Confused? I’ll explain shortly.
As busy business leaders, we face lots of challenges doing our jobs or running our businesses. One of the most important challenges we face is the need for on-going professional education. We may recognize the importance of Life Long Learning, but who has the time and energy to do any of it?
One simple strategy that I’ve found to deal with this paradox is to embrace the concept of the ‘University of the Automobile’. Here’s how it works. Assume the average person commutes to work an hour a day over a 40-year work life. Do the math – that’s 10,000 hours spent in the car – even more if you use your car during the workday or for business travel.
That is more time than you would spend in class, studying and doing assignments to earn both a BS and MBA degree. Most current business books are available free from your public library in CD format or for downloading to your phone or iPod. Plus, there are thousands of podcasts that relate to the business challenges you might be facing.
So, make a commitment today to spend part of your daily commute learning. It won’t take long for ‘part’ to become ‘all’ of your commute when you see the value first hand.
Where do you start? Ask your colleagues what they’ve been reading. Google ‘new business books’. Or, check out one of the best business books I’ve read recently – The 100 Best Business Books of All Time – What They Say, Why They Matter and How They Can Help You’, Jack Covert & Todd Sattersten, 2009, The Penguin Group, New York, NY. The detailed summaries have useful content as such, help me determine if I want to read – or listen to – the whole book and make it easy for me to impress people that I actually did read the whole book. Hey, as Jim Collins might say,’ … works for me.
(This article first appeared in the Greater Cleveland Partnership’s COSE (Council of Smaller Enterprises) ‘Mind Your Business’ eLetter last month.)