The book Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell implies by it’s title it is a how-to be successful book.  And if you read my review of Outliers, you’ll remember I concluded it is not.

The reason for my conclusion is he doesn’t give any step-by-step methods for becoming successful.  In fact, some readers come away from the book feeling there is nothing we can do to reach the pinnacles in our lives – that our success or failure in life is the result of the cards we were dealt by our parents, race and heritage.

However, I found some good success principals hidden in the book.  If you read closely, and (in my case) argue with some of his logic, you come away with some astounding strategies that can offset any limitations brought on by your birth and heritage.

Keep reading to see the six success strategies I found hidden in Outliers…

1. Put the 10,000 hour rule to work as quickly as possible -  Gladwell points to many “geniuses” in current times and history.  But also goes into depth about how all of these geniuses had the advantage of working 10,000 hours or more on their trades before they became well known. 

   The Beatles, before becoming an international sensation, didn’t know how to play their instruments.  But they gained 10,000 hours of practice playing live for long gigs in Hamburg, West Germany

   Bill Gates acquired 10,000 hours of programming experience by the time he was 19 – before any other teen on the planet had started programming.

   Mozart, yes that Mozart, was influenced (possibly forced by his father) to learn and perform music starting at the age of 3.  He got his 10,000 hours in before becoming a teenager.

   So we are left with two questions 
        1.  What one skill would you like to master? 
        2.  How can you get your 10,000 hours of practice in as quickly as possible?

   Obviously, 10,000 hours is a long time.  So getting started sooner is critical.   Why not start today?

2. Learn great negotiation & communication skills – I mentioned in my review I had some squabbles with some of Gladwell’s logic that heritage and birthright account for success and failure.  Communication was the biggest oversight.  While the book points out examples of (for example) Oppenheimer having family advantages other physicists didn’t, Gladwell overlooks the obvious skills of communication and negotiation.

   Gladwell gives the obvious example of Oppenheimer talking himself out of a prison term.  What other physicists by their nature, have that power of negotiation?

   However, we can all learn to negotiate.  There are many good  books about developing negotiation skills, classes or even a negotiation boot camp you can take.  Note, I haven’t taken Ed Brodow’s course, but I’ve heard good things about it.
   
   Additionally, you can check out my series Winning Through Effective Self Promotion for some effective ways to break out of your shell and get your point across.  But in the meantime, here are the top 3 negotiation tips in my arsenal:

   A.  Lead with what you want – years ago, I used to beat around the bush and rely on the other person to figure out what I’m wanting.  The problem is what happens if they don’t figure it out?  Now I lead with what I want. 

   For example a statement like “I am here to ask you for the contract.”  There is no mystery in what I want.  The other person knows precisely what I am there to do. 

   B.  Provide a reason why it benefits the other person -  In negotiation. the other person is always thinking “What’s in it for me?”  So answer that right up front. 

   Example: “I am here to ask for the contract because I’ve proven I’ll save you the most money.”

   C.  Prove it – It is one thing to say you’ll do something.  It  something else to prove it.  How can you prove to the other person you can and will do it?  Quite often, you’ll need to do it. 

   If, under contract, you can save a company $50,000 a year, why not prove that during the negotiation by saving them $2,000 today?  You aren’t giving away the whole $50k but you are putting forth a powerful negotiation strategy – proof! 

   If you can prove it, but your competitors can’t or don’t.  Aren’t you more likely to get what you want?

3. Rise early – Gladwell details how the Chinese philosophy of rice farming may be the single most important factor in determining why statistically, people from the orient are better at math than everyone else. 

   Without getting into all the prickly details of rice farming, I’ll begin with a quote typical in rice farming.

   ”Anyone who rises before dawn 360 days each year never fails to make his family rich.”

   Most success happens during the day.  And I’d argue most of the daytime success is made in the morning hours.  There are many reasons beyond the scope of this article I feel this way.   But logically, after lunch the body is digesting food which accounts for at least some tiredness and productivity loss.

