To be a successful entrepreneur, you must increase the quantity and quality of the books you read.

We all hear about how Bill Gates and Ben Carson would stay home and read books relentlessly. Reading may not be an easy habit to develop, but it's one that can help you expand your business.

When I first started reading at the age of 21, I would read very slowly and I wasn't getting the most out of the books. I would finish a book or two per month and not remember exactly what I learned.

My level of comprehension and lack of speed grew into utter frustration.

One day, I was fighting my way through a chapter and got so mad at myself that I went on this quest to find out how I could read more books, while getting the most out of them in less time.

For the last several years, I've been increasing the number of books I read. I went from reading one to two non-fiction books per month to five or more the next month. Soon enough, I was reading six to eight books per month. Now I read more than 10 books per month—which is about a book every three days. I now read well over 100 books per year because of the five techniques that I am about to share with you.

You can use these 5 tips to expedite your reading speed while developing a deeper comprehension of the material you wish to absorb:

1. Learn How to Speed Read.

Attend a course or read a book on speed-reading. You can find many resources on the Internet that will show you how to read faster as well. One of my favorite books on the subject is called, Breakthrough Rapid Reading by Peter Kump.

I use my hand to guide me along the pages. This method allows me to relinquish my sub-vocalization (reading aloud in your mind). I also force my eyes to read faster. Skimming and scanning helps me do this.

Instead of reading 200 words per minute, I now read well over 1,000 wpm. Talk about reading fast. It was once said that Josef Stalin read 400 pages per day. John F. Kennedy read 1,200 wpm. They aren't my heroes, except only in reading speeds.

2. Don't Read Cover-to-Cover.

It's the biggest myth to read every book you encounter cover-to-cover. If you do this, you're taking too much time on trivial content instead of getting the most out of the book you read.

Average books offer one to two major ideas, good books offer two to three, and great books offer three to five ideas. In fact, most books are average. An average author could write a 20-page book with all of his or her ideas, but that kind of book won’t sell to the public, so they generally add 200 extra pages to fluff it up.

Now don’t get me wrong, great authors do not add fluff to their books. But how many great books can you really find worth reading over and over again?

However, if you were assuming that most books are average, which they are, do you think it would make sense to read one of these average books from cover to cover?

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