Reading is a habit of the world’s richest & most successful people

What is one good habit we should learn from many of the world’s wealthiest and most successful entrepreneurs and professionals like Bill Gates, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and tech tycoon Elon Musk? Reading books, newspapers, magazines, and Internet articles.

Book author and self-made millionaire Steve Siebold  interviewed over 1,200 of the world’s richest people for over 30 years and discovered that reading for self-education and nonstop learning is a common habit among them.

Among Philippine tycoons, the top book readers I know include John Gokongwei Jr. and his family; Oscar Lopez, who has a very organized home library; Mercedes Tan Gotianun; and Lucio Tan, who once even put up a free public library in Manila’s Binondo Chinatown district, complete with Chinese-language books and literary classics. 

Warren Buffett is the world’s third wealthiest billionaire and most famous investor, with an estimated net worth of $60.8 billion. He reportedly spends about 80 percent of his day reading, and even gives book recommendations in his annual shareholder letters.

Once at Columbia University’s School of Business, in reply to a question on what’s the biggest key to success he could share, Buffett replied: “Read 500 pages like this every day.” He continued, “That’s how knowledge works. It builds up like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.”

John Coleman of the Harvard Business Review  said that reading can make you a better communicator and more empathetic. Who among our election candidates running for president, vice president and senator are readers? How much and what do they read?

Despite being sidelined by health issues, presidentiable Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago not only reads a lot, she also has almost bookstore-like shelves of books at her home’s private library.

No longer running in this election and retired from politics but still busy with cultural and other projects, former Senate President and ex-UP president Edgardo Angara has a library in each of his homes in Makati, Batangas, and his seaside hometown of Baler in Aurora province.

Tomorrow, April 5 at 9 a.m., the public is invited to the book launch of the Ed Angara biography entitled Edgardo J. Angara: In the Grand Manner authored by one of the country’s finest literary writers, the 16-time Palanca literary awardee and Philippine STAR columnist Prof.  Jose “Butch” Dalisay Jr. The launch and book-signing will be held after the tertulia-inspired Pandesal Forum of the 77-year-old Kamuning Bakery Cafe at No. 43 Judge Jimenez St. corner K-1st Street, Kamuning, Quezon City.

I love books and want to share this passion for books with others, so this is the third book launching at this old bakery cafe that I bought and revived. It has a small library as well.

Former President Fidel Ramos launched his new book of essays at Kamuning Bakery Cafe on Feb. 19 accompanied by his wife, former First Lady Amelita “Ming” Ramos, while the only Filipino author to have won the prestigious American Book Award, New York-based novelist and nationalist activist Ninotchka Rosca, launched new editions of her three books here on Feb. 28 — an event co-sponsored by National Book Store.

Both FVR and Rosca answered diverse questions from the media and intellectuals at the Pandesal Forum before their book-signing sessions.

Rosca stressed in her talk that all aspiring writers should keep reading a lot of books — that is one important key to success. I encourage business people and professionals to also read literature such as novels, books of short stories and poetry to enrich our minds and spirits. Stanford Graduate School of Business political economy lecturer Scotty McLennan suggests that novels can strengthen leadership skills by showing readers reality in a way that case studies and business books can’t. Look at book lover Barack Obama and his success in politics.

Among the Philippines’ entertainment celebrities, is it mere coincidence that the most successful and highest-earning stars are also the most voracious book readers, such as Megastar Sharon Cuneta Pangilinan, “Queen of All Media” Kris Aquino and beautiful actress/singer/host Anne Curtis? They are good role models for the youth in their habit of reading.

I believe it is no coincidence that many of the world’s most modern, strongest and globally competitive economies like Singapore, Taiwan, Israel, China, Germany, South Korea, etc., are societies with a strong national habit of reading books. They also support public libraries.

Will social media as entertainment and a youth addiction kill reading and books? I don’t think so. Starting last year, Facebook’s billionaire founder Mark Zuckerberg resolved to read one book every two weeks. He even started his own book club called “A Year of Books,” discussing books he reads with the Facebook community.

How can we strengthen the foundations of Philippine economic development and make real the ideal of “inclusive growth”? How can we truly give more substance to our aspirations of a better political democracy? Encourage the reading of books, newspapers, magazines and others as a national habit for all. Promote reading not only for vigorous and sustainable economic progress, but also for genuine economic and political democracy!

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