Everybody comes into life with their own personality. Some kids love books while others would rather clean toilets than read. You never know what you're going to get when having kids, but one thing is for sure in my mind. It's more than amazing. There is nothing in this life that brings me more joy than being an engaged father, and helping my kids enjoy reading is one thing I hope I can do well. Reading is the path into some of the greatest minds of all time. You can learn to invest like Warren Buffet, build a business like Jeff Bezos or Sam Walton, talk about writing and plays with Shakespeare, talk philosophy with James Allen and...well, you get the point. They say you become the average of your five closest friends, reading frequently helps you hang around successful people. Well, back to my original point, I want to help my children learn and enjoy reading. Did you know one of the best things you can do to help your kids enjoy reading is to read in front of them. Not even to them, just in front of them.

I think we grossly underestimate the power of example in parenting. You cannot teach your child to love themselves more than you love yourself. You can make your child read but if they don't see how much you enjoy reading, they very likely may not enjoy it either. In the book Influencer there is a story about a father who wanted his daughter to catch the fire for reading so he offered her a small amount of money for every book she read. Well eventually she earned enough money to buy a gaming system and never read another book unless forced to do so. Be careful which method you use, it just might backfire. As a general rule, if you want your kid to do it, you better be willing and ready to do it as well.

I like to start my day off with some reading before I jump into the fast pace world. Well, my son woke up, came in the office said good morning and dove into his books as well. He loves books as does my daughter. I think that's more because of my wife's passion for books. She read in a parenting book that kids are much more likely to grab the books and read them if they are closer to their height and they can see the front cover, so we put of two shelves in our toy room and rotate the books out every couple days.

Dr. Ben Carson's mother couldn't read but she noticed that all of the families that she worked for who were exceptionally wealthy had books in their house. So she made it a point to keep books in her house and her children became fond of reading. They both graduated with high level degrees from college and became very successful in their careers.