I graduated from college many moons ago. 1981 to be exact. My grades were nothing special and my knowledge, whatever miniscule measure I had obtained, was without a purpose. I simply was going through the motions, getting my degree, and getting on with my life. I was sick and tired of school and couldn’t wait to get out in the real world and make some money. I thought to myself that if I ever read another book, took another test, or sat in another library it would be worse than a prison sentence.
I can recall next to nothing of the textbooks that I read those four years.
28 years later…
I’ve read hundreds of books that weigh more than my head. I’ve developed an appetite for C.S. Lewis, Os Guinness, Alvin Toffler, Jon Meacham, David McCullough, Malcolm Gladwell, Michael Lewis, Victor Davis Hanson, John Eldredge, Jon Krakauer, Martin Seligman, Paulo Coelho, Eugene Peterson, Francis Collins, Dan Pink, Nassim Taleb, Dan Ariely, Seth Godin, John Gottman, Marcus Buckingham, Robert Quinn, Mortimer Adler, Leo Tolstoy, Cokie Roberts, Thomas Merton, Michael Pollan, Donald Miller, John Ortberg, Roger Ailes, Geoffe Colvin, Mike Frost, Margaret Wheatley, Daniel Goleman, Drew Pinsky, Michael Maccoby, M. Scott Peck, Jim Collins, Edward De Bono, Kevin Phillips, Howard Zinn, Jared Diamond, Alexis De Tocqueville, Steven Pressfield, Rick Warren, Clay Shirky, Robert Cialdini, Tim Sanders, Blaise Pascal, Simon Baron-Cohen, Richard Swenson, Jeff Jarvis, Daniel Gilbert, Paul Ekman, Rob Walker, Julia Cameron, Amanda Ripley, Marilee Adams, Khaled Hosseini, John Piper, Mihaly, Sally Jenkins, and so many more.
I read none of these authors works while getting my “formal” education. Two exceptions. One from the list above and one that I just completed. The one from above was C.S. Lewis. I was “forced” to read him in one of my philosophy classes while attending Taylor. I read Mere Christianity in 1980 and twice since. My retention of Lewis, however, is a recent thing. It took Larry Allen coercing me to read Adler’s, How to Read a Book, that taught me how to retain and build my knowledge through writing and arguing as I read. Who knew?
Another college assignment was reading Pilgrims Progress, by John Bunyan. In 1981 I read Bunyan’s signature work and couldn’t have cared less. Today, I polished it off on day two. I could NOT put this one down. Bunyan writes in 1678 England, from a prison cell, and in the language of the day which is kinda like reading the Bible in The King James Version. Oh boy…
No problem.
You see, I now have a PURPOSE for my studies. I want to wake up the dead in me and in my family, friends, and clients. I want to study, learn, and apply what causes mastery in work and life. I want to be a catalyst that transforms a collection of individuals, teams, and leaders into ONE. One team that is BUILT TO LEAD. One team that is led by weird individuals with crazy visions, teams that are not the same and don’t even like many of the same things, and leaders that are on their builder’s journey AND are helping their team discover theirs.
Now I study in my library, filled with my books, and with NO deadline or test or grade to motivate. I do not see my studies as a prison sentence. Far from it. Now I study because I want to. I can’t wait to.
I’m a pilgrim, I guess.
AND, the more I learn, the less I know.
BUILT TO LEAD 