Author: alearningaday

Irreverent Advice for Young Up-and-Comers:

When it comes to learning from the past, there’s got to be a damn good reason to look back since you’re probably better off just living in the present. Still, post mortems are certainly valuable exercises for learning from the past and determining what to do differently next go ’round.

So, today I got to thinking, if I could go back to when I was a young up-and-comer in the working world, what would I tell that early version of me, knowing what I know now? On second thought, I was so full of myself back then that I probably wouldn’t listen.

Still, I’m hoping that at least some of you and your proteges are less pigheaded than I was and might benefit from this heartfelt but hard-hitting Irreverent Advice for Young Up-and-Comers:

Brains will only get you so far in the real world. While you may very well be as smart as you think you are, your intelligence will only be marginally useful in the real world. As time goes on, you’ll come to rely less and less on your smarts and more and more on the wisdom, self-confidence, and strength that comes from experience. That’s the foundation your future success will be built upon.

Don’t take yourself so damn seriously. The sooner you get over yourself, the better. The sooner you grow up and stop thinking you’re special; the sooner you realize that you’re just another guy trying to carve his own path in the world; the sooner you fall down, get up, dust yourself off, and realize that wasn’t so bad; the better. Because that’s what it takes to do what comes next …

Take big risks … now! It gets much harder as you get older and begin to “acquire” things you don’t want to risk losing. What do you hope to achieve by taking big risks when you’re young?

  • Opportunity and visibility. When you start out, you’re essentially invisible. You want to change that as soon as possible. The more visible you become the more options you’ll have, the more opportunities to learn and grow, the bigger your network will become, etc. Success doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
  • Find your passion. If you don’t think you’ve found it yet, then you haven’t. You’ll know when you have. Everything will get easier. You’ll become driven and self-motivated. Climbing the corporate ladder and increasing responsibility and accountability will come naturally. If you’re good at it and the market cooperates, you’ll be successful.
  • Succeed and fail .. a lot. It’s not important whether you succeed or fail early on, just that you do one or the other many times and get a solid feedback loop going. You’ll achieve confidence from success and wisdom from failure. It’s all good, it’s all information, it’s all experience, and it all builds a strong foundation.

Don’t forget to live. You’ll get all sorts of advice about work/life balance; here’s a story that may help: Sometime in the future you’ll meet someone, fall in love, and marry her. And when the opportunity arises to build a distributor network for your company in Europe, you’ll take her with you, rent a car, and travel all over the place. Some of the time the two of you will explore and have fun, the rest of the time you’ll do your business. Try to model your work/life balance after that trip. It works pretty well.

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Good advice, I thought..

So you’re having a lamp post day..


I.e. one of those days when you feel everything around you is peeing on you. (Generally, a result of an accumulation of a bunch of small things)

Nothing to worry.
You know that friend who always makes you laugh. Yes, THAT friend.
Find him/her.
Fast.
And talk/chat/sms – whatever you can get hold of.
And watch your day feel better already!

Productivity and Work Outs

If you have experience going to the gym (I did – for 3 months! And somehow the post gym muscles are always thought to have been photoshopped.. haha), then the trainers typically insist on taking lots of time in between work outs.

For example, we were restricted to work out for an hour every day from Monday-Saturday and forbidden from entering the gym on Sunday as the muscles needed time to react to the exercise.
It is the same with productivity – our brain needs time. Chugging along and working 15 hours every day is not necessarily productive and is definitely not something to be proud of either, especially if you are having to do so consistently.
It’s not about the battle, but about the war after all.
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I can’t help re-emphasize this for myself. Learnt this the hard way during my start-up days.

The plunge

The night was cold.

I had been debating whether to take the plunge or not.
The pool was empty.
I had left my towel back at the villa on purpose.
Somewhere within, I did know that the fitness centre didn’t give towels.
It was a ready made excuse, after all.
I touched the water – and darn, it didn’t feel that cold. Could I sell the ‘no towel’ excuse to myself?
I trudged back and got my towel.
Touched the water again, and it hadn’t gotten colder.
I got changed.
The night was cold.
I had to take the plunge.
An image flashed by – a flabby unhealthy me.
I jumped..
The water was great, the swim was great and I felt great after an hour in the pool.
And I wondered how many such great experiences I had talked myself out of, without even trying.
And felt thankful for the many times I had actually taken the plunge.

On Empowerment

John Maxwell demonstrates the power of empowerment with a simple exercise –
Get a friend to stand in front of you and try pushing him down by pressing down on his shoulder. The lower you want to push, the lower you will have to bend.
Similarly, try pulling the same friend up and the higher you want to lift them, the more you will observe yourself standing on your toes to help your friend go higher.
Essentially, the more we try to empower people, the higher we go. This is best illustrated in Henry Ford II’s time at Ford.
Under Henry Ford II, the Ford motor company’s fortunes were full of ups and downs. The ups were when Henry relinquished his leadership to others who took the company to greater heights and the downs were when Henry systematically worked to throw them out of the company when he sensed they were getting too popular for his liking.
This was why successful executives like Ernie Breech, Lee Iacocca were shown the door at Ford from time to time. Henry Ford II was an insecure leader and Ford suffered as a result.
The difficulty in understanding empowerment is said to be apparent in that ‘to be indispensable, you have to be dispensable’ i.e. you should consistently be able to elevate others to do your job so you can go higher, and the minimum requirement for empowerment, as a result, is a secure leader. Let’s aim to empower our fellow team members this week..
Best wishes for a great week!