In my five-year study of the daily success habits of wealthy individuals ("Rich Habits": www.richhabits.net )one important discovery I made was that wealthy individuals are fanatics when it comes to daily career-related, self-improvement. I uncovered four ways that wealthy individuals engage in such self-improvement: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Doing. Each one gets you higher up the ladder of financial success.

Reading - Many of us get those monthly industry periodicals. Typically, we set them aside and tell ourselves that we will get to that reading very soon. We may even pull out the periodicals, after a week or two, and browse through them, pulling out articles we are intent on reading. We set these articles aside and, again, tell ourselves we will get to that reading very soon. After a few months we throw these periodicals/articles out, rationalizing that they are outdated and of no use. Their time value has rendered them outdated. Wealthy individuals have a different tact. They set aside time every day for reading. They read every one of their periodicals. The reason? Wealthy individuals understand the value of timely information. They are in pursuit of opportunities to make more money. Often these opportunities are contained within the written words inside their industry periodicals. Wealthy individuals will typically set aside thirty-forty-five minutes of every day for career-related reading. They do this day in and day out. Wealthy individuals understand that reading helps them remain current with industry technical information and industry trends that might lead to opportunities. To wealthy individuals, reading gets them one wrung higher on the ladder of financial success.

Writing - Writing is a form of communication. Because we are writing on a topic, we must gain a better understanding of that topic than simple reading will provide. Writing often requires additional research and a more complex understanding of the topic that is the subject of the writing. Wealthy individuals engage in writing in a number of ways which include: company newsletters, industry newsletters, newspaper articles, industry publication articles, Internet articles and customer/client letters. Writing is another wrung on the ladder of success, getting you higher up that ladder.

Speaking - Speaking, like writing, is a form of communication. Speaking requires a greater understanding of a subject matter than writing. There is a simple reason for this. In a speaking engagement you may be asked a question. We all have egos. When we are "the expert" on a topic for which we have been asked to speak, our egos are deflated when we are unable to answer a question. The need to really know a topic, for this reason, is much greater in a speaking engagement than it is in writing. Speaking forces you to know your subject matter that much better and, thus, elevates you up another wrung on the ladder of success.

Doing - There is no better way to perfect your knowledge in an area than through repetition by doing. Repetition in a particular area gets you closer to perfection than reading, writing or speaking ever could. Each time you repeat a task in a particular area you become more efficient and more expert. Doing, over and over again, allows you to make and fix mistakes. It allows you to improve and perfect your skill-set. Through repetition by doing you will, in time, become a master in a particular task or subject matter. 

The wealthiest of individuals employ all four career-related self-improvement activities. But, in reality, you can potentially achieve financial success by simply dedicating yourself, every day, to just one of the four career-related, self-improvement methods. Make no mistake about it, its not an easy discipline. Daily career-related, self-improvement is boring. It's tedious. But the by-product is uncovering opportunities. Imagine you are standing in a forest. What do you see? You see trees. You see all of the trees that are in front of you. These trees are a metaphor for opportunities. Now imagine off to the side of the forest is a hill. This hill is a metaphor for career-related, self-improvement. What happens when you climb that hill (what happens when you engage in daily career-related, self-improvement)? You notice that there are many more trees in the forest (more opportunities). The higher and higher you climb that hill (the more you engage in career-related, self-improvement), the more trees you see (the more opportunities you see). The more opportunities you see in your life, the more money you make.

Unsuccessful people do the bare minimum in their careers. They avoid reading, writing, and speaking. They "Do" only the bare minimum to keep their job. They are not interested in perfecting their craft or bettering themselves in their profession. They are blind to opportunities. That is too bad. Until you engage in daily career-related self-improvement, you are walking around blind to the multiple opportunities that lie before you and that lift you up the ladder of financial success.