By Strive Masiyiwa
__”Read 500 pages, every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest”. [Warren Buffett]
We all read these days, more so than at any other time in history. The guy looking at his small phone following social media platforms actually reads a lot! He probably reads as much volume of writing as Warren Buffett! So don’t say things like: “I cannot read long things”.
The secret to unlocking “hidden treasures” is #Reading – but #Reading the right stuff!
I read very fast, and very intensely, at the same time. I trained myself to be able to do this! You can train yourself to do this, too — if you really want to, and if you are convinced it is what will set you apart. It is the most valuable of all #Skills!
__Let me give you a simple tip: Start reading enjoyable books to speed up your reading, through practice. Even if it’s just thriller novels—start there! Just read, read, read!
Even though I read a lot of very serious material every day, and I’m very fast at it, I find that I have to filter out things that “crowd out” my reading time.
One day I sat down to find time for reading and listening to entrepreneurship issues and I found there was no time left! Then and there I removed myself from social media platforms that were simply entertainment and gossip.
The only emails that get to me are those that are important, which I then clear the same day! I don’t need promotions to clog my inbox, or people sharing the latest political and social gossip. What value is that to me?
It might frighten some of you to imagine that you have to read 500 pages a day! Actually, you can, and you probably do it unconsciously on your phone!
But what if you did it deliberately, systematically? Now you know a great secret of wealth!
In an article I shared with you a few weeks ago, the writer [Marcel Schwantes of “Leadership from the Core”] talked about what one rule that Warren Buffett calls THE key to his success:
__”Go to bed a little smarter each day”.
Buffett explained that it operates on the power of “compounding interest”. Within a few years… all those numbers of pages you read starts to YIELD RESULTS… in #Knowledge!
Buffett says he reads about 80% of his time each day. Mark Cuban reads more than three hours a day. Bill Gates reads about 50 books per year. Elon Musk? When asked about how he learned to build rockets, he said, “I read books.”
Buffett doesn’t limit building up his #Knowledge to books alone. He reads six newspapers a day, including The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The New York Times, USA Today, Omaha World-Herald, and American Banker.
Whether or not you have time for such an ambitious goal is largely irrelevant. The point of the Buffett formula is to make whatever progress you can. Few of us can squeeze in a 500-page daily goal with our busy schedules.
But most of us, with some intentionality, can fit in 15, maybe 20 pages, each day, improving our level of knowledge in the process.
__You need to make #Reading part of your routine. Every day.
When I wake up in the morning, I start by making myself an Espresso or cup of tea. Then I go to my favorite spot in the house and #Read the Bible. I dedicate a minimum of one hour to this ritual. I then go off to pray about 30 minutes on a working day.
Next, I sit down to review the news: I have about 10 newspapers on an app, mostly global media like FT and WSJ. Then, I review my daily Media Report [collection of newspaper clippings from countries where we operate]. I also dedicate 30 minutes each day to reading your Facebook comments here and writing back to some of them.
This routine happens daily, even if I’m traveling.
I have no Instagram, WhatsApp, and I don’t follow celebrities of any kind. Throughout the day, every day, I’m #Reading stuff related to business: Articles, reports, board papers.
This is work, and I enjoy it. [But woe is he or she that sends me something frivolous to read!!]
• Strive Masiyiwa is a telco entrepreneur and founder of Econet.