I quit reading business books almost right after I read Tim Ferriss' The Four Hour Work Week.
Not because I had 'found the one'! But because the penny finally dropped about the whole POINT of reading them..... (I'll come to that in a minute.)
I have since dabbled, but I am proud to say that in 4 years I haven't got through another business book from cover to cover.
Some will call me ignorant. Some may consider this non-conducive to being 'big' in business, or success.
Now, don't get me wrong. I am FULLY on board with the idea of finding someone who has achieved what you want to achieve in business, and following them, but I don't think being a book junkie is the answer to most peoples business woes.
Why? Well, I realised that up until that point, I had been consuming book after book with very little impact on my business & life. I had become an information-junkie (as so many of us are, these days), but it was getting me nowhere. In fact, I was moving backwards through inaction.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say it - I think serial-reading is probably doing more harm than good, for many.
Reading business books seems to have become like a status symbol to many entrepreneurs.
I see pictures posted on social media almost daily - a stack of books, the poster bragging about how many they have read this year/month/week/day/hour!
But you know what I DON'T see?
Statuses of people telling me how they have read a book, extracted the content that's applicable to their business, actioned it & got results before moving on to the next one.
People who have taken ACTION (that's the point I was referring to at the top!)
And it's like a competition about who has read the most books in the shortest time period!
See, the way I see it, book-junkies are just distracting themselves with another 'shiny object', with an excuse for inaction, with a form of procrastination, dressed up as development.
Then what happens? Information overload which inevitably leads to overwhelm.
And guess what happened when I quit reading business books?
Stuff happened.
That's what!
I took action on that final book I read (read about that here: http://hannimelnicenko.com/found-freedom-quit-job-moved-spain/)
And my business grew.
Now, when I read, I read for pleasure & I choose either fiction, or books that will help me to grow personally & spiritually (which, incidentally, has far more positive impact on my business).
And if I ever decide to read a business book again, it'll be 'just in time' rather than 'just in case'.
So do yourself a favour today - have a look back over the business books you have read in the last 6 months and NOT taken any action on. Chuck out the ones that you don't think you'll ever action (it's OK not to want to put something in to practise, even if your fave guru is saying it's the best think since peanut butter!),that are clogging up your space, your chi, your mind (I'll bet you're carrying some guilt about the inaction & 'waste' of money, too!).
And any that are left? Revisit with the sole purpose of taking action on something from the book.
Free your mind of overwhelm, guilt & useless information.