A few weeks ago I gave some advice on a business forum. I noticed that the largest thread on the entire forum was focused on business book reviews – 20+ pages and hundreds of posts from members spending countless hours reading these business books when they could be taking action.
I’ve always learned by doing, so I decided to chime in and share my philosophy – Stop reading and start taking action!
Someone responded and informed me that I “was stating the obvious” and gave me a whole list of reasons why reading is good (the guy seriously needs to bring back reading rainbow if the whole entrepreneurial thing doesn’t work out for him) and he was going to make seven figures from all of the books he read (note that he said make, not made).
I come across people like this all of the time. They believe that bringing an idea to market and building a profitable business requires a certain type of elite knowledge only gained from books written by guru’s who became rich selling business books – very similar to what I discuss in this post.
I’m definitely not the first person to say this but there are a lot of really dumb millionaires. You probably won’t make a billion if you’re dumb, but reading a book by a business guru won’t get you there either. If you are the one reading the book, chances are it’s already too late – you need to be the one writing it. I hate to say it but there is no secret knowledge passed on by the elite entrepreneurial “illuminate”, only connections – because after all it is all about who you know.
I have a pretty simplistic philosophy when it comes to business, and that’s what works for me. In college I was inspired by a few classes I took about Japanese Sumi-e art. The idea is to create a composition in as few strokes as possible, make each brush stroke meaningful and to speak through the voids left by simplicity.
“The goal is not simply to reproduce the appearance of the subject, but to capture its soul. To paint a horse, the sumi-e artist must understand its temperament better than its muscles and bones. To paint a flower, there is no need to perfectly match its petals and colors, but it is essential to convey its liveliness and fragrance. Oriental sumi-e may be regarded as an earliest form of expressionistic art that captures the unseen” Read more about Sumi-e.
Success as an entrepreneur isn’t about complexity or elitism, it’s about clarity. There is no 49 step program that will lead you to the promised land. Find simplicity and clarity in your life, idea, product or company and that is what will lead you to success, regardless of how you decide to measure it.
What a bunch of idiots… lol, they deserve nothing but failure. Kevin, I think you’ll love Dennis Felixes’ book ‘How To Get Rich’ it’s the only 1 of the 3 business books I ever read, which made a big difference on my business. Keep the good posts coming =)
You’re right Kevin, that’s where it all goes down to. I had a subscription to my work email called “Smartbrief: Leadership” series, which was news stories focused on effective leadership skills. It was fun to read at first, but quickly lost interest. Overtime, there were articles I found that contradicted previous ones that they posted. For example, they had an article that titled “Why keeping your office door open emphasizes great management”, and then two months later I find an article that states “Keeping office door closed shows effective leadership”. It’s a waste of time reading this kind of stuff.
I’m not much of a book reading anyway, but I highly recommend Keith Farrazzi’s “Never Eat Alone”. It’s good for learning how to build effective business relationships, especially for people who don’t know how to network properly.