Read Like a Billionaire—How Books Can Elevate Your Life and Business

As a child, you likely learned that reading was good for you.

The advantages of reading didn’t end in your younger years. Your brain benefits from reading at any age. The more you exercise your brain like a muscle by purposefully expanding your knowledge, the more knowledge you can soak up (and the faster, too).

​Books can improve your career, especially if you read books geared toward professional development, such as books on entrepreneurship mindset. They can make you a better entrepreneur, business owner, or leader at work.

Most adults rarely take time out of their busy schedules to prioritize reading. It’s easy to see why.

You’re working eight or more hours a day at your job or growing your business. Additionally, you’re raising children and getting them to and from their many activities, keeping up with the house and yard work, working out, grocery shopping and preparing meals, making time for friends and family, walking the dog, and a million other things.

Many of you probably feel like reading is one of those things you can put on the back burner until life stops life-ing so hard—whenever that’ll be. You’ll eventually read one day on a sunny and 75-degree beach somewhere.

​However, reading is crucial:

Need more convincing of the importance of reading? Maybe some of the world’s most successful people can sway you.

Avid readers are some of the world’s most successful people.

Oprah Winfrey credits reading with breaking her out of poverty and allowing her to see possibilities beyond her current circumstances. She features new books regularly in her book club.

Investment mogul Warren Buffet carves out five to six hours a day to read newspapers. Then, he reads an average of 500 pages of financial documents for clients.

Bill Gates, philanthropist and former Microsoft CEO, reads about 50 books a year. That’s about one a week.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg vowed in an online post to read a book every other week.

Mark Cuban, the Dallas Mavericks owner and Shark Tank investor, credits his business success to reading about three hours a day.

Elon Musk had a large appetite for books at a young age. He reportedly read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica at nine years old. He co-founded PayPal and runs Tesla and SpaceX. When asked how he knew so much about rockets, he said he read about them.

What do these prosperous people read about? Many choose non-fiction: personal development, industry, current events, and history. Others choose fiction: novels and other fantastical stories.

​Read for fun. Read for function. Just read.

Reading gives you a cutting edge in life and business. It boosts your cognition, which includes reasoning, problem-solving, and understanding. It improves your language skills—reading, writing, speaking, persuading—and memory.

Reading helps you develop empathy as you learn to see things from someone else’s point of view. You also learn more about the world around you.

Reading is a stress reliever. It can help you escape reality for a bit. It can amplify your enthusiasm for life and work.

​Who couldn’t benefit from these advantages?

Reading is a positive return on investment. You earn more than you invest.

You invest time and money into reading. You also invest in yourself and your personal growth.

Is it worth your while?

​100%. You gain so much from reading. In addition to the advantages above, consider the following benefits you can reap.

Wouldn’t it be nice if someone carved a path to business success you could emulate?

They have. And they wrote instructions for it.

Read the real-world accounts of successful business-minded people who have paved the way for you. It’ll be like you climbed the corporate ladder faster because you stood on the shoulders of giants.

​Read lots of books by successful business people. Soon, you’ll be able to pick the best advice from each book or implement a commonality you read from multiple accounts.

Reading is an investment in your personal growth account. When you grow, you expand your business growth potential, too. You gain perspective, ideas, strategies, and creative problem-solving skills. You grow in knowledge and wisdom. You can make better judgment calls in your business.

Shorten your learning curve. In minutes, learn what took another person decades. Avoid making similar mistakes. Mirror successful habits from others. Implement strategies that worked in another’s favor.

The more you read, the more you’re able to retain. You increase your potential for recalling very beneficial information down the road when you need it most. It could be the very knowledge that catapults your business to success.

Reading helps you redevelop your zeal and enthusiasm for your work and life. Reading true life accounts of how others overcame adversity or persevered through a challenge can help you remember your “why” for doing what you do. It can also help you keep going when the going gets tough or monotonous.

Many people pour lots of time and effort into their daily duties—work, building a business, raising children, and caring for others. A day contains only so many hours; you may find yourself at a loss for time to read.

Reading is so essential that it’s worth making time for, especially if you own a business. Think about ways you might swap a current habit for a reading habit.

Could you read on your morning public transit commute?

How about at night instead of watching television? Go to bed ten minutes early to read a bit.

Consider signing up for a business book club membership to provide consistent reading material and keep you accountable for a reading goal.

​With the many benefits of reading, why not make books a part of your daily routine?