Read this true story. When he was young, he worked as a clerk in a food shop. In daily life, he wore old crumple cloth and absolutely looked like a bum. However, he had an eager will to study law books. He was very delighted when he found a handful of law books in the bin of his neighbour house. He paid only 50 cents for all those books. Besides, he also has had unforgettable stories when he was a child. One of the stories was the death of his mother. Who was he? He was Abraham Lincoln the16th president of the United States.
Adam Malik's story, a man who only graduated from elementary school, and when he was a child assisted his father on a small shoddy shop, should become other role models for us. He enjoyed his daily life merely for reading books especially in related to diplomatic affairs.Â
Today we know Adam Malik as former chairman of General Assembly Meeting of United Nations in New York, former head of Indonesia's House of Representative and former of Indonesia's Vice President. The story of our former president, Abdurrahman Wahid is also so inspiring. In the last seconds of his life, he was still listening to the audiobooks given by his friends and relatives.
Not just leaders, some famous artists or influencers even have spent their days reading books. One of the richest Youtuber, PewDiePie, read 721 books in 2018. Green Day, an American rock band ever sang a song 'at the library', showing how they created song lyrics by referring to some influential books. You may also remember with the lyric of Coldplay song 'Something just like this', stating that 'I've been reading books of old. The legends and the myths. Achilles and his gold...'
From all those inspiring stories, it is obvious that a successful leader was an ardent reader with overwhelming information. It would not come in an overnight process but it would come through noble commitment, discipline and perseverance.Â
I remembered John Maxwell, the author of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, unveiled that if we wanted to be a future leader, we must learn a lot in the present.
As a rule, he or she who has the most information by reading books will have the greatest chance to be a leader in the future. Everybody wants the good life, but not everybody's willing to read to get it. With courtesy of Dale Carnegie, Reading books teaches us how to win friends and influence people.
So may books be always with you and we are not too soon old, and too late smart.\
Ngurah Parikesit
