Starting or running an enterprise is not for the faint-hearted. Considering the statistics that one in every five businesses does not make it past their first six months of operation, the narrative gets more worrying. Therefore, anyone hoping to start a business, or is already running one, needs constant advice and insight into the venture, whether to tackle a problem, pitfalls to avoid and how best to keep the business profitable. Most people are tempted to take classes, tutorials, and seminars, but books are cheaper and long-term learning options. There are a lot of books available all over-focusing on the entrepreneurial journey.
People who want to learn vicariously need to take up reading. With the amount of information available out there, it is unnecessary to make mistakes on one’s own and learn from those who came before you. It is not only better but so much easier to emulate. Reading provides people with this ability and can help entrepreneurs beat their predecessors’ experiences. Since businesses have been in existence for ages, it is effortless to get any information one may need to run a profitable enterprise, regardless of the industry they hope to join.
While reading is a necessary art in entrepreneurship, you need to be very selective about the content you consume. Trashy novels and uninformative literature cannot provide an entrepreneur or business owner any benefit, other than entertainment, of course. Therefore, relevance is essential when looking to get into reading. Some of the best books for entrepreneurs mostly educate, motivate and inspire. A few of the must-reads include Blue Ocean Strategy, The Lean Startup, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Building a Brand, to name a few.
It is not a wonder that some of the most prominent business personalities globally are avid readers. Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffet have all admitted to dedicating significant portions of their busy schedules to reading.
So why is this?
- Just like no story is original in fiction, there is no unique problem in business either. Challenges one faces or might tackle as an entrepreneur have most likely been an issue to a different person in the past. When you read, you can learn and prepare for these problems and find innovative solutions to deal with them before they affect the business tremendously. All the answers you may need are within the pages of those business and entrepreneurship books.
- Reading expands your brain, and the more you read, the more knowledge you acquire. It becomes easier to relate and integrate problems and solutions with your newfound information, establishing patterns that may have otherwise been unclear. Books open us up to an array of opportunities that businesses and entrepreneurs can exploit to their advantage.
- As stated earlier, there is no unique problem in the business world. Reading helps one make informed decisions from the choices available. May it be a specific problem or a non-issue that poses a threat to the business, reading helps business people make enlightened decisions.
- A successful entrepreneur is both inventive and innovative. Books bring out the creativity needed to grow a business. Seeing the gaps in the market or identifying a niche are not aspects that come quickly without some form of creative energy.
Entrepreneurship is an art form and reading books on entrepreneurialism helps you feel like you belong in a society and reassures one of the confidence required to take necessary risks in entrepreneurship. It is easy to be motivated and have all the right ideas, but sometimes, what to do with the information is lost on most people. Reading helps people get the reassurance and confirmation needed to exert these beliefs and practice the knowledge. There is also the feeling of being stuck in the same position mainly out of fear of failure. Reading is therapeutic in the sense that it gives you that extra jolt of confidence to kick start your career. The idea that someone else went through a similar experience makes the entire process less scary.
To better process and connect events
The more we get and collect information through reading books, the better we can process and connect events to better the odds of succeeding in business. Gathering information and learning about the things that have previously worked for other people in different industries provides entrepreneurs with many opportunities to try different things in their businesses.
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Conclusion,
Therefore, any successful business owner or hopeful entrepreneur needs to possess an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, primarily through reading. The results manifest in the reduced mistakes made in the business and better profits in the long run. Books are a source of never-ending ideas and information on the best ways to handle a successful enterprise. They say experience is the best teacher, but reading can surely prepare you for the lessons you are about to learn in your venture.
