The Importance Of Reading - August 7, 2026

Don’t Miss The Opportunity To Learn

The objective of this article is to create FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) in those of you who don’t make reading a part of their daily routine.  By reading you can learn about anything you want.  To be a productive employee or a strong business leader, a successful entrepreneur or a good student, or be a better informed person in general, you have to be curious, you must thirst for knowledge. You always have to be learning. And, the best way to learn is to read.  

Reading is not just a way to acquire information; it's a way to develop the mind. Reading builds thinking. When you read a book, your brain has to:

• Follow a line of reasoning.

• Connect ideas across chapters.

• Evaluate arguments.

• Remember earlier points.

• Draw conclusions.

These are the same mental processes involved in critical thinking, reasoning, and judgment. For younger people who are still developing these skills, if someone only consumes summaries, they may be given the conclusions without having practiced the thinking that produced them.  The same logic applies to people experienced in life and work, who may have previously developed these skills.  These skills will be dulled and will diminish if not exercised, and if too much reliance is placed on A.I. to do the work/reading for you. 

I’m sure I’m not the first person you’ve heard this from; people more famous than me have been talking about the importance of reading for a long time.  I’m writing about this topic now because I read a lot and am curious how many other people read.  I’m surprised to hear that not everyone I would expect to be a reader, is in fact reading.  So, sometimes it simply takes a different messenger to ignite that spark, or trigger that reminder that reading is important.  

My interest in reading goes back at least 25 years.  As a long time entrepreneur and business leader, as you would expect, my reading interests veered towards business books: biographies, recounting of business events, corporate histories or historical trends.  I learned a lot from this reading, and I applied those lessons to my career.  However, I don’t always read business books, as there is much learning that can occur from reading fictional stories, as well.  

Some examples of books I have learned from, include: 

1) The Challenger Sale, Taking Control Of The Customer Conversation published in 2011 and written by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson.  Among other things, this writing talks about how to cut through the noise in the sales process, by educating your potential customers about something they may not know about their business and tying that insight into your solution/product.  Establishing this connection with your customers builds trust and a relationship that your competitors may not offer.  I read this and had an epiphany that stayed with me forever after, and that I use in any sales conversations, external or internal. 

2) Start With Why, How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action published in 2009 and written by Simon Sinek.  In this book, Sinek describes the concept of The Golden Circles as they apply to business and to how companies talk about their product/solution offering.  This writing describes how the music mp3 player was brought to market.  Creative Zen introduced one of the first mp3 players to the consumer electronics world.  Their marketing would start with a description of what their product was; an electronic, spinning disk hard drive. Then they talked about what you could do with this portable hard drive; that it held your music library and played songs for you.  In contrast, Apple was later to the market and introduced the first iPods by telling you why you needed an iPod; because it put a thousand songs in your pocket. Brilliant! As we all know Apple iPods dominated the portable music player market, and now Apple includes portable music playing capabilities in every iPhone they sell.  I remember reading this excerpt of this book while sitting in my car, waiting for my son to finish hockey practice. I made some notes on how this concept could apply to the start-up I was working with at the time. The next day, I sketched out the Golden Circles on my office whiteboard, and shared my learning with our company leadership team.  Fortunately, some members of the team had previously heard of this concept and were enthusiastic about moving the “why” of our product offering to the forefront of our marketing and sales pitch.

3) The Alchemist was published in 1988 and written by Paulo Coelho. This is a novel that follows Santiago, a young shepherd from Spain who dreams about, and embarks on a journey, to find treasure near the pyramids of Egypt. Along the way he encounters a series of people who each teach him important lessons. Although the story centres on Santiago’s  search for treasure, the deeper message is about discovering one's purpose and growing through the journey.  With this reading I learned about Spain, Egypt, the Pyramids, and alchemy. And, this work of fiction reminded me of the importance of self-belief, goals and determination. This reading taught me something about some subjects that I wouldn’t have otherwise expected to touch on in reading a novel.  This is the value of reading fiction; the characters, the setting, the plot line can all teach you something.  

Reading long form writing in books is a good way to maintain your concentration, focus and patience, in a time that we’ve become used to short form, easily dismissible content (ie - social media).  Social media has eroded our patience and ability to concentrate.  Reading books will re-establish those skills within us.  

Having said that, I do subscribe to several email newsletters that contain articles that take anywhere from five to nine minutes to read.  I keep up-to-date on business news, sports news and current events this way.  So, not all of my reading is in the form of books, but I’m still reading, and learning.  I find the combination of reading email newsletters and long form books to be a good balance.  One form of reading allows me to consume information quickly and cross things off my list, while the other also allows me to practice my patience and keep my concentration up to par.  

I can already imagine the objections to this message. “I don’t have time to read…I’m so busy as it is!”  Really?!  You’re really working, raising kids or doing housework for all of your waking 16 hours in a day?!   No, you're not.  It’s a matter of adjusting your priorities.  We spend time on the things that are important to us, and I’m urging you to move reading up your list.  I will give a pass to any students who are reading this piece.  Students already should be doing lots of reading as part of their studies.  You should still find time to read for fun, but it’s ok to start reading once you graduate and start working full-time.  

I’ll admit, I didn’t start reading until I was ten years into my career, but that was my mistake; I should have started right away when I began my first job.  

In a world where A.I. can quickly retrieve information, the advantage will belong to  people who can ask insightful questions, recognize weak arguments, synthesize diverse ideas, and make sound judgments. Reading is one of the most effective ways to develop those abilities.  Reading  requires patience, attention, reflection, and active engagement with ideas. These are all skills that help ensure A.I. becomes a tool that extends human intelligence rather than one that gradually replaces the habit of thinking.

Thanks for reading.