An Introduction
I’ve never considered myself an excellent or even a good writer. I don’t have the largest vocabulary. I don’t have a knack to string together beautiful sentences. I don’t have the ability to create vivid imagery through words alone. I consistently got B’s on any writing assignment throughout school and was able to bring up my grade through any sort of “non-writing” assignments. Despite my shortcomings as a writer, I still understand and appreciate the value it brings.
My goal to read every day was sparked by eavesdropping on a conversation while waiting for Trump’s motorcade to parade by during his inauguration. No, I did not vote for Trump, but living in the DC area I wanted to see the spectacle that would be his inauguration. I couldn’t give you any more context about the conversation except it was a friendly one between a middle aged man and a young teenage girl. The quote the man passed along to the girl was from President Harry S. Truman. “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.”
Just like most young people trying to have an impact on the world, I’ve turned to successful people and have tried to copy them. A common theme for the people that I have deemed “successful” is their ferocious appetite to read. It wouldn’t be uncommon for Teddy Roosevelt to read 2 or 3 books in a night. There is a story that a visitor of the White House gave Teddy a book to read as a gift, and Teddy had read the book in full and was able to discuss it detail by detail the next morning over breakfast. Warren Buffet has said that he can spend up to 80% of his day reading. Now, these examples are on the extreme end, but Bill Gates tries to read for over an hour each night before he goes to bed.
I would like to expand on the Truman quote. In fact, I would like to change one word. “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are curious.” I know this change defeats the catchy ring that Truman gave it, but I think this change highlights the crux of this quote. Curiosity is the link between all the great minds. Reading is simply the medium which they used to further their curiosity. There are ample avenues someone can venture along to take in new information and ideas; some say there is an overload of information. I believe curiosity should be at the center of a human life.
I believe you can still have a successful and meaningful life even if you aren’t curious in ground-breaking subjects. Even though the leaders in artificial intelligence, robotics, and medicine will grab the headlines with their findings and breakthroughs, it just matters that you are curious about something. If you are curious about Renaissance art or the inner workings of a car, then learn as much as you can about those subjects. Hopefully, your passion and interest in the topics will help drive your curiosity with more focus than learning about a topic you aren’t interested in. I know I’ve had a hard time finding the few subjects which I am passionate about, but hopefully, some exercises like writing longer form pieces will help me narrow down my interests.
One of my favorite writers is Morgan Housel. The thing I appreciate most about him is his ability to convey his messages through investing and investor behavior. He has unique perspectives and they especially speak to me because he can get them across by using investing as his medium. Two things I am passionate about are sports and investing, so hopefully, I will be able to have the same effect with my own writing. My goal is to use my few areas of interest to help myself form new and unique perspectives with the possibility of passing them on to whoever stumbles across these posts.
