Leaders Are Readers

Talk to someone who is living the life you’d like to live and odds are they are an avid reader. In fact, study anyone successful throughout history, and you’ll likely find that they were readers. Reading books is important for several reasons; Books offer new ideas, inspire action, and teach new ways of doing things. When you consider the benefits as well as how easy and affordable reading can be, it would be silly not to include reading into your daily schedule.

How Much and When to Read:

In a busy schedule, reading often is one of the things that gets put on the back burner. But you don’t have to read an entire book or even chapter a day. Most success experts prescribe 15 minutes of reading every day. That’s it. You can read before you get out of bed or before you go to sleep. You can read while waiting for the bus or at the doctors office.  Always keep a book or magazine in your purse so when you find yourself waiting, you can read.

What to Read:

If your goal is to improve your finances and achieve abundance in your life, you should read books that cover everything from managing money, increasing motivation, improving your interpersonal skills, and books that are specific to how you will achieve those things whether its through a home business or real estate investing or something else.

How to Read:

While the act of reading is important, you should read with the intention of having it change you in some way whether its learning a new marketing technique or investment strategy. I suggest keeping a note book so you can jot down important ideas you want to remember. I also use Post-It ™ sticky tabs to mark pages I want to revisit because they have a great idea or a website I want to check out.

Budget Book Reading

While I spend a fortune on books, you can easily find books at your local library that you can check out and read for free. Most libraries have books on tape or CD so you can listen on the go. You can use online book swaps or buy used books to help you save as well.

My book recommendations:

I buy and read books all the time. I’m currently reading The Wuffle Factor about social networking, Twitter Tips, Tricks and Treats (for Amazon Vine), My So Called Freelance Life (I’m working on picking up more freelance writing work and thought this would be a good refresher), Speaking for Millions (I’d like to do more public speaking), and Blackberry for Dummies (to make sure I’m getting the most out of my phone). With that said, I do have a list of books that I often refer people to because I think they’re classics.

Goals/Success/Motivation

Write It Down Make It Happen: Knowing What You Want And Getting It by Henriette Klauser

The Success Principles by Jack Canfield (this is one of my favorite books!!)

Attitude is Everything – Keith Harrell (Another must read!)

Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway — by Susan Jeffers

No Opportunity Wasted by Phil Keoghan

Career/Business

Finding Your Perfect Work by Paul and Sarah Edwards

Making a Living Without A Job by Barbara Winter (new edition coming out in August!)

The Work-At-Home Success Bible by Leslie Truex (shameless I know…but I think its a good book!)

Marketing/Sales

Starting from “No”: 10 Strategies to Overcome Your Fear of Rejection and Succeed in Business by Azriela L. Jaffe, Pam Lontos

Get Clients Now: A 28 Day Program – C.J. Hayden

Permission Marketing by Seth Godin (Everything by Seth is good.)

Elements of Copywriting by Robert Bly

This list is by no means complete. I’ve got about 100 books on my shelf now that I refer to plus another 200 or so in storage. And I know there are lots of books I haven’t yet read. I’d love to hear about books you’ve read that have made a difference in your success!