What separates people who achieve something from people who do not may not be talent at all. It may be one habit that everybody can adopt but 90% of people cannot sustain: reading every day.
Charlie Munger said that most of the smart people he met in his life shared one excellent habit — they read every day. Buffett is a library on wheels; Munger is a bookshelf with two legs. The sheer volume they read astonishes me.
Most of us know that reading matters, yet many books are bought, opened for two pages, and never touched again. I was the same. Since I made reading one of my highest priorities, I read for two hours every day unless something genuinely urgent takes precedence.
Why does reading matter so much? Because it raises your understanding — and reading compounds. A little today and a little tomorrow shows nothing in the short run. Five or ten years later, the difference is enormous.
If you truly want to succeed, in business or in investing, and to achieve what others cannot, you have to be willing to sit on a cold bench and read, day after day.