How to Read Business Books Freakishly Well

Scenario: "Dude, to read stuff well, we'll just concentrate on every freakin' word of a fabulous business book -- then we'll comprehend it like the super freaks that we are. We'll be billionaires. Yay!"

"I'm reading, but I'm not comprehending. Ahh!"

Business books. Business articles. Business journals. Business __________. It seems you've read so much so far in your fabulous life. And since you're reading this article, you're the dude/gal who's looking to learn some more. (And folks, that's the first step to being a kick-ass entrepreneur: Learn relentlessly.) We salute you. Now, if you could only comprehend 10% of what you've been reading your entire life -- you'd be Nobel-bound. So how do you comprehend what you read freakishly well? It took us years to understand why our comprehension sucked, but you'll learn it in about four seconds:

The Biggest Crime Business Reading Buffs Make

This: Reading the words of a sentence (or paragraph, or chapter). Excruciatingly focusing on each and every freakin' word of a business article, business book, or whatever else you're reading, won't get you comprehending the material like the badass you were meant to be. When you read every itty-bitty word silently (or aloud) to yourself, your mind starts focusing on every excruciating-and-unnecessary detail of a sentence -- instead of what's important: the entire context of what you're reading. That is, instead of having your entire brain fully focused on understanding that entire freakin' juicy sentence, your brain fractionalizes its power by analyzing those itty-bitty words. That slows your reading speed, and increases your chances of being distracted -- likely killing any comprehension you may have wanted. So what's the solution?

Scan Those Freakin' Sentences Like You're Looking at Some Smokin' Hot Model

A car model, that is. Here's a marvelous method that's helped us comprehend those complex business journal articles: Scan each sentence like you're looking at a used Pinto from its rear to its fabulous front. That gets you scanning an entire sentence quickly without silently reading the words of that sentence. That gets you comprehending the context of the sentence fully, effectively, and quickly -- and like a mofo.

"But I'm trying, and it's so hard!"

With incessant practice, you'll be a natural. We took the hard way, but there's a much easier way for ya. We read a pretty sweet blurb in Fortune Magazine about comprehending what you read by guru H. Bernard Wechler, who recommends this seriously sweet method when you're reading -- as he explains:

Kill that voice in your head. Silently repeating words slows you down. To break the habit, try quietly humming.

Other tips Wechler fabulously offers -- that we're also trying to adopt ourselves:

Never read without a pen. By moving the tip of a pen beneath a line, your eyes will instinctively follow, speeding you up. On a computer, run the onscreen cursor under the text. Pick up the book. Reading at a 45-degree angle is easier on the eyes than off a flat surface. Relax your eyes. Focus on full lines, not specific words, using peripheral vision. Move your head, and pay attention to the upper half of the letters. Keep on truckin'. Resist the urge to "regress" and reread.

Fabulous tips that we're going to keep in our knowledge vault. Here's a template to get you started:

"I read in 'phrases' to comprehend like the badass that I am."

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Posted on October 23

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