Jon McNeill has had a front-row seat to how the world’s most profitable leaders function. As former president of Tesla—reporting on to Elon Musk—and later COO of Lyft, he’s spent years working alongside prime executives.
Throughout these experiences, he’s observed one behavior that persistently units excessive performers aside, but appears to be fading with youthful professionals: studying books.
“Reading is probably the single most important thing you can do,” McNeill instructed Fortune. “Over time, I noticed that many of the most successful people in the world read constantly.”
He pointed to leaders like former Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, who has stated he spends as a lot as 80% of his day studying in addition to Musk himself, who has lengthy credited books as a key supply of studying. After seeing that sample up shut, McNeill constructed a behavior of an hour and a half of studying into his personal routine—one thing he says has been essential all through his profession.
“I feel like this exercise of reading every day really refreshes my brain every morning, and it keeps me engaged in a way that I wasn’t before,” McNeill added.
On the time of interview with Fortune earlier this yr, McNeill stated he was studying Andrew Ross Sorkin’s 1929 and Harvard Enterprise College professor Mark Roberge’s The Gross sales Acceleration System, a e-book about scaling corporations. McNeill additionally simply launched his personal first e-book, The Algorithm, a glance into the management technique he realized from working below Musk.
However for McNeill, studying isn’t nearly merely gaining information—it’s about constructing curiosity. That starvation, he stated, has formed practically each alternative in his profession, serving to result in his present roles like serving on the boards of Common Motors, Lululemon, and CrossFit, whereas increasing his enterprise capital agency, DVx.
Studying, a behavior embraced by prime enterprise leaders, is falling out of behavior amongst Gen Z
Selecting up a e-book is a standard apply amongst many prime enterprise leaders. In reality, in response to a 2025 JPMorgan survey of greater than 100 billionaires, studying ranks as the highest behavior they share.
Among the many broader public, nevertheless, studying is turning into much less and fewer fashionable. Two in 5 Individuals didn’t learn a single e-book final yr, in response to a YouGov survey. Furthermore, researchers from the College of Florida and College Faculty London discovered that each day studying for pleasure has dropped about 40% between 2003 and 2023. The rise of digital media, rising financial pressures, shrinking leisure time, and even entry to books and libraries have been identified as seemingly contributors to the shift.
The pattern is very pronounced amongst youthful individuals. Individuals aged 18 to 29 learn a median of simply 5.8 books in 2025—the bottom of any age group, YouGov reported. A separate 2025 survey from the Walton Household Basis discovered 35% of Gen Z college students dislike studying, and 42% not often or by no means learn for enjoyable.
That decline might have far-reaching penalties. College students who say they get pleasure from studying—and do it repeatedly—usually tend to report robust tutorial efficiency. Studying additionally builds essential tender abilities like problem-solving and analytical considering, which employers are valuing greater than ever.
One easy system helped McNeill construct relationships with Elon Musk and Mary Barra
For McNeill, the advantages of studying transcend lecturers. Studying, he stated, makes you ask higher questions—and that behavior is usually a highly effective profession benefit.
“I’ve never really thought about building a network,” he stated. “I just really like people.”
He described himself as an introvert rising up in a small farming group in rural Nebraska. However he realized early on that asking questions might open doorways.
“People like to talk about themselves. So if you’ll ask them questions about themselves, [you’ll] get a conversation going,” he added.
That method formed among the most vital relationships in his profession. When former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg launched him to Musk in 2015, McNeill didn’t pitch himself—he requested a query.
“I said, ‘What’s the biggest problem that is keeping you up at night right now?,’” which sparked a two-hour dialog that put McNeill down a path to being a Tesla govt from 2015 to 2018.
An analogous second occurred when he met Common Motors CEO Mary Barra. By asking in regards to the firm’s largest problem—which ended up being battery cell manufacturing—he constructed a relationship that ultimately led to a seat on the board of the Fortune 500 automaker.
“I don’t think about making a name for myself or building a network,” McNeill stated. “I just really enjoy people, and at the end of day, I enjoy solving problems, too, and often those two things go hand in hand to make you pretty useful to people.”
And for younger professionals discovering it tougher than ever to interrupt into immediately’s AI-driven job market, McNeill’s recommendation is straightforward: keep grounded in habits that construct long-term worth.
“Don’t freak out,” McNeill stated. “Just ride this for a little while because you’re gonna be fine. You’re absolutely gonna be fine.”
