Business owners have never had it so good. We have almost any kind of information at our fingertips. Need marketing advice? You can get it in seconds. Need to get more work-life balance? You can read up on it anytime.

We have all this information but I am not sure that we are actually benefiting from it. In translation and Interpreting, there are some amazing books on personal and business growth but some of us are still making the same mistakes. Why?

Just reading a book will never be enough. To actually learn from it, you need to do the book. A single page applied does us more good than ten chapters just read. There is no point in finishing a book if it hasn’t done you any good.

So the next time you find yourself reading a thought-provoking book, take notes. How can you apply it to your business or service delivery today? Pick one action, one goal and spend six weeks applying it. Once you have applied it, evaluate your results. Then and only then, will it be time to turn the next page.

It’s hard work but it’s much more useful than having a full bookshelf but an empty bank account.