AS you read this column, you're utilising the singular super-skill that separates the wheat from the chaff, the winners in life from the also-rans, and the thoughtful and erudite from the milling mass of hapless humanity.
I know my words are politically incorrect; so be it. The irony is only those who exercise the specific skill I'm referring to will recognise that what I've written is true.
In this yuletide season, many of us will be gearing up to make — and, yes, probably later break — our resolutions for 2024. At the top of most such lists is the desire to get off our rear ends and regain our fitness, strength and vigour, which too many of us have lost through stress, laziness, apathy or the sedentary dictates of our jobs or businesses.
If so, think about what two early 18th century essayists, Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, wrote: "Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body."
So, even as we set New Year resolutions to clawback lost fitness in the distinct, yet connected physical dimensions of aerobic fitness, muscular and skeletal strength, balance and flexibility, we would be wise to also jumpstart a passion for deep, wide and eclectic reading, or perhaps light a spark where before there never was one.
IMPORTANCE OF READING
You see, reading is the super-skill of life that opens to us infinite — and I'm not using the word lightly — realms of the mind. So, for yourself first and then for the children and young adults in your life who look to you for guidance, direction and wisdom; READ.
Then read some more. Much more...
Read fiction and non-fiction; read in every language you're proficient in, or that you crave proficiency in; read for fun and for knowledge; and definitely read as your hobby and for your career.
My task today is easy because I am, so to speak, preaching to the choir. You already are a reader.
One of the most noted bibliophiles (book lovers) of the late 19th and early 20th centuries was British journalist, writer and publisher Holbrook Jackson. In his 1934 book Maxims of Books and Reading, Holbrook wrote: "We read to train the mind, to fill the mind, to rest the mind, to recreate the mind, or to escape the mind."
I consider Holbrook's pithy sentence a work of high genius that encapsulates the magic of reading. We would be wise to hone and harness this super-skill for two reasons:
1. Wonder; and
2. Wealth
They can be rephrased, in my opinion, just as alliteratively as "fun and funds".
ACTIONABLE KNOWLEDGE
Yes, life is tough. Yet, we all need to inject elements of wonder and fun along our journey. Regardless of how old we are, taking time to — and making time for — "play" is wise because living should mean a lot more than merely existing. In that vein, for bibliophiles immense joy is extracted from, and injected into, our lives through the super-skill of reading.
Furthermore, while life is tough, frankly having money lubricates its tightly meshed, ceaselessly turning, gears and cogwheels. So, we need to be wise enough not to permit "the tool" to become "the wielder" — our money should be used to further our pursuit of worthy life goals, NOT be permitted to usurp those goals.
Thankfully, reading can also play a huge role in increasing our store of salient, relevant, actionable knowledge. As that store of knowledge grows, our economic value in the global market rises. As it does, our capacity, then, to exchange our time, talent and energy for money expands.
Charlie Munger, super-investor Warren Buffett's business partner and best friend for more than 60 years prior to his passing on Nov 28 this year, built a fortune of more than US$2 billion despite not taking aim at the goal of becoming super-wealthy. Here is how he described his true goals in life:
"I wanted a lot of children, a house with lots of books, enough money to have freedom."
THOUGHT AND ACTION
In the late 1950s — when Munger was in his mid-30s and the now 93-year-old Warren Buffett, the genius destined to become Earth's greatest investor, was still in his late 20s — the two future partners met and discovered they had both worked in their youth at Warren's grandfather Ernest Buffett's grocery store in Omaha, Nebraska!
Munger once said about that pivotal meeting: "...how could I fail to take to a man who preferred reading and thinking to delivering groceries, and who had learned something from everything he ever read."
Admittedly all the reading in the world is not going to make us rich, or even well off, if our reading is not targeted and if it doesn't yield thought and effective action.
For most successful individuals, the initial spark of potential is triggered by the ONE super-skill you already possess and which you've put to excellent use by reaching the end of this column. Very well done.
So do remember: Think and act; and, after that, do read even more — sometimes for passion and sometimes for profit.
Merry Christmas, dear reader!
© 2023 Rajen Devadason
Rajen Devadason, CFP, is a securities commission-licensed Financial Planner, professional speaker and author. Read his free articles at www.FreeCoolArticles.com; he may be connected with on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/rajendevadason, or via [email protected]. You may also follow him on Twitter @Rajen Devadason and on YouTube (Rajen Devadason).
