Can I learn by reading?

[xhcsurge]

Hi all,

The domain I thinking to start a business in, is Business Process Management/Improvement. I'm currently working at a firm where I get to do some work on this matter, but I feel as I can learn at a much faster pace. Because my firm is very much into offering training to its employers, I'll try to follow as much courses as I can, and get certifications of some kind, all of that in order to have leverage when trying to attract my own customers in the future.

There is however one more way to learn about the domain of Business Processes: reading books. There's a ton of good (by review) books on Amazon, and I'm wondering whether intensively reading those would teach me a lot.

Any advice on this? Have any of you millionaires read yourself a way to your fortune?

 

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[Bruce]

I haven't read myself to fortune yet. But I know from experience (work/school) if I apply what I learned, I'll retain a lot better than if I were to read and just memorize. So my advice would be read a book on something and quickly apply it asap. It's a GREAT technique especially with programming books to experiment and try out codes/functions.

 

[AndrewNC]

You understand by reading. You truly learn by doing. It is very similar to muscle memory. During the police academy, we had a classroom session of the proper way to draw your gun out of our holsters. We studied this for days, knew the 4 steps to do this. We memorized the process.

What happened next week when we got to the range? Lots of fumbling around.

Our instructors had us practice it hundreds of times into the night. By the end of the week, it was almost second nature. This was a couple of years ago, and I am not involved in law enforcement currently. I go to the range the other day and it is still second nature.

Can you learn to drive stick shift by reading a book?
Can you learn to ride a bike by reading a book?
Can you learn a sport by reading a book?

It's a good start, but don't get caught up in the reading without the doing.

 

[DeletedUser2]

I have been reading porn for many years.

Not sure if its working....

 

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[andviv]

I have been reading porn for many years.

Not sure if its working....

you reading the 50 shades of grey? ***shakes head in utterly disbelief and disappointment***

 

[DeletedUser2]

50 shades of grey?

well im not that advanced yet

more of like picture books


Z

 

[theDarkness]

You can read as a tourist or you can read as a doer.

Reading as a tourist is better than nothing. Better than watching Spongebob. And it can be very useful if you are completely new to a thing and you just want to get acclimated. I did a lot of tourist-reading after reading TMF , just because it all seemed so new and overwhelming. And as just a hobby tourist-reading is hard to beat. It's fun.

But at some level you want your reading to be part of a larger process of learning new skills and doing things you hadn't before. This may involve beginning to use books as more like guide or references than things you read straight through like a novel. I read the first third of The Lean Startup and then tossed it on the floor and started my business. I'll finish it at some point, but right now I'm still working on just implementing some of the principles mentioned in that first part of the book. I have a bunch of bookmarked webpages and blog posts I return to a lot. Much of the reading in this mode comes on an as-needed basis. It should all be considered as a pit-stop on the way to action. Get what you need and then go, go, go.

 

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[liquidglass]

You can ABSOLUTELY learn by reading, but learning is like thinking of ideas and never executing it only helps if you put it into practice. As other members have said previously.

But to give you some inspiration to read I'll give you two examples.

Myself. I have a BBA in Trust, Estates, and Wealth Management with a minor in Law, and a MBA (funny it always impresses slow laners but I just see them as expensive pieces of paper.) I didn't start learning until my mentor showed me during graduate school what I could accomplish through reading books that spoke to my mindset and would help form my future. (I love to read, but I only read fiction, it's better than TV because it increases vocabulary, but that's as far as fiction will carry you.) Now I honestly can't stand to read any fiction unless it's being used as a story of mindset or people skills. I've learned so much more after college than they ever taught me in it.

My Mentor. You were asking if anyone has "read themselves wealthy" if anyone I know has it's this guy. He grew up a poor kid on a farm, went down the wrong path on drugs etc etc. Turned his life around in the military, then discovered reading (real reading). Since then he has started a multimillion dollar business, lost it during the mortgage crisis, and created another.

