“A capacity and taste for reading
gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others.” — Abraham
Lincoln
On October 01, 2014, I was interviewed
by an eminent international journal on mentoring and leadership. There were
several questions and one of the questions on motoring was as follows: ‘I know
you’ve probably had many mentors who have contributed to your professional
success. How has mentoring influenced your growth and development as an
international thought leader?” I replied to this question as follows:
I joined Indian Air Force when I was
18 years old. I served in the lowest rank of Corporal. I did not have the
privilege of pursuing regular college education. I acquired my qualifications
through self-study and correspondence courses. I am mostly self-taught. I am a
continuous learner as I am passionate to acquire knowledge. I am a voracious
reader and I acquired knowledge by going to libraries in distant places when I
served in Indian Air Force. Hence, I don’t have any mentors. In fact, books are
my mentors. However, I admire Peter F Drucker, the father of modern management for
his immense knowledge and contribution to the discipline of management.
I have read thousands of books so far.
Presently I am a book reviewer for Human
Resource Management International Digest of Emerald and I receive books as
per my choice. I read books and publish the reviews in the journal. In this
way, I gain lots of knowledge. Ever since internet revolutionized, I started to
read online from authentic resources to acquire knowledge. I always carry books
with me when I travel to deliver leadership development training programs. I
make use of my travelling time to read books to acquire knowledge. I also have
the passion to share my knowledge with others as knowledge should never remain
with one individual. If water stays in one place, it stinks. Similarly,
knowledge should never remain with people. On the other hand, knowledge must be
shared with others to provide meaning to life, and to prepare others as better
citizens to build a better world.
Leaders
are Readers
Leaders are readers and learn several
things from books and apply their knowledge in their real lives. John F.
Kennedy rightly remarked, “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each
other.” When you look at Mahatma Gandhi he was a voracious reader who read lots
of books. He was influenced by books[1]
such as Plato's Apology, William
Salter's Ethical Religion (1889);
Henry David Thoreau's On the Duty of
Civil Disobedience (1847); Leo Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God Is Within You (1893); and John Ruskin's Unto this Last (1862) to name a few.
Mahatma Gandhi learned many things from his mistakes which he called them experiments.
He also authored a book, The Story of My
Experiments with Truth which is an autobiography.
Dr. A. P.J. Kalam once remarked, “One
best book is equal to hundred good friends but one good friend is equal to a
library.” He rightly connected books
with friends and library. To conclude, books
are my friends, books are my educators, books are my mentors, and books are my
gurus.
"Learn to love good books. There
are treasures in books that all the money in the world cannot buy, but the
poorest laborer can have for nothing." - Robert Green Ingersoll
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[1] http://www.lankastandard.com/2012/02/humility-the-hallmark-of-a-great-human-being/
as accessed on May 19, 2012
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