Welcome to Chris Brady's Blog

"The only way to be happy, is to give happy."

Recent Posts:

Reading

August 8, 2009

Leaders are readers, and there is no short cut around this fact.

Comb the pages of nearly any history and you'll discover the scholarship of the doer of great deeds. Standing on the shoulders of giants, the hero dares from his lofty summit to attain an even higher peak.

Reading good books is oxygen to the brain and nourishment for the soul. It can inform, inspire, and instill the wisdom of the ages. Proper perspectives come into view as one's mental map more closely approximates the territory through informed learning.

Formal education may be fine. But for most, it is finite. True education is neither formal nor finite. It occurs informally but intentionally all the time and until death. That's the truth for leaders.

Are you called to leadership? Are you stirred to affect some great change? Are you dreaming of a vision of a brighter future? Are you inspired to attack the status quo? Take some age-old advice to take some age-old advice. Become an intentional, enthusiastic, consistent, hungry, determined reader, and the result, inevitably, is that you'll become a leader.

Posted in Books

6 responses to “Reading”

Phyllis Hoff

August 9, 2009

Chris:
Thank you for this great post. I never enjoyed reading much since every day I have to read IRS and DOL regulations.
I am so thankful for the TEAM, as I started to read all the books that TEAM recommends and loved them.
Then I read this incredible book called ” Launching a Leadership Revolution,” by my favorite authors now, and oh, my gosh!
This book was so powerful and so pertinent to my career, I was blown away.
I love reading now, and I have you and the team leaders to thank for that.
God bless.

LikeLike

Reply
Cathy – Team Rascals

August 9, 2009

Chris,
When I was a child, my mother frequently yelled at me to get my nose out of a book and go outside to play on weekends and during the summer. What she frequently didn’t know was that while I did go outside, my book more often than not went with me, smuggled out to be brought up into a tree where no one could find us.
My 4 siblings were always badgering Mom to have her take them to friends’ homes or to other fun places. I wanted to go to the library. What a thrill it was for me to be able to finally be old enough to ride there on my bike alone! It was a tiny thing, with a miniscule small town budget. But the librarian was kind, and recognized in me a fellow lover of all things books. She gently guided my summer reading toward classics and increasingly more challenging works of literature.
In high school, despite being a 3 season athelete all year (fall, winter and spring), I also volunteered in the library in my free periods. This librarian was cut from the same mold as our town’s, and continued the process of nudging me toward biographies, classics and great literature.
When we married, my husband quickly learned what a book lover he’d gotten when I was moving in prior to the wedding. It took 2 trips of his van to bring over just my books!! I’d had them on classic college student “bricks and boards” shelving, so one of his projects that first summer was to begin building shelves to hold the collection. Those original shelves have been expanded, doubled and re-doubled multiple times over the years, and our combined collection still won’t fit on them . . . If anyone asks about the books laying about, we tell them our decorating philosophy is, “When in doubt, build more bookshelves!!” One of our dreams is a home big enough to have its own library . . .
I have grown through books. I see things differently because of books. I understand different points of view and different types of people better because of what I read. Seeing if I can figure out “Who done it” in an infrequent mystery novel (an admitted addiction of mine I keep in careful control), before it is revealed by the author, sharpens my analytical skills. Reading has, in very large part, made me who I am, and will continue to make me who I am becomming.

LikeLike

Reply
Matt Fotoe

August 9, 2009

We just got “Leadership and Liberty” and I can’t wait to dive into it. Thanks to both you and Orrin for the example of leadership and your hunger not only for your own growth, but the growth of others on their own leadership journey.

LikeLike

Reply
Cathy – Team Rascals

August 9, 2009

By the way, Chris,
I forgot to tell you about something that happened even before everything else I told you about above.
On the first day of kindergarten, I came home in tears. I was crying in impotent frustration, because the teacher had failed to teach us how to read, and had made light of my request to teach me!
Thankfully, even though she had my 4 other siblings to care for (3 of them younger, including the youngest 2 still in diapers, and the youngest in arms, at that point) Mom made time. Somehow, she found time every day after I came home, just for her and me, for the express purpose of teaching me to read. Thankfully, I was a motivated student, and learned quickly. I was comfortably reading on my own by Christmas . . .
My mother is negative about our business, the Team and a lot about our lives. I will remain ever grateful to her, not only for being my mother and all that entails, but also for the gift of teaching me to read, when I look back now and know she really didn’t have time to do it.

LikeLike

Reply
Kelly Watson | Womenwise Marketing

August 10, 2009

Can I use this post as an excuse to kick back and read the next time work is slow and I just can’t bring myself to do any more marketing? I can!? KTHXBYE!
M.F.K. Fisher, we will soon be together again 🙂

LikeLike

Reply
John Dickinson – Team One Purpose!

August 10, 2009

Chris,
This is exactly why we are teaching our 11 month old girl how to read with the “Your Baby Can Read” program. Yes, we are getting results!
Thanks,
John

LikeLike

Reply