   So get up early and get to work early.  If it can make a Chinese rice farmer rich, it will help you too.

4. Seek autonomy – Gladwell repeatedly calls on the subject of autonomy.  He says that the people who are successful were fortunate enough to have freedom to pursue their interests.  While other people do not have this freedom.

   Autonomy is a tricky subject.  

   Reason asks how can we have autonomy (freedom) while we’re in debt up to our eyeballs, working two jobs and have a family to take care of?  

   The answer in that case is simple.  You can’t.

   However, there is one thing in that example keeping you from enjoying autonomy – debt. Debt is slavery, not freedom.  So if you are in debt, seek to get out of it as soon as possible. 

   The quickest debt reducer I can think of is to sell high priced luxury items you don’t need and use the proceeds to pay off the bill.  If you are in debt due to driving a Lexus LS400, sell it and pay off that debt.  Buy a used Camry.  It may seem painful to give up a dream car, but freedom has a good way of erasing that pain.

   Never squander autonomy

   If you are out of debt and have cleared your evenings and weekends from work, do not waste this opportunity. 

   Use your new free time to practice.  Remember 10,000 hours is the magic number.  If you can put in 3 hours a night 5 days a week, you’ll be at 10,000 hours in less than 10 years.

   I know, I know 10 years is a long time.  But what if it was a skill you truly enjoyed?  Suppose you wanted to be a classical guitarist.  3 hours of practice a night would be fun most of the time.  Plus, you’d probably enjoy it so much you’d dedicate weekend hours too.  And that would decrease the time spent to 7 or 8 years.

   I never said success was easy…did I? 

   Books on debt reduction: 
   Dave Ramsey The Total Money Makeover  
   George S. Clason The Richest Man in Babylon 

5. Take advantage of your gifts – When we discuss success, it means something different to everyone.  For some it might be monetary success.  For others it might be fame.  For me, it is about creating helpful software and articles that benefit as many people as possible.

   What would you want to master if you had the autonomy to do so? 

   Before you decide, take your natural gifts into account.  I can hear people asking “What are my natural gifts.”  Well, that’s where Gladwell does a good job of explaining how our heritage can give us a good foundation for our future success. 

   His examples include:
   *     How Jewish immigrants paved the way for their descendents to become some of New York’s highest paid lawyers.
   *     How immigrants from an Italian village could stave off heart disease in a corresponding American town.
   *     And even how a fairness law passed in Jamaica led to Malcom Gladwell’s family being educated and his eventual success as an author.

   Looking at my heritage (and I don’t know my entire family history) but on the Irish side, I come from a line of Irish ‘Tinkers’.  I don’t mean Tinker in the Irish Traveller sense.  But instead the Tinker who fixes broken things such as pots, pans and lamps.

   If you look at my gifts, I am a natural at fixing stuff – I fix broken applications and networks all day every day.  But extend that out a little and you’ll see I’m pretty good at building stuff too.  

   So what are some of your natural gifts?  What does your heritage give you in terms of skills, culture and attitudes?  Are your pursuits in line with your history?

6. Take advantage of luck – What is luck?  Personally, I don’t believe in luck the way it’s normally defined.  I also don’t talk much about it because it can be confusing. 

   But what I do believe is we all have good times and bad times.  Luck – if you want to call it that – is when you take advantage of the good times and good opportunities. 

   Let me rework an example from the book to demonstrate:
   Imagine Bill Gates for a minute with all of his “lucky” advantages such as access to a computer network before everyone else, the free time to program, the freedom to sneak out and learn about computers…  What would Bill Gates be if he didn’t take advantage?  Suppose he was sneaking out at night to pursue his dream of becoming a great basketball player.

   Would Bill Gates be one of the richest men in the world if he preferred basketball to computers?  No, of course not. 

