Reading The Right Books About Your Industry, Is The An Effective Strategy For Succeeding In It

When I think about the days I first began reading books on personal development and the industries I’m interested in succeeding in… I often think about the person I was. Because it helps me measure change or the progress I have made. Specifically HOW I made it. Nothing ever truly happens without cause or reason.

There are two key ways people get better at what they do. The first is through the improvement of skill. Which you can only get through practice. There is no other way to develop or improve at something as far as skill is concerned. This is something most of us are aware of. Fortunately a great number of people pursuing success apply this.

The other way you can better at what you do is by acquiring knowledge. The more you know about “better”… the better you get because you can now apply “better” to your practice. Unfortunately, many who begin pursuing their goals in life, do not immediately see the wisdom in this. Many end up going through decades (yes, 10s of years) of trial and error trying to succeed in an industry having no clue what the right strategies are for succeeding it.

Even without having skill… the moment you gain deep knowledge and understanding of any industry (specifically how people have succeeded in it), you are in a better position to succeed in it compared to someone who is very skilled yet has little to no idea how to succeed at what he/she does.

It is vague to just work hard. What are you supposed to work hard on? For that matter… what are you supposed to work smart on? You should have accurate knowledge of what leads to success for you. Then work hard and smart on it.

Success doesn’t come to those with mere skill, talent, or natural intelligence. It comes to those with plans that actually lead to success. But how can one make plans to succeed in an industry he/she knows little about… again… specifical knowledge on how to succeed in it.

You owe it to yourself as a pursuer of a better life to actually read about how people pursue better lives. This makes sense, does it not?

I believe that one of the major reasons why people don’t readily take up this habit of searching for knowledge of one’s industry is closely tied to their experience of getting educated through traditional schooling.

But despite the type of experience you went through in high school or college, you must develop the wisdom to see that formal schooling and self-education are two very different things.

The process of educating yourself through reading books on industry success is really no different from the process of educating yourself on how to use the latest social media app.

In both situations, you are doing it at your own pace and you are free to select what parts you desire to learn and what parts you do not. There is no deadline or test at the end of the term or semester.

I find that the moment people connect with just one or two books about their industry… they get motivated to create a habit out of reading. You can really get hooked. Especially when you realize that you are not reading for reading’s sake.

When you read about making progress in your industry and discover a tactic or two that you begin to implement… things change when you actually implement them and realize that book was right about the results you would get.

Again, you can save yourself years of trying to figure out social media marketing for your product, service, or skill if you actually read about successful social media marketing.

I can understand that we happen to be the first generation to experience the explosion of the information age (a.k.a. the internet). Before the internet, there were really limited ways one could acquire the type of knowledge one needed to excel in his/her industry. Many of those ways did not include reading since such books weren’t readily available to the general public. So it’s no surprise that many of us are still sticking to the traditional ways of pursuing progress and success that do not involve reading. Ways that sometimes work but that are quickly becoming irrelevant today.

But a lot has changed since the introduction of the internet. The internet is not only a platform to get information, it’s also a platform used to build personal success… among other things.

TV ads aren’t as effective as social media marketing. Simply because the difference in return on investment can be HUGE if done right.

Learn to appreciate that we now have endless amounts of information about succeeding that dreamers of the past could only… DREAM of having.

You want to get ahead in life or in your career… there’s never been a better time to adopt the mindset of the student than in today’s world.

#makeProgressNotExcuses