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The Invisible Mentor Weekly Newsletter: Brain Food Wednesdays Number 98: How Can You Profit from Your Reading Time?
Dear Reader,
Would you invest time in reading more books if you believed that you’d profit from reading? And when was the last time you read a book that caused you to stop and think about what you were reading? These moments don’t happen all the time because most books will not do that for you. I have this theory that you can profit from the books you read, if you read the right ones. I call this idea profit reading – making money from the books you read.
If you invest time in reading and digesting a book, you deserve to reap the benefits of applied knowledge. I believe you should get a return on investment for your time. Profit in this case could be a promotion, an in-demand product you create to sell, a new service you offer, and so on.
I think if more professionals approached their reading with this mindset, they would want to read more. And they would make the time to read, even if it means giving up another activity.
What do you think of the concept of profit reading? Are you willing to explore this concept with me?
In the Ask Avil section, I’ll explore more deeply how to profit from your reading time.
Join my Facebook group Reading Rocks: Read a Book, Discover Solutions, Change the World.
Ask Avil
How Can You Profit from Your Reading Time?
Successful people understand the concept of profit reading, even if they do not call it that. Take Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks. He spends about three hours each day reading, even though he is a billionaire. In his book, How to Win at the Sport of Business, Mark Cuban says,
“I learned from magazines and books, but I also learned from watching what some of the up-and-coming technology companies of the day were doing. It’s funny how the companies that I thought were brilliant back then are still racking it up today.”
The first step is to find books worth reading. And if you’re like most people, you have a pile of to-be-read books waiting for you to flip them open. You bought the books for a reason. Are those reasons still valid? If you have valid reasons, choose a few nonfiction books from the pile. The next step is to change your definition of what it means to read a book. This means you’ll preview each book, reading only the important sections.
When reading the Introduction of a book, you’ll likely find the core ideas in it. As you’re reading books, look out for good ideas. Many times when you’re reviewing your notes, the ideas pop off the page. To profit from your reading, you need a systematic way to generate innovative ideas. The profit is in the innovative ideas that you generate. Tie the information to what you already know.
Any insights that come to you while reading, jot them down. And if ideas come to you about how to use the information, jot them down as well. When you finish reading each book, review your notes, then extract the core ideas. What I have noticed about myself, is that I have to read over my notes several times for the information to start to gel. While you are re-reading your notes, if insights come to you, write them down.
You may find that you want to group your notes differently. So copying and pasting information may become your best friend. When you have read five books, start combining the ideas from the different books you read. Another point that I would like to make is that it is important to read diverse books in a concentrated amount of time. This allows you to see connections you wouldn’t see otherwise.
To ensure that you profit from the ideas from books, make sure that you tie them to a human need. What you are trying to do is to create a solution to a problem that matters. It is a good idea to revisit the Maslow Hierarchy of needs at this point.
Reading List
Reading multiple books at the same time was an epic failure for me. So, I’m going through the list of books below and reading them like a leader. In no time, I’ll work my way through them. There’s an important lesson here. Failure is a part of life, so don’t give up. Not everything you try will work out, but that should stop you from trying new things.
Reading List
- The Score Takes Care of Itself by Bill Walsh, Steve Jamison, and Craig Walsh
- Self-Leadership by Ryan Reed
- The Leadership Gap by Lolly Daskal
- Love Leadership by John Hope Bryan
- Brave Leadership, Kimberly Davis
- How Women Rise, Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith
- Business Model Shifts by Patrick van der Pijl, Justin Lokitz
- Launching a Leadership Revolution by Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward
- The Invincible Company by Alexander Osterwalder , Yves Pigneur
- Love-Based Business Models by Shawn Driscoll
- Why Leadership Sucks by Miles Anthony Smith, Book 1
- Why Leadership Sucks by Miles Anthony Smith, Book 2
- Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo
- The Airbnb Story: How Three Ordinary Guys Disrupted an Industry, Made Billions . . . and Created Plenty of Controversy by Leigh Gallagher
- Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal by Nick Bilton
- Levers: The Framework for Building Repeatability into Your Business by Amos Schwartzfarb
- Five Stars: The Communication Secrets to Get from Good to Great by Carmine Gallo
- I Got There: How a Mixed-Race Kid Overcame Racism, Poverty, and Abuse to Arrive at the American Dream by JT McCormick
- One Big Thing: Discovering What You Were Born to Do by Phil Howard Cooke
The Invisible Mentor Blog
Blog Posts
Self Leadership: The Art of Becoming a Leader by Ryan Reed, Summary
How to Build an Empire on an Orange Crate by Honest Ed Mirvish, Book Summary
The One Problem
I’ve published 37 podcast episodes already. Some topics are in books I’ve read. So, I’m thinking of adding the podcast videos to book summaries where appropriate. I think this will add more value for my readers and clients.
- Glain Roberts-McCabe, Founder, the Roundtable, Group Coach Academy
- Dr Marsha Carr, Professor, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
- Gabriella O’Rourke, Business Consultant, Borden Ladner Gervais
- Stefanie Booker Atchison, Wisdom Coach & Motivational Speaker
- Michelle Griffin, Founder Brandthority, Building Your Personal Brand
- Donna Knutson, Founder of Write Journeys
- Sophie Gray, Founder of DiveThru: Being Disconnected from Yourself
- The One Problem Interview with Lois McGuire, Author
- The One Problem Interview with Roberta Liebenberg, Senior Law Partner
- The One Problem Interview: Angela Payne, Founder Leed HR
- The One Problem Interview: Rose-marie Fernandez, Founder Coaching Worx
- The One Problem Interview: Reverend, Dr Cheri DiNovo
- The One Problem Interview: Hillary Sobel, Lawyer
- The One Problem: Janet Zaretsky, BS Brilliance Master
- The One Problem: Julie Foucht, Art of Feminine Marketing
- The One Problem: Evelyn Jerome Alexander, Magellan College Counseling
- The One Problem Interview with Rosalin Krieger, The Unstucker
- The One Problem Interview: Tetyana Dudnyk, Director, Technology Project Management Office
Product Alert
7 Day Reading Makeover Challenge
This is an affordable program to get started on leadership reading. Leaders read to learn what they need to know. You’ll also learn how to synthesize information.
Art of Learning Membership Site
How would you like to access the best, most useful information I have, that’s better than book summaries? Buy monthly access to the Bookish Note that’s behind my paywall. I group Bookish Notes together by a common theme, turning them into a course. Imagine reading themed Bookish Notes and starting to lay the foundation for a new skill.
Until Next Week,
Avil Beckford, Founder, The Invisible Mentor!