Reading Books Today and Be a Leader Tomorrow

Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book?

It took me years to write, will you take a look?

It's based on a novel by a man named Lear,

And I need a job,

So I want to be a paperback writer.

Taken from"Paperback Writer," The Beatles.

Every cloud has a silver lining and there always be 'sunshine on a cloudy day' like the Temptations famously sang. Being a stay-at-home person make you are not productive? Is the global pandemic destroying your dreams and your hard work? Books can save your life, and you are 'thriving not just surviving' by then in this challenging time. Really? Are you thinking what I'm thinking B1? This is why you should be thinking about what I'm thinking B2.

Reading books is a part of learning. Why we must learn? I was inspired by Confucious who famously wrote that learning was like rowing against the current, as soon as you stop, you were swept back. Have you ever heard the old proverb that a little learning was a dangerous thing? When somebody is bombarding you with his/her opinion, will you be just accepting it as if it is true?

Books like hidden treasure. Sometimes, I feel like all great mentors are in my house although they are no longer alive. You could have an intense discussion with Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Alfa Edison and Steve Jobs by reading their books. I knew Thomas Alfa Edison conducted 1000 failed experiments because the 1001st was the light ball.  He insisted that every failed experiment was one step closer to success. I remembered his powerful legacy 'to get something you never had, you have to do something you never did'.

Some inspirational stories narrated about the world's leaders were the people who had an insatiable will in reading books. The more books you read, the more chance to be a leader in the future. It is a quite simple thing but makes a big difference for us.

When Theodore Roosevelt the 26th president of the United States died, his assistant found books under his pillow, reflecting he was truly applied a long-life learning principle. His life experience was very thrilling when his mother and his wife died on the same day. Can we imagine? What did he feel at that time?

Read this true story. When he was young, he worked as a clerk in a food shop. In daily life, he wore old crumple cloth and absolutely looked like a bum. However, he had an eager will to study law books. He was very delighted when he found a handful of law books in the bin of his neighbour house. He paid only 50 cents for all those books. Besides, he also has had unforgettable stories when he was a child. One of the stories was the death of his mother. Who was he? He was Abraham Lincoln the16th president of the United States.

Adam Malik's story, a man who only graduated from elementary school, and when he was a child assisted his father on a small shoddy shop, should become other role models for us. He enjoyed his daily life merely for reading books especially in related to diplomatic affairs. 

Today we know Adam Malik as former chairman of General Assembly Meeting of United Nations in New York, former head of Indonesia's House of Representative and former of Indonesia's Vice President. The story of our former president, Abdurrahman Wahid is also so inspiring. In the last seconds of his life, he was still listening to the audiobooks given by his friends and relatives.

Not just leaders, some famous artists or influencers even have spent their days reading books. One of the richest Youtuber, PewDiePie, read 721 books in 2018. Green Day, an American rock band ever sang a song 'at the library', showing how they created song lyrics by referring to some influential books. You may also remember with the lyric of Coldplay song 'Something just like this', stating that 'I've been reading books of old. The legends and the myths. Achilles and his gold...'

From all those inspiring stories, it is obvious that a successful leader was an ardent reader with overwhelming information. It would not come in an overnight process but it would come through noble commitment, discipline and perseverance. 

I remembered John Maxwell, the author of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, unveiled that if we wanted to be a future leader, we must learn a lot in the present.

As a rule, he or she who has the most information by reading books will have the greatest chance to be a leader in the future. Everybody wants the good life, but not everybody's willing to read to get it. With courtesy of Dale Carnegie, Reading books teaches us how to win friends and influence people.

So may books be always with you and we are not too soon old, and too late smart.\

Ngurah Parikesit