If you’ve just graduated college, you’ve probably begun hiding away all those books and papers. Finally: freedom!! It’s time to get really rich and make a name for yourself. Career. That’s the real world, right? Wrong. Graduation is no excuse to stop the learning process. Failure to study is folly! The new information your constantly process determines your edge in life. School learning is static and often decades out of date. Here’s how to grow your IQ by 50%- after college. 1) Keep a book handy. Thousands are released every year. Pick two close to your passions every month. Update yourself. Build your skillset to make yourself interesting and indispensable to to your associates. 2) Maintain a “To-Learn” List Break out of your comfort zone! It’s fine to develop your core competencies, but too much of one thing makes you a dull boy. The most dynamic thinkers and leaders maintain a list of new challenges to tackle: like learning a new language, to scaling Mount Everest. Having new goals will revitalize you! 3) Expand Your Base of Intellectual Friends Hanging out with dullards is contagious. Notice how being around folks who spout nonesense forces you to lower yourself to their level? Upgrade your companions and their skills, ideas and passions trickle down to you. More than reading books, I achieved mastery of everything from dancing tango to deliverying firey speeches through my associations 4) Modeling The Greats Got a project? There’s no point re-inventing the wheel. Learn how the masters did it and build upon their methods. You’ll quickly and readily discover how to get things done fast. Then you can move on to even bigger fish. 5) Practice practice practice You’ll never learn how to shoot a gun by reading a book. Drop that book after you get the theory down pat. Walk to your shooting range and squeeze a few shots! That’s when textbook learning leads to magnificent mastery. 6) Mentor Your Colleagues I’ve built my negotiation skillset by passing on tips to those who blunder like bulls at boardrooms. Know what? Each time I did so, I actually found myself weaving ever more enticing spiels that led to more satisfying win-win outcomes! Teach others and you grow. Empowerment is mutual!