I have seen stats about how after high school and after college more than 80% of people never read another book! I find that shocking. Jim Rohn used to say that only 3% had a library card - all the learning in the world for you for the price of a trip to the library. Well, now that library is right in your house - via the InterWebs.

CenturyLink says "The future state of enterprise IT is going to be far more complex and heterogeneous than today. CenturyLink realizes this and is today rolling out the product updated to give people more choice." C-Link launched new some new services called Bare Metal Servers, AppFog, and WordPress-as-a-Service.

Why formally learn? For one reason, our industry is transforming before our eyes with new products, services, technology, buyers and sales processes. You might need to pick up a few things to stay relevant.

For less than $300 you can take the TCA Certified Telecom Professional course and exam to learn about all things telecom and cable.

You could join CompTIA and gran some certifications in a number of areas.

There are a couple of online academies like Udemy and SkillShare, where you can learn skills like coding or how to be a freelancer or marketing. And you can teach courses on these platforms. Good way to be seen as The Expert.

Road Shows and Expos. The Wearable Tech Expo in Vegas, CP Expo in Boston and the various carrier and master agency road show are just a few of the places to learn about new tech.

For example, TelePacific holds partner events throughout its territory. (I spoke at one of them.)

Another example, "CenturyLink is going on tour to the IT community about the emerging cloud services trends that are affecting IT departments inside businesses via a multi-city tour that will feature industry analysts and the telco's customers." (You might be able to interact with buyers there, but register those deals during a bio break!)

Finally, vendors provide training. Maybe not always good training, but training nonetheless. Online and live, there are a number of opportunities to grab some education. Netwolves has some good stuff on their security offerings. Masergy has managed security training for partners. RapidScale has a cloud university.

You aren't spending your time on learning -- you are investing in your career, business and future. Best way to handle it is with an appointment for 30 minutes to an hour in your calendar every week. Or at least read 20 minutes per day- perhaps my book (available on your kindle).

"Training takes time. But it's the best lifelong investment a person can make." #gitomer