In fact “The good book is that, if you read it, prolongs your interest, sharpens your temper, makes you fluent, improves your style of phrasing and talk, provides you with good words and sentences, makes you feel proud, enhances your knowledge, gives you the quality of respecting others as well as the friendship of the kings …”. Perhaps, the great Arabic scholar Mr. Jahiz, who said the above quotation, might not have ever imagined that there would be an era in which the officials and leaders of Arab nations would have the latest publications and translated books into Arabic. That would teach them how to handle their businesses well, starting from writing a resume, preparing for the questions of job interviews, equipping themselves with technical and managerial skills and to end up by choosing the best way to resign!
Mohammed bin Rashid al-e Maktoum Foundation has become a part of such project by joining, recently, the caravan of translation and has announced a project translate one thousand books into Arabic during a period of three years with an average of one book in a day. This was one of its kinds in the whole history of Arabs and Muslims. The project comprises the translation of the latest and the best books around the world that made a difference in several fields such as the books written on business management and self-development. (It also includes the translation of Arabic books into other languages).
For the officials and employees in the Arab nations, especially for them who have been passing through a bitter competition in their business, is a golden opportunity to develop themselves by acquiring tremendous knowledge and fabulous thoughts from these wonderful books that will help them to excel the competitors, although a little bit, in business market or even in the very place where they work, in the light of those precious information and practical, of that these books have an abundance.
Reading, being it an endless and inexhaustible source of self-learning, is very important in the life of officials, especially for those who shy and hesitate to ask questions “so and so”. It also helps some of us increasing the vocabularies, prolonging interest and improving the way of expression as Mr. Jahiz said. Thus, how many influential leaders or heads of the great nations fascinate the hearts of their listeners due to their great passion of reading that helps them to arrange the ideas well and present it effectively to others.
Reading is important, in particular coming across the latest news and important reports, because they provide the official with important information and, sometimes, interesting one that could be used to build up a relation with a new friend, especially in the beginning of the meeting, as a matter of “ice breaking” as westerns say, or enable him to start a meeting easing the atmosphere. It is amazing to me that how an official remains working without reading the morning newspaper, even as a quick sight in a short time, that may let him to miss important news about his work such as the formation of a financial cadre or sacking or appointing an important official in his ministry, consequently he comes to know at last!. Sometimes, a news published in a newspaper leads an official to give away taking a particular decision or to adopt another one on the basis of an official statement that he has read.
Being well-informed for an official is not mandatory, but it is worth that he should know the most important news and information related to his business.
The person who does not has enough time to read the newspaper despite of his cherished desire, I would like to disclose to him the secret of “inverted pyramid” about which a large number of people do not know. So the secret is that the news in newspapers are published on pyramid base i.e. the most important information of a news should be in the first paragraph followed by the least important at the end, apart from the opinion columns and articles that, sometimes, contain an introduction, main text and a conclusion.
The best way to develop the skill of reading is to transform it into a habit, such as to fix a legitimate time to study the things that are interesting and beneficial before retiring to bed or in the early morning. However, the biggest trap in which a large number of readers are entangled is to insist to study a boring book or an article from the start to the end. As the perseverance on this negative attitude precludes a person from reading, it should be continued with relish and joyfulness until a fruitful result comes.
On the other hand, those whose parents and the government education system could not habituate them of reading, I advise them to collect clippings of articles or interviews or interesting reports of variant fields and topics and to read every day a part of it before retiring to bed. Thus, with the passing of time, this method would transform into good habit that may change his way of life later on account of the accumulation of information (assuming that the collections would be good). And the perseverance on this good and appreciable habit will make him distinguished from the officials who do not like to study that makes their information outdated.
- Written by: Mohammad al-Nughaimish (a management specialist writer)
- Translated by : Hifzur Rahman sanabli
رشحات الأقلام/ rashhatulaqlaam (حفظ الرحمان ) 