Do you think reading is worth the time and effort?
My website provides many book reviews and interviews with authors on entrepreneurship and innovation, so I thought I should add a page here about reading.
Over the course of several years I’ve discovered that a majority of successful entrepreneurial people read a lot. As such, below are some of my favorite quotes by entrepreneurs, innovators, and other well-known leaders about the benefits of reading.
Famous Quotes and Observations
“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” ~ Harry S. Truman
If you have any inkling of wanting to become an entrepreneur, then you should be doing one simple thing.
What’s the simple thing? Reading.
Reading is said to be the spark behind creative thinking, and is one of the most predominate traits of individuals said to pertain a level of “higher intelligence”.
Is the thought of gaining intelligence through reading actually viable? I believe that it is not intelligence that is gained through reading; rather it’s the exposure to other people’s thoughts and perception of events and processes that lead to you being a better rounded thinker.
~Jeff Rose of GoodFinancialCents.com
Gates began programming computers when he was 13 and a student living in the northwestern US state of Washington.
“Very early he demonstrated this really insatiable curiosity,” his father, William Gates Sr., said of his son in a video interview posted on the Microsoft website.
“He became a voracious reader. We knew he was smart, he was academically gifted, but we didn’t have any impression there was something world class going on in our living room necessarily.”
Guy Kawasaki [Silicon Valley author, speaker, investor and business advisor] is a voracious reader. Not only because he wants to remain a great schmoozer (one of the reasons why he tells us to “read voraciously”), but mostly also because he adores books, loves to write, and looks at other writers as sounding boards, sources of inspiration, or thought-provoking agents. ~Quote by Marylene Delbourg-Delphis
“The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of past centuries.” ~Descartes
“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” ~ Margaret Fuller
The Benefits of Reading for Entrepreneurs and Innovators
1) Every book you read becomes a mentor that reveals skills and lessons that can help you more quickly climb the learning curve of being a successful entrepreneur or innovator.
2) Save thousands of dollars in mistakes by discovering avoidable mistakes made by others.
