winging it.
We’re often taught at young ages to follow the curriculum and color in-between the lines. Don’t break the rules, use your inside voices and respect your elders. While some of these early guidelines are important (respect your elders in particular), some of them are simply crippling our growth as individuals.
I was not a great student. I used to complain about reading and how much I despised it. I told myself and my parents that I would never enjoy reading. I would do the bare minimum to get the credit for assignments and it worked. I think that’s the sad part about the current school system. Kids can get by with minimal efforts and graduate on time with the same kids who tried their absolute hardest.
I feel the most important thing in life is to do what makes you happiest and figure out your focus with no influence from teachers who don’t know you as a person. I argued with my teachers almost everyday about how useless some lessons were and to this day, I stand by it. Pick a major in college before we can legally vote? Are you kidding me?
“We learn who we are only by living, and not before.”
Exploration is more helpful than education in many different ways. We need to experiment and find things that interest us rather than be told what to learn. To this day, the pythagorean theorem is one of the biggest wastes of a student’s time; unless that student aspires to do something like architecture or construction.
pursuit more of what interests you.
While my stubborn teenage-self would be ashamed of me today, I actually love to read now. Reading enables me to learn from other people’s mistakes and success stories, with in-depth details on the chain of events that lead to certain outcomes.
Recently, I’ve been speaking more often with an old college friend of mine; bouncing book recommendations off each other. I explained to him how much I hated reading in school and he gave me a great response: “Because in school we were forced to read what other people wanted us to, not what we wanted. It’s fucked up.”
I have a much greater appreciation for history now than I ever did. I just realized this past Thanksgiving that my children, my grandchildren and their children will be reading about living during COVID-19. I learn a lot more from reading history passages than I ever had learned from a powerpoint slide created by a teacher who likely was under the influence while putting together the next days lesson. Reading relevant literature is what truly helps people learn.
taking the other route.
I knew early on that I wanted to create. What I mean by that is, I always have thought about ideas to create happiness, create cash flow and create my own things. I’ve written about this in greater detail in my first note, the sprout of an idea. When I was a kid, I absolutely loved woodworking. I would saw pieces of wood, hammer in nails and would pretend I was building a house. In reality, it was a house for a bird. Either way, I was happy creating something.
The most interesting books in my eyes are the stories of founders building their ideas into profitable businesses or even their failures in the form of business scandals. The Steve Jobs biography written by Walter Isaacson, Unlabel: Selling Without Selling Out by Marc Ecko, Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, Bad Blood by John Carreyrou; these are some of my favorites.
You can learn a tremendous amount from reading and observing what other people do. This is a similar reinforcement to my talk less, listen more note. You can’t teach yourself by ignoring the outside world, you can’t learn by constantly talking while ignoring what your peers are saying, and you most definitely can’t get hands on experience with anything if you’re not willing to take the time to try.
learning on the fly.
People often envy experienced business owners and think they had an easy ride to victory. But most of the time that is not the case. Individuals who choose the other route are usually learning as they go, experiencing hardships along the way and failing in order to succeed.
I go out of my way to ask a list of questions to these people to figure out how he or she got to where they are today. I’m more interested in their early days than their current success story. The early work shows grit and perseverance. The sacrifices that were made, the financial struggles and obstacles along the way. It shows true courage to take the other route while he or she was just getting started.
What most people don’t understand is that most successful people will often admit, they are just winging in. That’s the best part. Anyone who acts like they know exactly what to do at any given time is simply an illusionist. I try to avoid those types of people and suggest you do that same.
It’s important to test the waters, try new things and experiment with things that might interest you. It’s also helpful to spend time with people outside of your normal circle of influence. This way, you are exposed to different opinions and perspectives. You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with; don’t let that stagnate your personal growth. The more we converse, the more we all can learn from one another.
If you are interested in networking with new people, I encourage you to reach out and talk with me about potential events that will be taking place in the upcoming future. This is the start of something special, and we can always make room for a person like you on the guest list.
Thanks for reading.
- mm