Former Tesla president reveals the ‘single most important thing’ you can do for your career—it’s a habit Elon Musk and Warren Buffett share too 

Jon McNeill has had a front-row seat to how the world’s most successful leaders operate. As former president of Tesla—reporting directly to Elon Musk—and later COO of Lyft, he’s spent years working alongside top executives.

Across those experiences, he’s noticed one habit that consistently sets high performers apart, yet seems to be fading with younger professionals: reading books.

“Reading is probably the single most important thing you can do,” McNeill told 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 said he spends as much as 80% of his day reading as well as Musk himself, who has long credited books as a key source of learning. After seeing that pattern up close, McNeill built a habit of an hour and a half of reading into his own routine—something he says has been critical throughout his career.

“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.

At the time of interview with Fortune earlier this year, McNeill said he was reading Andrew Ross Sorkin’s 1929 and Harvard Business School professor Mark Roberge’s The Sales Acceleration Formula, a book about scaling companies. McNeill also just released his own first book, The Algorithm, a look into the leadership strategy he learned from working under Musk. 

But for McNeill, reading isn’t just about simply gaining knowledge—it’s about building curiosity. That hunger, he said, has shaped nearly every opportunity in his career, helping lead to his current roles like serving on the boards of General Motors, Lululemon, and CrossFit, while expanding his venture capital firm, DVx.

Reading, a habit embraced by top business leaders, is falling out of habit among Gen Z

Picking up a book is a common practice among many top business leaders. In fact, according to a 2025 JPMorgan survey of more than 100 billionaires, reading ranks as the top habit they share.

Among the broader public, however, reading is becoming less and less popular. Two in five Americans did not read a single book last year, according to a YouGov survey. Moreover, researchers from the University of Florida and University College London found that daily reading for pleasure has dropped about 40% between 2003 and 2023. The rise of digital media, growing economic pressures, shrinking leisure time, and even access to books and libraries were pointed out as likely contributors to the shift.

The trend is especially pronounced among younger people. Americans aged 18 to 29 read an average of just 5.8 books in 2025—the lowest of any age group, YouGov reported. A separate 2025 survey from the Walton Family Foundation found 35% of Gen Z students dislike reading, and 42% rarely or never read for fun.

That decline could have far-reaching consequences. Students who say they enjoy reading—and do it regularly—are more likely to report strong academic performance. Reading also builds critical soft skills like problem-solving and analytical thinking, which employers are valuing more than ever.

One simple formula helped McNeill build relationships with Elon Musk and Mary Barra

For McNeill, the benefits of reading go beyond academics. Reading, he said, makes you ask better questions—and that habit can be a powerful career advantage.

“I’ve never really thought about building a network,” he said. “I just really like people.”

He described himself as an introvert growing up in a small farming community in rural Nebraska. But he learned early on that asking questions could open doors. 

“People like to talk about themselves. So if you’ll ask them questions about themselves, [you’ll] get a conversation going,” he added.

That approach shaped some of the most important relationships in his career. When former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg introduced him to Musk in 2015, McNeill didn’t pitch himself—he asked a question. 

“I said, ‘What’s the biggest problem that is keeping you up at night right now?,’” which sparked a two-hour conversation that put McNeill down a path to being a Tesla executive from 2015 to 2018.

A similar moment happened when he met General Motors CEO Mary Barra. By asking about the company’s biggest challenge—which ended up being battery cell manufacturing—he built a relationship that eventually 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 said. “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 young professionals finding it more difficult than ever to break into today’s AI-driven job market, McNeill’s advice is simple: stay grounded in habits that build long-term value.

“Don’t freak out,” McNeill said. “Just ride this for a little while because you’re gonna be fine. You’re absolutely gonna be fine.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com