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Make Personal Development Part of Your Daily Routine |
Business guru Brian Tracy once commented that whenever he interviewed a prospective employee, one of the first questions he would ask was, “What’s the last self-help book you read?” I’m guessing that the answer had a lot to do with how long the rest of the interview would last and with the candidate’s chances of being hired.
With finding good jobs becoming more difficult every day, this is a question worth considering. Maybe you’re asking yourself why anyone, especially a prospective employer, would care what you read. From where I sit, it’s quite simple. If you’re not interested in your personal growth and professional development, are you really someone I want representing my company?
It’s a fact that many successful people make a habit out of reading and listening to personal-development information. Years ago, audio program producer Nightingale-Conant conducted a survey of their customers and asked what value, in dollars, they would place on having listened to one of the company’s programs. The average value people placed on having listened to personal-development programs was $180,000.
Years ago my friend John, a car salesman, increased his income by 15 percent during one of the worst automotive slumps in history. The only thing he changed was that he began a practice of reading self-help books for fifteen to twenty minutes each day before going to work.
Millionaire network marketers teach their people to read each day as a way to remain motivated. The people who are successful in that industry are the ones who follow that advice.
Sadly, most people have not read a book since they left school, and a third of the population in the United States, according to a Huffington Post/US government poll in September 2013, have not read a book in a year. In Korea, in 2006 more money was spent on cigarettes than on books.
Joe Girard wrote the book How to Sell Anything to Anybody about how he became the number one car salesman in the world. It amazes me that so few of the car salespeople I meet have read it.
I have watched my life change for the better in direct proportion to how much I was reading and listening to each day. To this day, if I start to feel less than great it’s usually because I have not been keeping up my practice of ongoing personal development.
Lots of great books have been published, and more are being released each week. Of course, I’d prefer you start with one of mine, but whatever you choose, make sure it’s something that will nurture your spirit and help you maintain a positive outlook.
Make personal development a part of your daily routine, and you will learn, as I did, that it is one of the secrets to a happier, more successful life.