Read to Solve Your Problems

I had a conversation last night with a couple of my close friends and the importance of reading was brought to my attention. The only way you will truly grow, solve your problems or increase your finances is through the acquisition of knowledge. You and acquire knowledge through the information you read or the people you associate with.

Here are some statistics that I read on Readfaster.com

When the State of Arizona projects how many prison beds it will need, it factors in the number of kids who read well in fourth grade.
Nearly half of America’s adults are poor readers, or “functionally illiterate.” They can’t carry out simply tasks like balancing check books, reading drug labels or writing essays for a job.
44 million adults in the U.S. can’t read well enough to read a simple story to a child.
60 percent of America’s prison inmates are illiterate and 85% of all juvenile offenders have reading problems.

In an article titled, “40% of Britons Never Read Books” I read the following statistic:

The researchers, Book Marketing Ltd, asked 200 couples to record their reading habits for three months. The results show that the “two-novel household” is rarer than the two-car household, with 23% of couples both reading fiction compared with 26% each owning a car. The study shows that people spend six hours a week reading compared with 23.5 hours a week watching television.

Now keep in mind that this statistic is referring to all types of reading…newspaper, magazine, Internet, etc.

We Take for Granted What We Possess in Abundance

Why do I tell you these statistics…hopefully to wake you up. We live in the information age. Never before has information been so readily available to us however, as most things that are available to us in abundance we take them for granted. Do you have a dream to go back to school but do not possess the funds? Then get a library card, surf the Internet, purchase magazines or books from people who are doing what you would love to be doing. The secret to success is not a secret. Anyone who has ever succeed has written a book on how they came into their success. All you need to do is read and follow their instructions.

At the age of 23 I purchased an arena football team the only problem was I had no idea how to write a business plan, orchestrate a marketing strategy, develop a budget, hire or fire employees and the list goes on. Do you know how I came to learn?…I didn’t have time to go to college get a degree in business so I had to connect with people who understood these principles and I had to go to the library, surf the Internet, purchase online courses to find out how to do these things. After working in the office I had to go home and continue learning.

One year ago, I started StevenRoddy.com. I did not know how to create text link, do a blog post, or upload an image onto the computer let alone market the website. However, over the past year I have spent between 3 and 6 hours per day learning the Internet Marketing game, understanding html, and discovering how the world of blogging goes, now I have 3 clients who are paying me more than what I am earning at my job to do their SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

Home School Yourself

You do not have to have a degree to have the benefits of knowledge. The myth is go back to school, get a degree, get a good job or use the degree to earn you respect so you can get your business off of the ground. Knowledge is not respected…results are. However, you need to acquire knowledge in order to know how to get results. This is where reading comes into play.

If you were to read a book in the area of your passion or business for 15 minutes per day over the course of one year you would have studied for 91 hours in your subject! Or if you read 30 minutes per day in the area of your business in five years you would have the equivalent of a doctorates degree in your area of passion! Information is key and if you want to stay ahead in your industry or you want to earn more money then you need to have the most up-to-date information.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

One Response to Read to Solve Your Problems