"The 5-Hour Rule" - the secret to success of billionaires.
Having spent years studying the world's most successful and wealthy entrepreneurs, author Michael Simmons discovered a phenomenon he calls the "5-hour rule" in their lifestyles.
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From Elon Musk and Oprah Winfrey to Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Mark Zuckerberg – no matter how busy they are, they all dedicate at least one hour a day (or five hours a week) to learning and self-improvement activities.
According to the leaders author Michael Simmons observes, the 5-hour rule typically involves three main activities: reading, reflecting, and experimenting.
1. Read
An article in the jungle stated that the founder of the sportswear company Nike, Phil Knight, held his library in such high esteem that you had to remove your shoes and bow your head when entering it.
Oprah Winfrey also acknowledges that books have contributed significantly to many of her successes. "Books have led me to personal freedom," the media mogul once said. Oprah also shares her reading habits with the world through her book club.
Here is some information about the reading habits of successful business leaders:
Warren Buffett spends 5-6 hours a day reading 5 newspapers and 500 pages of business reports.
Bill Gates reads 50 books a year.
Mark Zuckerberg reads at least one book every two weeks.
Mark Cuban reads for more than 3 hours a day.
Arthur Blank, co-founder of Home Depot, reads for two hours a day.
Billionaire David Rubenstein reads six books a week.
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2. Reflection
AOL CEO Tim Armstrong requires his senior staff to spend four hours a week thinking. LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner also dedicates two hours a day to thinking. Brian Scudamore, founder of the $250 million O2E Brands, spends 10 hours a week on this alone.
When Reid Hoffman needed advice on ideas, he called his friends: Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, or Elon Musk. When billionaire Ray Dalio made a mistake, he logged into the system and publicly disclosed it to all employees in the company. Then, he spent time with his team to find the root cause.
In an interview, billionaire Sara Blakely revealed that she has over 20 notebooks to record the terrible things that have happened to her.
3. Testing
Google has a policy that allows employees to spend 20% of their work time experimenting with new projects. Meanwhile, Facebook encourages experimentation through its Hack-A-Months program.
Perhaps the greatest example of experimentation is Thomas Edison. Even as a prodigy, Edison approached new inventions with humility. He outlined every possible solution, then tested each one individually. According to his biographers, “although he understood the theories of his time, he found them useless in solving unknown problems.”
He implemented his method so drastically that his rival, Nikola Tesla, commented on his "trial and error" approach: "If Edison had to find a needle in a haystack, he wouldn't stop to judge where it was most likely to be, but with the diligence of a bee, he would immediately examine each straw until he found the needle."