   Like Gates, we all have good opportunities to do and be more.  But what is important is to take advantage of those opportunities. 

   I had an “unlucky” friend who complained at me in the past about “if she only had a better education, everything would be great.”  But after signing up for night classes, she stopped going after the first semester.  That is not taking advantage of an opportunity – yet this person might just as easily call herself unlucky when her lack of a diploma shuts her out of yet another job. 

   How can you be unlucky if you have opportunity, but squander it?

   So when luck happens, grab it.  Don’t hold back.  Move forward – take advantage.

So those are the six hidden success strategies I found in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success.  Did you find any I missed?

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What does it take to be successful?

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell is an interesting perspective on genius, work ethic and what it takes to make it in the world.

Before reading, I had skimmed the many reviews on Amazon and it resonated with many readers and offended others. Since I enjoyed Blink and The Tipping Point I decided to pick up a copy.

The revelations in this book are as intriguing as in his former works, however since this is a Goal Setting site and the book claims to be “the story of success,” it seems like a good match, eh?

Are you an outlier?

I’ll get straight to the point.  Gladwell’s thesis is we cannot succeed on our own. You can have all the talent in the world.  But it is going to take other people and some subtle advantages (luck) helping you along the way for you to achieve high levels of success.

In Outliers, Gladwell runs through the some historical geniuses we think of when we think of the term genius. He details Mozart, Bill Gates, Tiger Woods, Oppenheimer and other physicists I’ve never heard of – All of them with great minds.

Talent is not enough

Some of the geniuses made it big such as Einstein. Others did not reach their full potential.  He runs through obscure names such as Chris Langan, whom we may never hear about outside the book itself. Langan, although having a brilliant mind, was not an Outlier. For Gladwell’s theory is the people who have achieved high levels of success do have above average intelligence and natural talent in their chosen fields. However genius and talent are not enough.  Once you become “smart enough”, the difference between your talent and the genius talent is a small cause in determining your overall success.  Instead it is having the “Outlier” trait which becomes more important.

Outliers Get “Lucky Breaks”

He points out that each of the famous successful people were helped in one way or another along the way. Maybe they were born at an opportune time in history, or the right mentor took a liking to them, or perhaps they were born to wealthy parents in the “right” part of the world. Gladwell says these were advantages the famously successful have that others simply do not have. The unsuccessful geniuses around us are not helped and possibly hindered by their random birthright.

For example, Bill Gates, by the sheer lucky timing of his birth date, his living in Seattle and a “rotary club” membership held by a parent, gave him his Outlier status.  It was these advantages that provided him with the time, but more importantly the opportunity to program computers before computers were available to the general public.  Thus, he had a head start on computers that almost nobody else in the world had.  If the tide of personal computing never took off, we’d never have heard about him.

10,000 Hours of Practice Makes Perfect

Gladwell’s other theory is that it takes roughly 10,000 hours of hard practice in a chosen field to become a master in that field.

Since Gates was obsessed with the computer, and who isn’t, he spent every free minute he could hacking in the computer lab.  His head start gave him plenty of time to reach the 10,000 hour mark before anyone else could catch up.  Gladwell, also breaks down the 10,000 hour rule to explain Mozart’s success, the Beatles music popularity and Oppenheimer’s rise in physics.

When I read his 10,000 rule theory, I was both reassured and disappointed.  I was reassured in knowing much of what I knew about lasting success was true – that it takes a lot of hard work.  But disappointed I didn’t know the 10,000 hour rule earlier in my life.

Would I have chosen differently if I knew a day 15-20 years ago started my 10,000 hour journey?

How many pursuits have you put 10,000 hours of sheer effort and practice into? For me, it’s probably server administration. I’ve put more time into architecting and maintaining networks than probably anything else in my life. And that’s probably why I am highly sought out as a network admin when sometimes I’d rather be a famous author or computer programmer.

