I have been an avid reader for many years; a book that I especially love is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. I have read this gem twice, front to back. The first time was probably 10-12 years ago. I have since promoted the book as a must read, but I didn’t realize how much of an impact it had on me until the second time around.
A little secret: even though I advocated that everyone read this book, I honestly couldn’t remember what the 7 Habits were! There were a few quotes I remembered, a couple key learnings, and I knew that I had really liked it initially. During the entire reread, I was shocked at how many principles in that book I have tried to live by. I know that it hadn’t always been that way and that at the very least, the majority of these ideas came to me from the original reading. This compelled me to think of other works that have had this type of profound effect on my career. I was able to come up with a definitive three- The aforementioned 7 Habits, The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey and Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin.
I will start with the one of these I read first: Ramsey’s guide to personal financial freedom. I was in my car one day and heard Ramsey on the radio. The things he was saying so intrigued me that when I got to my location, I sat in the car until his show was finished- over an hour later. I picked up The Total Money Makeover later that week. Everything in it made sense to me and I agreed with all of his lessons. Some of them stood out to me more than others.
The most significant lesson I learned from this book was the importance of behaviors, planning and discipline. People don’t get into debt because they are unintelligent; they get into debt because of poor choices and poor financial behavior. Therefore, the only way to get out of debt is to change your behavior. There is not an academic solution. My wife and I learned the value of budgeting, planning and communication. We made a plan and stuck to it. We paid off our mortgage last year and are debt free because of this book. I became a consultant and began my career in finance because of this book.
Sometime relatively soon after reading Total Money Makeover, I read 7 Habits. I didn’t realize it until now, but I couldn’t have picked two better books to read in that order. I had begun to understand the importance of behavior, determination and deliberateness. These things, done consistently, are the foundation for building good habits. Mr. Covey teaches us to only focus on things that we can impact, the things in our Circle of Influence. Impact is a word I use often. He also teaches that our time should be spent proactively working on important things that are not urgent. Proactive is a word I use often. Stephen discusses how leaders should focus on results rather than methods used to achieve goals. Results is a word I use often.
While I have by no means mastered the 7 habits, I realized that the ones that I do have came directly from this book. All these years I have lived on certain principles and paraphrased lessons from this book, although I didn’t recall where I had heard them. Going forward, I plan to read this book much more frequently. I also plan on continuing to recommend that everyone else read it!
Finally, the obvious choice for must-read, the epic fantasy novel, Game of Thrones of the Song of Ice and Fire series. In full disclosure, I watched the first season on HBO prior to reading any of the books. However, once the season was over, I promptly went out and read all 5 of the 1000 plus page tomes before the second season aired. I am a grown man, with a career and family, yet I was immersed in this world of magic, dragons and zombies. Since then I have read dozens of fantasy novels and consider myself a full-fledged fantasy nerd. But, what does any of this have to do with my career? Quite simply, the creativity and storytelling.
The word fantasy gets a bad rap in the business world. It is associated with daydreaming and impossibilities. However, we should focus on the creativity of it. The ability to create something that doesn’t exist. To innovate. Creativity solves problems and makes our lives richer. We should all aspire to be more creative. I surely have.
The creativity of Martin’s world building is not what has made millions of people read his works. It is his ability to tell a story. I read Game of Thrones during an early blizzard that rendered our town powerless for over a week. I sat by a fireplace for light and read until 3 or 4 AM every night until I was finished. I was enraptured by the intrigue and level of detail in which it was explained. I couldn’t get through pages fast enough. I was all in from the very beginning.
Again, it took me a while to figure this out, but storytelling is a skill that is paramount to success. It really doesn’t matter how good your idea is, how important your need is or how amazing your product is. Not unless you can get people to listen to you, to believe you, to care. I put a great deal of thought and effort into storytelling now and have Martin, as well as the Starks and Targaryens, to thank for that.
I now consider myself a lifelong learner. It took years of discipline, goal setting and focused behaviors to get to a point where I could say that. I have developed habits of inquisitiveness, involvement, critical thinking and reflection that have allowed me to be a learner. Hopefully my little story here has encouraged you to do the same. If so, start by making a trip to the library and pick up these books.