Read for Your Career Success

March is National Reading Month.  This provides a great opportunity to bolster your life and career success.  I love to read.  I spent a lot of time in my home town library growing up.  Some of my friends thought I was weird – the librarians loved me.  Reading is a great way to create the life and career success you want and deserve.

A couple of days ago, I interviewed Jill Koenig, the Goal Guru for the Experts Corner part of my membership site.  You can join the site by visiting http://www.MyCorporateClimb.com.  When you do, you’ll get access to Jill’s interview – and the interviews I do with other career success experts every month.  Why not check it out after you finish reading this blog post?  Jill told me she reads personal and career success books for at  least one hour every day.

Reading is the easiest become to become a lifelong learner – and lifelong learning is an important key to becoming an outstanding performer and a career success.  Tweet 81 in my career advice book Success Tweets says, “Become a lifelong learner.  The half-life of knowledge is rapidly diminishing.  Staying in the same place is the same as going backwards.”

Thomas Carlyle once said, “What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us.  The greatest university of all is a collection of books.”  He lived in the 19th century.  If he were alive today, he might have amended his statement to say, “Books and the Internet are the greatest university of all.”  Today, so many of the great books, as well as other life and career success information, are available on line.  The Internet is a great way to access this information – and so are good old fashioned books.  The important thing is to keep learning – how you do it and where you get your information is secondary.

I have a huge collection of books on a variety of subjects.  These books are the first place I turn when I am looking for information to post on my blog, when I am working with my career success coach clients, when I am preparing a speech and when I am designing a training program.  When I can’t find what I’m looking for in my books, I go on line.

My best common sense suggestion for becoming a lifelong learner is simple.  Read.  Read technical journals.  Read trade magazines.  Read business publications like “The Wall Street Journal,” “Business Week,” “Fortune” and “Forbes.”  If you think they’re too stodgy, read “Fast Company.”

Read your company’s annual report.  Read your competitors’ annual reports.  Read your local newspaper and “The New York Times.”  Read news magazines like “Newsweek” and “Time.”  Read business and industry blogs.  Read ezines and eBooks.  Read books.  Reading is the best way to stay up with what’s happening in business, in your industry and in the world.

A couple of years ago, I participated in a crowd sourced book called 101 Great Ways to Enhance Your Career.  The publisher sent me 100 copies.  I have about 50 that are sitting on my shelf gathering dust.  There’s no sense in letting them go to waste.  I’ll give you a free copy of 101 Great Ways to Enhance Your Career.  It’s almost 400 pages of solid, common sense, career success advice.  All I ask is that you pay $4.95 shipping and handling.  If you want a free copy of 101 Great Ways to Enhance Your Career, send me an email (Bud@BudBilanich.com).  I’ll respond with a PayPal invoice for $4.95.  Once you make the payment, I’ll put the book in the mail to you – I’ll even sign it.

There are other things you can do to keep learning.  Attend seminars.  Join the major groups or trade associations for your industry.  Attend their meetings and participate.  Volunteer for committee work.  Become known locally in your field.  Take a class at your local university.  Use your company’s tuition reimbursement program to get a free undergraduate or Master’s degree.

Your education doesn’t stop when you graduate from college or get an MBA, it begins anew.  There are many ways to keep learning.  Decide which ones work for you, and then follow through.  Outstanding performers are competent.  They stay competent because they are readers and lifelong learners.

I agree with Albert Einstein who said…

“Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong learning attempt to acquire it.”

The common sense career success point here is simple.  Successful people are outstanding performers.  Outstanding performers are lifelong learners.  They follow the career advice in tweet 81 in Success Tweets.  “Become a lifelong learner.  The half-life of knowledge is rapidly diminishing.  Staying in the same place is the same as going backward.”  Lifelong learning is really important to creating the successful life and career you want and deserve.  Remember what Louis L’Amour says: “There will come a time when you believe everything is finished.  That will be the beginning.”  Treat each new day as an opportunity to learn.  Stay open to new people and new ideas.  If you do this, you’ll come to realize that you are never finished learning and that what you learn after you know it all is the most valuable knowledge you’ll develop.  This National Reading Month, make a resolution to start reading.  Find a periodical you like and subscribe.  Read a book – one on career success is great, but if that isn’t your cup of team, read a novel.  You might be surprised by how much more entertaining a book is than watching TV.

That’s my career advice on becoming a lifelong learner by reading.  What do you think?  Please share your thoughts with us by leaving a comment.  As always, I really appreciate you for taking the time to read my daily thoughts on life and career success.  I value you — and your comments.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, please download a free copy of my popular career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: I opened a membership site last September.  It’s called My Corporate Climb and is devoted to helping people create career success inside large corporations.  You can find out about the membership site by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.