The 10,000 hour rule is reassuring because if you have talent in an area — be it computer programming, guitar playing or surgery, all you have to do is put in that 10,000 hours. And I don’t think he means just at a job reading websites, but in heavy practice for those 10,000 hours.

Gladwell points out that getting 10,000 hours in is difficult.  For most of us it means early mornings and late nights. For example, you could practice 3 hours each day 5 days a week.  How long would it take you to be successful?  Twelve years!  That’s a huge commitment!

Yes, it is a commitment.  But It means mastery is within all our grasp. If you are reading this blog you probably have higher than average intelligence or you have a talent in some area you are aiming to improve. Well there’s your secret.  Beg, borrow or steal those 10,000 hours of practice and you can become an international expert.

Bottom Line

The Outliers an interesting study that is well worth reading. It is not a motivational or how to be successful work as the title suggests. I do have some squabbles with some of Gladwell’s comparisons between successful geniuses and non-successful geniuses.  And I think he overlooked the overriding skill non-outliers can develop that can perhaps make them Outliers.  But if you liked Blink and The Tipping Point, The Outliers will not disappoint.

What can we take away from The Outliers? I’ll save that for my next post. Subscribe to my RSS feed so you don’t miss it.

I am excited to announce my new book 107 Goal Setting Breakthroughs – The Definitive Collection of Simple Ways to Turn your Dreams into Reality. I will be releasing it in limited commercial avenues. But my newsletter subscribers know how much I value you as readers!

Newsletter subscribers got it free.  I am also extending it to new subscribers to the newsletter as well to say Welcome aboard!

So if you aren’t yet a subscriber, what better time to get your free subscription?

Here are some of the comments from people who read it:

I think you may actually be a bit insane to produce such a massive list! – Mike King

The compilation of the list itself demonstrates the steady work to achieve a worthwhile goal! -Dick Hamblin

The (count them!) 107 suggestions that Brad gives here are sure to encourage you into action. – The University Blog

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I might eventually make it available to the RSS subscribers too. But I’m not sure the best way to distribute it at this time.

- Enjoy!

You know how important it is to read.  Reading leads to new and better skills and higher concentration.  It improves your success rate and ability to communicate.  But many of you feel like on top of everything else you have to do, you don’t have time to read all the time.  In fact, you might be one of those who pushes reading to the bottom of your list of things to do.

If that’s the case, you should check out my post The 26 Major Advantages to Reading More Books…

“Reading never did anything for me..” some say.   What a shame.  Because reading is still one of the best ways to learn new concepts and skills.  When you have a problem with your career, you don’t necessarily have to go back to college or take night classes.  A problem with your marriage, doesn’t necessarily mean having to go into years of therapy.  Reading can be an inexpensive and time saving alternative.

So the excuse of not having enough time to read is poor at best, delusional at worst.   

But there’s also a secret to reading when other people are wasting time.  In fact, I used it to gather 634 extra hours of educational reading in the past year – without cracking a book.  How did I do it?  Read on to find out.

Here’s what I did…

In the normal day to day reading of marketing, self-development, and copy writing blogs and web pages, I would highlight long articles and push them to Text-2-Go.  Same thing with some e-books – the ones that allow you to copy and paste text.

This saved time in reading web pages because I know that oftentimes the most valuable articles are the long ones.  I could effectively procrastinate on those articles by pushing them to my iPod.  What was left were the short 30-second read posts that I could read or skim right there.

Those familiar with David Allen’s Getting Things Done, know this form of active reading both meets the 2 minute rule and the use of buckets for information.  I immediately read the pertinent articles that take more or less 1 minute to read.  The others get put in the bucket for “ear reading” later while driving, walking or just lying back relaxing.

After about 1 year of using the software, I’ve chalked up an extra 634 hours!  Much of what I’ve gotten from that is motivation, writing skills and enhancements, hot marketing tips, copy writing strategies and organizing skills.

