Like to read business books?

Me too. A good business book can communicate powerful ideas distilled from real experience into swift takeaways and engaging stories that help deliver the message. (Of course, there are the “fluff” books…but that's for another post 😄 )

But no matter how many business books you read, running an actual business is still usually a case of “figure it out as you go”. Even the best book in your industry, that describes in minute detail *exactly* what you are trying to do, still won’t get you there. (Of course, the book that describes your exact business to a T hasn’t been written. A market of 1 usually isn’t a great market.)

Most business books never describe the true detail - that thing said at a sales meeting that you couldn’t get out of your head and over time actually made you change your mind on something, the lucky coincidence of bumping into an old schoolmate who ended up being a great connection to someone else, the serendipitous moment where you got forwarded an email that maybe you weren’t supposed to see.…(it happens!)

Don’t get me wrong, books are still one of the best idea-encapsulation methods we have. Books can inspire, books can provoke thought, and books are access to hard-won, life-changing ideas, ideas that must be nurtured and developed and acted upon to get their true value.

The danger with just reading books is that you feel like you’re learning something, when in fact you're simply being introduced to something. Unless you act on a book, you will miss the power of what it has to offer