Friday, January 19, 2007 Thoughts on reading By Henrylito D. Tacio Regarding Henry
"THE hours spent reading are investments in tomorrow," says C. Neil Strait. "For reading sends us into the future with a great reservoir of knowledge from which we can draw at various times. Reading is a good way to keep boredom from closing in upon life. Reading introduces new people, new ideas, and new events into life. And boredom is a stranger to the new, exciting things."
I readily agree with this statement. But what about those people who don't know how to read? Can they still become successful in life?
Sure, they do. Take the case of Jay Thiessens, the American owner of B&J Machine Tool Company. He managed to build up the company from a $200 investment into a $5 million-a-year enterprise with 50 employees. Yes, you read it right.
Although he finished high school, he really didn't know how to read. "I worked for him for seven years and I had no clue," said Jack Scala, now the engineering manager for Truckee Precision, a B&J competitor. "I was his general manager. He would bring legal stuff to me and say, 'You're better at legalese than me.' I never knew I was the only one reading them."
Few people knew of his shame and most burning desire: To be able to read a simple bedtime story to his grandchildren. But he couldn't keep his illiteracy secret forever. "There is no shame in not knowing how to read," observed his wife, Bonnie. "The shame is not doing anything about it."
Thiessens himself admitted, "It became too hard to continue to hide it." So, he started to learn how to read at the age of 56. "Since I made the decision to let everybody know, it's a big relief."
In 1999, he was honored in Washington, D.C. as one of six national winners of the National Blue Chip Enterprise Initiative Award. Sponsored by the US Chamber of Commerce and Mass Mutual, the award recognizes small businesses that have triumphed over adversity.
A report from the Associated Press disclosed that Thiessens' adversity started he was in the first or second grade in McGill, a small mining town in central Nevada. "A teacher called me stupid because I had trouble reading," he said. After that, all through school, he was the quiet boy at the back of the class.
"I think the teachers just got tired of looking at me so they passed me on," he noted. Thiessens graduated from White Pine High School in Ely 1963, receiving mostly Cs, Ds and Fs. He made the honor roll once -- in his senior year -- when he landed As in auto mechanics and machine shop.
The day after graduation, Thiessens moved to Reno, where 10 years later he started a small machine shop with his last $200. But the question is: How did he hide his adversity?
Thiessens revealed his hidden secret after he joined a local chapter of The Executive Committee, a kind of CEO-support group where non-competing chief executives discuss business trials and tribulations in confidence.
"He was a little teary. His voice was shaking," recalled Doug Damon, a group member and CEO of Damon Industries, a beverage concentrate manufacturer. "It was clearly a difficult thing for him to do." Damon was surprised by Thiessens' confession. "I knew he was a high school graduate, and so I guess I automatically assumed he knew how to read. He'd been very successful in his business. Who would have thought?"
"Reading is to mind what exercise is to the body," asserts Sir Richard Steele. This must be the reason why American president Thomas Jefferson read "from candlelight to early bedtime." Abraham Lincoln quips, "The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read."
You may not know it, but if you keep reading, you may live longer. "The more you read, the more you know," Jim Trelease explains. "The more you know, the smarter you grow. The smarter you are, the longer you stay in school and the more diplomas you earn. The more diplomas you have, the more days you are employed. The more diplomas you have, the more your children will achieve in school. And the more diplomas you have, the longer you will live." Reading, anyone?