Then I’d go back to my favorite audio-book creation software Text-to-go and import the articles for reading back to me while I was driving.  I’ve also used it while walking, hiking, and jogging.  There’s nothing quite like idea generation while out on a walk.  

Here’s a small sampling of blogs that translate well into educational audio learning (there are many more, but these are a few that came to mind):

Zen Habits

Problogger

Dosh Dosh

Michel Fortin

Basically, Mark, the coder behind Text-to-go has thought through his software before he coded it.  We met through email and on top of his wise coding, he’s a nice Australian.  It’s tough for us to get in touch due to the time difference.  

It’s as simple as highlighting an article and clicking the text-to-go button.  Next thing you know, it’s sitting on your iPod – ready for your next trip.

The text-to-go method is so quick I’ve snagged some articles on my way out the door.  I’ve tried just about every text to speech app on the planet and Marc’s is by far the most efficient.

I found out yesterday he’s got a Beta in the works.  I knew he was tossing around some ideas for speech/word correction.  You see, one drawback of text to speech is the voices often can’t compensate for odd spellings, acronyms and abbreviations.  If you are listening in your car, the voice might read “Run ipconfig /all and check DNS settings” as “Run ipp-cinfing slash all and check Dinns settings“.  This is confusing to the listener.  

Well, in his latest beta, I knew he’d be working to make corrections like this easy.  Fortunately, I was not disappointed.  I don’t want to blow all the secrets of his next version, but I’ll say his correction utility is again, well thought out and shall I say ingenius?.  I corrected at least 15 mispronunciations this morning in just 5 minutes.  

There are also some other features to the new beta that are both fun and productivity increasing.  What that means is this year I might inadvertently squeeze in 2-300 more hours of this passive reading.  

If you like this post, please consider stumbling or submitting it to Digg.  Thanks!!!

Am I lusting after the right gadget?  Help me decide if Amazon Kindle e-Book reader is for me or is it going to kill my productivity…

I think I’ve made it plainly known that I love reading e-books.

Since the year 2000 I’ve been reading novels, how-to books and biographies on Pocket PC devices.  Pocket PCs are great for reading in short spurts – especially in bed because of their backlit screen.  You don’t have to worry about waking the Mrs. while reading. 

However, the trade off is the text is small (probably eye straining) unless I up the font size.  When I increase the font the type decreases the screen real estate.  Thus, I might only be reading 1 paragraph before having to turn the page.

Many of the early reviews of the Kindle say my Pocket PC headaches are solved.  And this review makes me want to drop the money today.  But I don’t want another gadget just lying around if I can help it.  Maybe you can help me decide if it’s right for me

PPC Productivity and Vocabulary Building

Another major benefit of the Pocket PC and Mobipocket reader (which happens to be the underlying technology of the Kindle) is it’s dictionary option.  I purchased an Oxford dictionary which turns any reading session into a learning session.  As I read and come across a word I don’t know, I immediately tap and hold and choose look up.  Then I get a definition immediately.  From there, I copy and paste the word and definition to my Supermemo flash card program. 

Although this is cumbersome to an extent, it works well for building my vocabulary.

Also, there’s something to be said to having all your tools in one place.  If I can manage my task list, calendar, email and read an e-book from the same device that’s good right?

PPC Reading Downsides

• Screen real estate - As mentioned, you don’t have the screen real estate for say reading for an entire afternoon.  I’ve often felt some eye strain after reading for longer stints.  Also some books I wouldn’t even attempt to read on the Pocket PC.  Technical manuals on programming are a good example.  Reading code is challenging enough.  Having it roll on for 100 pages makes it nearly impossible.
• Fewer Selections - What is frustrating to me is hearing about a book I’d love to read and it not being available for Mobipocket reader.  That is where the Kindle seems to have a huge advantage.  Where many of the Pocket PC Mobipocket books are Romance novels and Adult erotica, Amazon has captured many more professional titles including most of the bestsellers list.  More selections mean more reading.
• Short Battery life - By most everyone’s measurement, the Pocket PC gets very short battery life.  Try 6-8 hours one one battery charge.  A lot of it has to do with the back light eating up the energy.  Some of it goes due to the WiFi radio.  The Kindle boasts the possibility of weeks on one charge.

