This isn't much of a secret, but Jongo loves to read...
I know, what a revelation huh?
And I'm not talking online content either, but that does have it's place in my heart...Obviously :)
I'm talking a good ol' fashioned printed book! There's something so calming to me when it comes to reading...I have my cup of coffee, my feet are up and I'm thumbing through the pages of the books I'm reading. It's peace! It's actually heaven to me in a way. I fell in love with reading over 20 plus years ago when I was getting my online businesses started....
(Me and 2 of my bookcases circa 2014-ish)
And I remember when it happened too....I was reading 'The Sales Bible' by Jeffrey Gitomer and one of the themes that he kept going over and over was to read a lot. And dive deep into the stuff you are passionate about. I was hooked. From there I started reading everything I could about marketing, sales, advertising, personal development, success and entrepreneurship.
My favorite pastime wasn't going to the bar and drinking with my buddies (even though I did plenty of that lol), it was actually spending time in the local bookstores. Cup of coffee in hand, I'd walk up and down the aisles, looking for a new book to dive into.
Over the years, my passion has changed dramatically. I no longer read so much about entrepreneurship and business, but rather theology and faith. But my love of reading hasn't slowdown at all....So much so that my 'offline job' is actually, a truck driver for a bookstore here in the town I live in.
I think the biggest take away from my decades of being in love with the written word is, there is no better investment of spare time in my opinion.
I have said over the years, if you want to learn the art of leadership for 20 bucks you can buy a John C. Maxwell book and learn from the expert in the field. Do you want to master sales? Jeffrey Gitomer is a thought leader in that field and has written dozens of classics! How about personal development? I can think of no one better than Brian Tracy!
The point is, for less than the price of a pizza dinner you can dive into the minds of incredible thought leaders and experts in ANY field you want.
And yeah, I get it...We're in the era of AI. Why read a 300 page book when you can ask AI to break down the main points in a paragraph or two. However I think that misses the beauty of penmanship and time spent actually...Reading!
I guess I've always done things the old fashioned way....And even though I don't consider myself to be a grumpy old man (yet), I like to hold onto the humanity of the written word.
How about you?
What do you enjoy reading?
Better yet, do you still even read books?
It's a tough question because this is the era of technology. We seem to have our eyes glued to the phone screens and less in actual books. And I'm not sure that's a good thing at all. Maybe we should get back to that old way of actually learning and pick up a book or two?
Or maybe I'm just getting old and grumpy :)