The Spotlight 2017 Late Winter/Early Spring Issue

Reading your Way to
Success in 2017
by Alice Zheng
It’s only a couple weeks into 2017 and you have already broken your new year’s resolution
(and it’s totally fine!) Whether it is going to the gym every week, sleeping before ten every day, or
just drinking a glass of water every morning, it’s okay. New year’s resolution aren’t supposed to be
kept (or at least that’s what I learned from a Phineas and Ferb episode). Instead, why not try a midyear
resolution? Something done like spring cleaning, to start the new season with a new look. Why
not try reading more?
aloud.
Reading - /ˈrēdiNG/ - the action or skill of reading written or printed matter silently or
Reading is one of the first things you learn in school; for good reason, it is the backbone of
learning any almost subject. It provides mental stimulation, reduces stress, expands your vocabulary,
improves your focus and concentration, and, of course, broaden your knowledge of the world.
As future business leaders of America, we need to be constantly developing our education in all
fields and books are just the gateway to learning and knowledge.
Leaders almost always make reading a priority in their lives. Bill Gates reads about 50
books per year, which breaks down to 1 per week. Mark Cuban reads more than 3 hours every
day. Elon Musk is an avid reader and when asked how he learned to build rockets, he said “I read
books.” Warren Buffett read between 600 and 1000 pages per day when he was beginning his investing
career, and still devotes more than half each day to reading.
Don’t know where to start? Here are just a few recommendations to get your brain stimulated
for the rest of 2017:
• How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
• Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey (these two were no-brainers)
• The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford
• Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
• The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker
• Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
• Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values by Fred Kofman (recommended by
Sheryl Sandberg as the book that every business executive should read)
• Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen
• Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace
• The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
• 1984 by George Orwell
• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
• Any biography or autobiography of a world leader in any industry
Happy Reading!