Perceived Advantages of the Kindle

Since I do not own a Kindle, I can only go on what I’ve read.  Here are the advantages that the Kindle seems to boast.

• Screen real estate of a paper book – The Pocket PCs screen is so small that I don’t read certain books because in increasing the font size, I lose the amount of text that is displayed on the page.  I wouldn’t have this problem with the Kindle.
• Clearer typeface – Although I can enable ClearType on the Pocket PC, ClearType looks blurry to me.  So I don’t use it.  Everything I’ve read about the Kindle from independent reviews says the typeface is brilliant.
• No LCD flicker – I haven’t noticed LCD flicker on my Pocket PC, but they tell me it’s there.  the flicker contributes to eye strain and potentially headaches. 
• Less eye strain – Having clearer reading, no LCD flicker and larger screen real estate means less eye strain.  Thus, one could expect a
• Larger selection of titles – A several time a month problem I have with the Pocket PC Mobipocket reader is the lack of titles.  I don’t read any Romance novels or adult erotica, but those appear to be the largest selection of titles.  Amazon has a great advantage here in their ability to deliver hundreds of thousands of titles.
• $10 Price Tag on Books – Many of the Mobipocket books are priced at retail.  Meaning I can go up to Barnes and Noble and buy the same book for the same price of the e-Book.  I never liked that because where paper, binding and floor space cost a lot of money, electronic bits cost very little.  They could at least cut the price substantially.  But Amazon has set up a price plan where you can buy current titles for $9.99.  Buy 30 books and you’d conceivably save enough money to pay for the device itself.  It’s a good deal, but something about it makes me wary.  Although the $10 titles are a great deal now, I wonder how long will it last before they raise the price on all the books? 
• Built in dictionary – This is a wash because I’ve got the same Oxford dictionary installed on my Pocket PC.  But it’s good to know I won’t have to buy another one.
• Battery life – Where a Pocket PC with an extended battery lasts 6-8 hours, the Kindle will last perhaps a week or more.  Not that I’d be reading that long non-stop. 
• Free built in EVDO wireless Internet – Another wash for me, I have more Internet than I need, including EVDO via Bluetooth tethering on my cell phone.

Perceived Disadvantages of the Kindle

• No back light -  I have mixed feelings on this.  The Pocket PC allows me to read from bed at night without disturbing Kim.  If I get a Kindle, I’d have to use a light or buy a “book light”.  I’d probably opt for the book light, but still, that’s another gadget to keep up with.  Some people comment that the lack of a back light is an advantage because the flicker of LCD screens are stressful on the eyes. 
• High price tag – $400 for a Kindle.  Whew!  Although Pocket PCs are expensive too, I already have one.  So for me (at least) I save $400 if I read from my Pocket PC.
• Another gadget to keep up with – Bringing another gadget into my world means having another gadget to keep up with.  I probably would not carry the Kindle every day like I do the Pocket PC thus, wouldn’t have all my books with me. 
• Fragile hardware? – Some comments and reviews point to the Kindle as having some delicate hardware.  Breakage isn’t so much a concern for me because I’ve been carrying fragile devices for years.  But if the Kindle is more fragile than a Pocket PC we might have a problem.  Accidents do happen.  I don’t want to be out in the cold when one happens.
• No built in flash card software – As mentioned above, I clip vocabulary words and facts from books and paste them into Supermemo.  Kindle would mean I’d have to copy the text somehow to my computer and import it to my computer.  From there, I’d have to manipulate the text into flash card format.  This is something I could definitely do, but it would mean tripling the amount of work to get the same flash cards made.

