Jack CanfieldI r ead a book a week minimum and at the end of the year I’ve read
fifty-two books. We’re talking about professional books—books on
self-help, finances, psychology, parenting, and so forth. At the end of
ten years I’ve read 520 books. That puts me in the top 1 percent of
people knowing important i nformation in this country. But most
people are spending their time watching television.
When I went to work for W. Clement Stone, h e told me, “ I want you
to cut out one hour a day of television.”
“Okay,” I said, “what do I do with it?”
“Read,” he said.
He told me what kind of books to read. He said, “At the end of a year
you’ll have spent 365 hours reading. Divide that by a forty-hour work
week and that’s nine and a half weeks of education every year.”
I thought, “Wow, that ’s two months.” It was like going back to
summer school.
As a result of his advice I have close to 8,000 books in my library.
The reason I’m involved in this book project inst ead of someone else is
th at people like me, Jim Rohn, Les Brown, and you read a lot. We listen
to tapes and we go to seminars. That’s why we’re the people with the
information.
I always say that your raise becomes effective when you do.
You’ll become more effective as you gain more skills, more insight,
and more knowledge.
WRIGHT
Jack, I have watched your career for a long time and your
accomplishments are just outstanding. But your humanitarian efforts
are really what impress me. I think that you’re doing great things not
only in California, but all over the country.
CANFIELD
It’s true. In addition to all of the work we do, we pick one to three
charities and we’ve given away over six million dollars in the last eight
years, along with our publisher who matches every penny we give away.
We’ve planted over a million trees in Yosemite National Park. We’ve
bought hundreds of thousands of cataract operations in third world
countries. We’ve contributed to the Red Cross, the Humane Society,