. You can’t think a thought until you have a thought frame from which to think it. Giving away useful information is a great way to connect with others and build relationships. If you created the information yourself, you have an exclusive. But you don’t need to write a book in order to reap the rewards of giving away information to others.
You can staple your business card to a book that you found particularly helpful and then give it away to your prospective customers. People will think the world of you, the book will never get thrown away, nor will your business card. And you’ll also be considered as somewhat of an authority on the subject, simply by sharing the work of someone else. How’s that for standing out? For the price of a book you are virtually guaranteed to have your contact information available and within reach of your prospect for a long time.
Read with your mind and think with your heart. When people start reading – they start thinking, they start realizing things, they start growing and expanding and consequently, new fields of possibility come into their realm.
Reading helps you see things more clearly and understand a topic to a greater degree. There’s always an answer out there somewhere on the Internet or in a printed book. There’s always at least one book, article, periodical, etc., (and usually many) on your chosen topic that can help you overcome any problem. Get into the habit of reading and seeking more information and you’ll begin to easily find written gems just waiting to serve you with a large helping of information and data.
There’s a massive storehouse of information online, in libraries and bookstores. And don’t forget your own resources too. You’ve probably got more than one book at home in which you haven’t even cracked the cover. I know I certainly do. You can learn how to do anything – or you can learn how to do it better or faster or cheaper. Shared knowledge is a precious gift. It’s the foundation of all growth as a society and traditionally, the passing of information has been in written word format. Think about that. The way to grow and expand from wherever you are is to grow and expand your knowledge base. And what better way than to read books, ebooks, reports and quality articles?
“You’ll be the same person ten years from now except for the people you meet and the books you read” – Charlie “Tremendous” Jones
When you read and you think about what you’re reading – you begin to make new discoveries while at the same time you connect the dots. You can solve life’s puzzles by reading and you also begin to realize that some of the crap that you learned earlier is just not serving you. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons so few people read regularly these days.
Without reading, your life continues along the same pace. But reading opens up new vistas, new possibilities, new roads to explore. Reading positive material can lift you up instantly – it motivates you to reach for and attain new levels of success. And if you get motivated, you tend to become a motivator. People everywhere are inspired by those trail-blazers — people on a mission who naturally become leaders and influencers. The secret is to put some energy into what you do. Learn all about your topic of choice by reading at every opportunity and then experiencing what you read about. The more you expand your knowledge base, the more you begin to experience success.
Share with others when you get ideas from what you read. Send articles or links to people you know. The benefit to you is knowing that you’ve helped other people and those people will think more highly of you. From a business point of view this is an excellent strategy. Share what you learn from other giants. One way to be helpful is to build a collection of quotes and then share. My collection is currently at over 450 pages of individual quotes from leaders in all walks of life. This is a powerful resource I refer to from time to time and it’s excellent to be able to quote somebody else instead of simply spewing information as though it was my own. People respect you more when you quote others.
Everybody has a problem to solve. But you’ll be more successful if you focus on helping others solve their problems. Not sure how? Look it up. The answer lies in already existing written material – articles reports white papers and books get reading develop it into a lifetime habit and you’ll benefit in so many ways. Once you find useful information — share it.