Link: Amazon Kindle Wireless Reading Device 

So what do you think?  Do you own a Kindle?  If so, do you think it’s a good gadget for me?  Or will it kill my productivity?

Think about your most pressing problem or challenge for a second. Unless it is health related there is most definitely a solution out there.

Read everything you can on the subject. Take a class or two if you can find one. Join a local “enthusiast” club dedicated to solving your problem.

The fringe benefit of self education is less complaining, less disappointment and worry.

If you are broke, studying how to make more of it decreases the human tendency to “wallow” in it. You will start to see a future of increased financial security and more material wealth.

If you find yourself fighting with your spouse and considering separation, educating yourself about relationships can serve three purposes.

1. It can give you new communication skills.
2. It can get you out of the house where you can develop new ideas to bring home.
3. When you learn and use your brain, an optimistic attitude will result. It’s tough to fight when you both are improving yourselves and feeling happier.

If you find you are simply bored, education is the perfect remedy. Boredom is a sign that you’ve hit a plateau. You need to grow. Self education or classroom education, even if it’s the wrong subject, will decrease your boredom. Plus, finding what does or doesn’t work is important too. Discovering lets you make choices for more of what you do like and less of what you don’t.

I was working on some background blog cleanup when I stumbled on a cool plug-in called Web2pdf that converts any and all blog posts to pdf (Acrobat) format.

I took the 30 seconds and installed it just for fun.

Give it a try on any post here by clicking on the Save page as pdf button

Might I suggest to new readers to look over to the right under the Popular Posts?  Those would be a good place to start for PDF generation.

Let me know what you think!

Many of us have 3 or more hours per week in forced idle time. 

We might listen to music or jibber-jabber on the radio.    It’s time that once gone is gone forever.  Yet, this is still our time.  So it’s up to each one of us to decide how we spend it. 

We can stick with the easy way, the same old habits, but is it really the easy way if we get nothing from it?  Personally, I like to use this time to learn something new.  I have to be there anyway.  I’ve studied Spanish, networking, public speaking and money management during this idle time and many more topics.

What I did to recapture this wasted time was to build a University on Wheels.

Read more…

Hunter Nuttall has published an e-Book for all who aspire to blog.

If you are new to blogging, this is a great book to give you some insight on how to start the right way. When you’re just staring, you’ll have questions about topics (niche), number of posts, guest posting, monetization, social media and whatnot. This book will get you off on the right foot.

It’s a story about a writer who aspires to be a great blogger so he climbs a mountain to talk to an old wise blogging master. Is that you David Carradine?

Even if you’ve blogged for a long time, it can reinforce good habits. As I read it, I remembered when I first started, I had asked every question the student asks in the book. And I feel the master’s answer is spot on.

From page 2:

If you’re into Zen and you’re into blogging, read and share this ebook.
If you’re into Zen but you’re not into blogging, share this ebook.
If you’re not into Zen but you’re into blogging, read this ebook.
If you’re not into Zen and you’re not into blogging, read it twice.

It’s a quick read so it won’t be too distracting for the day – and the twist at the end is good!

Your thoughts?

Download it here. Hat tip Problogger

In my recent popular post The 26 Major Advantages to Reading More Books and Why 3 in 4 People Are Being Shut Out of Success, you saw that reading more books is one of the most powerful shortcuts to success.

But one obstacle to reading more books is simply finding the time to do it.  Well friends, put on your trench coats and fedoras and get ready to sneak some great reading in on the down low. 

Here are 5 sneaky ways to get more book reading into your day:

1.  Rip chapters out of your book – Hear me out before you make a judgement!  When I worked for a car wash years ago, reading books on the job was quite inappropriate.  So here is what I did to get around it.

I went to the local used book store and purchased some of the titles I wanted.  They might have cost $1 or $2 each.  When I got home, I picked the first book and carefully grabbed a chapter and ripped out the whole chapter from the seam.  If done carefully, the whole chapter was held together by the existing binding glue.   I repeated this for each chapter in the book.

