I’m a curious person who loves exploring why the way things work. It’s testament to why I am so passionate about success modeling. I like to know how certain people achieve so much while others float through life. So, when I look upon my bookshelves or scan my Kindle, it always give me a spark of joy to know that within reach I can tap into anyone’s expertise, wisdom, and life lessons at any time.
Simply, books are amazing. And, I can say with absolute confidence that the habit of reading is what has helped me achieve almost everything I have in life. It’s a routine that has profoundly shaped my mindset, broadened by outlook, and improved the quality of my life.
I once heard this brilliant quote years ago and I hope you take as much inspiration from it as I did.
“A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.”
Isn’t that amazingly true? We must all be forcing ourselves to grow, to move forward, and to push harder. A few years ago, I developed 10 core values for Ethos3. Taking inspiration from Tony Hsieh, I carved out a full day to think critically about the philosophies Ethos3 could take pride in for many years to come. It was a difficult yet highly rewarding exercise.
The end result?
I developed a set of values that would serve as a compass for the organization and every team member. Personally, I like to think of it as our blueprint for excellence, and love that it is now deeply embedded into our brand’s DNA.
You can see all 10 of our core values in this video:
For the purpose of this post, I want to call your attention to Value #2 (not in order of importance) — Pursue Growth and Learning. The reason it was included is because of my sentiments above. Ethos3 is an organization and organizations are made up of individuals. If these individuals aren’t growing, then the organization should never expect to grow.
I want my team to constantly be challenging themselves to acquire new knowledge and test their comfort zones. I want them to read.
They must get curious.
They must explore.
And, most importantly…they must share what they discover for the benefit of all of us.
The way we have made that a reality and accountability moment at Ethos3 is by providing a Kindle with a reading plan to each new employee with the expectation they will read one new book a month. Each book is customized to their position and responsibilities. For instance, if someone works in marketing, they will be assigned marketing titles and so forth. Ultimately, they are required to showcase the completion of this assignment by providing a net out.
If you are curious about the structure of a net out, it’s a simple one page document that summarizes the major takeaways of the book. In fact, you scan our entire bookshelf of net outs if you want to get an inside look. This is something I learned from my good friend and mentor, Michael Hyatt.
Here’s a basic template structure:
NET OUT
Insert the book title and author here
QUICK SUMMARY
Insert a quick 1–2 sentence summary of the book
KEY INSIGHTS
Insert bullets here
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Insert bullets here
MEANINGFUL QUOTES
Insert quotes here in italics
Net outs take little time to create but serve as a huge value add when wanting to implement something new or needing to reference an idea in the future. They are the cornerstone of how we encourage the continuous pursuit of learning and growing at Ethos3. Failing to do so would simply keep the business stagnant. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to neglect anything that would improve my people or my business.
We’re doing it. Why not you?
