Ever since I was in elementary school I hated to read. Reading was boring and it put me to sleep. Quickly. It didn’t matter the time of day or night, whether I was well rested or tired, or liked the topic or not. I would snooze.

Book reports. Fuhgeddaboudit. I plagiarized the front and rear jacket cover summaries as my own and handed them in thinking I was pretty slick. Essays… Pfft! However, I did enjoy poetry and I would write the occasional poem or short story. I presume it’s because I got to tell the story.

That suited me fairly well until college. College is a time of many changes and having to read a lot and write or verbalize what you read was certainly one of them. I had to do it… grudgingly. I made it through but reading still wasn’t an enjoyable task. And, I stopped writing poetry and short stories.

Once school was behind me I could now choose whether to read or not and if I did read something I got to decide what it was. I didn’t make a lot of decisions about that, which means I didn’t read much.

As I grew older and my circle of friends became more diverse I decided to revisit reading. A lot of my friends were readers and I wanted to see if I had missed something about reading. This was a monumental decision.

As life progressed and I subsequently became involved in business, it became apparent that reading was going to be required. I was reticent whenever a business mentor or associate suggested a book to read.

You know the books. Self development, business, people skills, and the list goes on and on. I’d accept the recommendation graciously and then the book went on the someday pile.

Then I found this course called the Master Key Experience. What lured me into taking the course was that I had previously taken another one from the same guy about the book Think and Grow Rich. I was curious. I had been given the book years earlier but without any instruction or discussion of its contents and interpretation.

That certainly changed in this one course. I finally ‘got it’. Let me also explain that I’m a big believer that everything happens for a reason and that it only happens when we are ready to receive it. I was ready. It was a good thing too because the Master Key course required some reading.

I’ve got a totally different view of reading now. Although it can still put me to sleep because as I’ve discovered, I don’t read properly. By this I mean that I read every single word and find that my comprehension is disastrous so I read and re-read. I do enjoy learning through reading though so I persevere.

I’ve also discovered that if you desire to be successful, not only in business but in life as well, reading is a powerful tool. The correct books contain the knowledge and wisdom of the ages and with proper guidance there is much wealth to be gleaned from them.

If you’re like I was and you don’t like to read, I hope you revisit that. If you do like to read, I hope you choose the correct books for knowledge and wisdom and enjoyable books for entertainment.

Charlie