When I was done, I picked one or two chapters and folded them in half and stuck them into my back jeans pocket.  The rest of the chapters, I put back into the original book cover and held it all together with a rubber band until I needed them.

In between rinse cycles, I’d just grab the current chapter out of my back pocket and read.  Boss-man was none the wiser.  

I would replace chapters I read back into the book cover and take the next chapter or two until I finished the book.  

Turns out, when I was done reading a book, I could fit everything back together and re-glue it using Elmer’s and the book was in rough, but readable condition.  Now, that I’ve refined a great bookbinding method, I’d just use that to rebind it good as new.

Caution: It goes without saying you should only do this with books you own.  Don’t rip up your friend’s book or a library book.

2.  Take a book with you into the bathroom – I am surprised at the number of businesses that do not allow employees to read.  It makes little sense to me considering books make employees smarter, why would you not want them to improve?  

Regardless, there is a “no mans land” where you can take a book where you won’t be disturbed – the bathroom.  

You may choose to read while you are doing your business or you might just want to close the door and read in the bathroom stall.  Since bathrooms are typically quiet, you can read for 10-15 minutes undisturbed.  

Since you’ll technically be in the restroom, your boss likely won’t be able to punish you.  Just make sure you don’t leave any incriminating bookmarks or hilighters lying around when you leave.  

3.  Make reading a high priority – If you feel like you aren’t reading enough now, the only way you will be able to change your behavior is if you make reading a high priority. I have already given 26 major reasons, some of the people commenting to the post have added some excellent reasons to the list as well.  

Reading good books often is a proactive skill to develop.  The late Earl Nightingale used to say that through reading and improving your vocabulary you communicate your education within seconds of entering a room.  Your skill with language is communicated immediately – so the impression you make is largely dependent on how “well read” you are.

Imagine sitting for a job interview and the potential employer choosing between you (who communicates intelligence) and a non-reader who doesn’t.  Provided the boss wants a smart person for the job they’ll know you are the right person in seconds.

4.  Scan Books for Your Phone or iPod – You can buy an inexpensive scanner that will convert your books to text so you can load them onto your cell phone or iPod for having a library with you at all times.  I have been doing this for as long as I’ve owned a Pocket PC – 6 years.  

Like point #1, I scan a chapter of a book and convert it to text with the free OCR software that came with the scanner.  Then I just copy it to my Pocket PC for reading at any time of day or night.  Since I always have my device with me, I can read while waiting for my meal at a restaurant, in line at the post office or just have some down time at work.  

If you own an iPod there are many good utilities that convert text to e-books such as eBook to Images and iPod Notes Packager.

5.  Use Text-To-Speech for On The Road Reading – Another tool I like to use that only gets better and better is text to speech software.  Great for reading blog posts in my car, you can also load E-Books chapter by chapter into the software.  This frees you up to read as you drive without wrapping your car around a tree.

The only possible downside, in my opinion,  is listening isn’t as mentally engaging as reading.  But it is still quite good.  

Currently, I am using Text2Go software with the Samantha voice you can get separately when you purchase the software.  The voices are lifelike and easy to understand.  The advantage of this program is it not only converts text to speech, it loads it automatically on your iPod or MP3 player.  Plus, there is a slick management feature that allows you to delete recordings you’ve heard and create custom play lists based on the text you are converting – useful when you are recording blog content.

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Well, there you have it.  5 sneaky and underhanded ways to add more reading to your daily schedule.  Some are radical, some may cost money.  But all will make you better read and more successful if you only apply them.  

Before you add more reading to your schedule you have to see it as important – crucial even – to your personal success and enjoyment of life.  Until you do, then you probably won’t read much more than you are reading now.  

I am sure a lot of you who read this blog have other good ways of sneaking in some book reading on the sly, so please feel free to share in the comments.

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