Read to Grow

If you are reading this article, I can almost guarantee you are going to be a lot more successful than those professionals who never pick up this issue of SDB magazine.

I suppose that sounds pretty arrogant, right? What could I possibly relate in 400 words that could make that much of a difference in your career? Sure, often my job requires me to be a promoter; but, even for me, the claim that one column would make the difference in your future is pretty audacious.

Let me explain. The reason you will be more successful is because you are reading about the industry in the first place.

A lot of good industry information is distributed every day from many sources, including SDB magazine and NAID publications. Speaking for NAID only, I occasionally receive complaints that the amount of industry information NAID generates is overwhelming.

While I appreciate that running a business is time consuming, making a conscious effort to keep up with industry information is critical to a company’s success in this or any other industry. You cannot use what you never learn.

You cannot profit from pending regulations of which you are unaware. You cannot capitalize on a NAID program you don’t understand or haven’t heard about. You cannot be inspired by ideas to which you have not been exposed. And, you certainly cannot write or speak about what you do not know. This is very important. Almost every professional sales guru stresses the importance of writing and speaking in your sphere of influence. It is one of the best ways to brand your company as an industry leader.

The fact is that you will be less successful if you don’t spend time writing and speaking for your industry. And, yet, I can count on one hand the number of members who are doing this at all, let alone on a regular basis.

The only way to conquer the vast amount of available industry information is to approach reading it as a time-management issue. It needs to be as much of a priority as having properly inflated tires on your trucks. Sure, trucks can run on soft tires, but not very efficiently.

You’re off to a great start; you are reading SDB magazine. You read this article. I suspect you will keep reading this issue and other information circulated through our industry. The irony is that the people who need this reminder the most will probably never see it. That’s bad for them but good for you.

Bob Johnson is CEO of the National Association for Information Destruction. He can be reached at rjohnson@naidonline.org.