The five-hour rule was coined by Michael Simmons, founder of Empact, who has written about it widely. The concept is wonderfully simple: No matter how busy successful people are, they always spend at least an hour a day — or five hours a work week — learning or practicing. And they do this across their entire career.

The five-hour can be embraced by breaking the rule into three parts :

Reading can give you a good head start; this is often what your peers cannot obtain. Compared to others, readers are more likely to know other industries' strategies and tactics. Even if you can't commit to an hour or more of reading every day, start with 20 to 30 minutes. You could also try audiobooks during your daily commute or when exercising.