Susan Biali

Want to be wiser, richer, or more successful?  Read more books!
What are you reading right now?  Don’t worry, you don’t actually have to tell me (or maybe you could, it would be interesting to know!).  Are you reading the kind of book you might stuff under a sofa cushion if a friend or someone you’d like to impress showed up at your home, unannounced?
I wrote this flying on the plane from Los Cabos to Vancouver.  Whenever I travel, which is quite frequently, I take advantage of the fact that for several solid hours I’ll be captive and essentially alone, without much entertainment.  I always carry on a couple of books that I’ve been meaning to read, but haven’t quite gotten around to. 
This trip, I brought “Talent is Never Enough”, the Spanish version, by John Maxwell.  The second is “How to Master the Art of Selling” by sales legend Tom Hopkins. 

I bought the Maxwell book in Spanish, because although I’m already fluent, one of my goals is to develop a command of intellectual, literary Spanish, so that I can reach another of my goals, which is to present my talks in Spanish-speaking countries around the world.  The “talent” aspect of the title has been a lifelong issue for me – I’m lucky enough to be good at a lot of things right from the start, without much training or experience.  The dark side is that it often makes me lazy (because I can get away with it!), and I often don’t develop my abilities anywhere near to my full potential.

I’m reading the Hopkins book on sales because the old adage is true: All of life is sales.  In Los Cabos I know a lot of salespeople, and it’s something else to see them in action.  Sales is persuasion, which results from understanding people’s needs and wants.  Salespeople work to remove the mental and emotional obstacles that prevent people from buying something they truly do need or want.  Customers also ultimately need to see, and understand, why buying would benefit them. 

If I want to make a positive impact on  your life with this blog post, I need to be able to “sell” you on the idea that regularly reading high quality books is one of the most powerful (and simple) actions you can take to move you towards realizing the life of your dreams.  The more effective I become at persuading people, the more positive effect I can have on your lives.

Back to books.  I’ve been listening to and studying a lot of Jim Rohn’s work lately.  He’s in his 70’s now, and was one of Anthony Robbins’ original mentors.  Jim loves to say: “Success is something you attract by the person you become”. If you want to be more successful, work first at improving yourself, to make yourself worth more to the marketplace and everyone around you.  One of the best and easiest ways to add value to you is to read more books.

Brian Tracy, another fabulous success and motivation teacher, suggests reading an hour, every day, ideally before you even start your work day.  According to him, if you read a book every week that covers some area of excellence in your career or persona, you will quickly rise to the top of your field.  A book a week means 52 in a year, can you imagine?  It boggles my mind to think who I would become if I did this. I manage to read most mornings, now, and just finished a textbook on public speaking.

Jim Rohn also recommends that you make a list of books you’d like to read.  I started my formal list a couple of days ago.  I also have a little “ideas” notebook that I carry around with me all the time - if someone tells me about a great book, I make a note of it right then and there.

Be careful about what you put in your head.  Who are you becoming, based on the books that you’re reading? 
Yesterday, instead of reading a novel, I read an entire Conde Nast Traveler magazine, cover to cover, over lunch.  It may not count as a "book" but oh, the things I learned! The places I discovered!  It was fabulous.  I also want to start reading more biographies, as they’re entertaining but also factual and a chance to learn about people and the world.

So will you accept my challenge, and start reading more?
Will you make a list of books that you’d like to read, and start on the first one?
Will you reflect on what you’ve been putting in your head, and ask yourself if it’s consistent with the person you want to become?
I’m going to end with a quote from Jim Rohn’s own mentor, Mr. Shoaf:
“The big question is:  Are you reading the books that are going to take you where you want to go in the next five years?”
Let me know what you’re reading, and what you’d like to read.  Have you got any great books you would recommend to me?

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