So yes, reading can make you rich, if you apply it.

 

[Skys]

Source: Entrepreneuriship Is Best Learned Experientially: Why Most Business Books (Still) Suck
Entrepreneuriship Is Best Learned Experientially: Why Most Business Books (Still) Suck
written by John Greathouse

I recently replied to a Quora entry which asked, “What are the best business-related books?” I shared my humble opinion that entrepreneurs should spend less time reading and more time experiencing reality. I concluded by including a link to an entry I wrote entitled, The Author’s Dilemma - Why Business Books Suck.

The person asking the question subsequently replied that I was “ignorant” and missing out on a great learning opportunity by not reading. Although the response was somewhat rude, it was valuable, as it caused me to think a bit more deeply about this issue.

To set the record straight, I am an avid reader, although I seldom read business books. The point I was inarticulately attempting to make is was that the greater the distance between you and a particular experience, the less impactful and relevant the experience becomes.

Take, for instance, the proverbial child touching a hot stove. The lesson is ingrained in the child because it is visceral, undiluted and immediate. Compare this first-hand learning experience with: (i) someone animatedly telling you about the time they touched a hot stove, versus, (ii) reading about someone else’s hot stove experience, versus (iii) reading about a second-hand account of a hot stove incident. The further you are from the pain, the less meaningful, instructive and relevant the cause of the pain.

This same phenomenon occurs when emerging entrepreneurs read business books. To a greater or lesser degree, depending on the author’s intimacy with the recounted experiences, the time it takes to passively read about someone else’s experiences would be more effectively spent interacting with others who have relevant, real-world knowledge that they are willing to interactively share.

Consider the following chart, which describes the most-to-least impactful ways to learn entrepreneurial skills.

chart: http://infochachkie.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Impact-for-Entrepreneurs.jpg

Business Books Redux

To be fair, business books suck in a relativistic way. Given an emerging entrepreneur’s limited discretionary time, I believe you will generally learn more by engaging in entrepreneurial tasks and working closely with experienced Advisors than by passively absorbing anecdotes from a book.

In my reply to the “you are ignorant” Quora comment, I clarified that successful entrepreneurs love learning and that the desire to expand their intellectual horizons is often the impetuous for launching new ventures. I went on to explain that the key to entrepreneurial learning is to identify the most relevant and impactful experiential sources and to leverage them in the most efficient manner.

There is no doubt that business books can be entertaining and, in some cases, enlightening. However, irrespective of how many business books you read, you cannot “study” your way to entrepreneurial proficiency. Entrepreneurship is a physical sport, not a cerebral one.

During your various adVentures’ journeys, you will touch a lot of hot stoves, get a few scars and have numerous fun and fulfilling experiences along the way. I describe some tactics for making the most of your experiences here: Five Ways To Maximize Your Startup Experiences.

 

[sigurdur]

more of like picture books

Instruction manuals with detailed images then?

Anyway, my belief is that you can absolutely learn from books, but in order to do so, you must put what you learn into practice promptly after you read about it. But please do question all that you read.

 

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[Robert Zebala]

You can read as a tourist or you can read as a doer.

Very helpful post for me, theDarkness.
After my first business failure 2 years ago, I decided to read a lot of business books/blogs/websites to avoid mistakes with my next attempt.
Now after reading TMF , I will get down to execute my Fastlane plan and do the reading alongside.

 

[speedyexe]

Reading&Running - Will Smith

(and don't forget to make notes of most important stuff in the book)

[h=1]“The keys to life are running and reading. When you're running, there's a little person that talks to you and says, "Oh I'm tired. My lung's about to pop. I'm so hurt. There's no way I can possibly continue." You want to quit. If you learn how to defeat that person when you're running. You will how to not quit when things get hard in your life. For reading: there have been gazillions of people that have lived before all of us. There's no new problem you could have--with your parents, with school, with a bully. There's no new problem that someone hasn't already had and written about it in a book.â€[/h]
― Will Smith