Despite the fact that I've published well over 1,000 articles and am the best-selling author of 12 books, and I can boast having earned 5 college degrees, a tectonic realization made me shudder, recently:

I AM NOT LEARNING FAST ENOUGH!

Here are some of the accompanying insights:

(1) The speed with which I learn, the velocity, is perhaps more important than what I learn. For instance, I've always been what I consider to be a lucky researcher. Plunk me down in a library and within mere minutes I'll not only find what I came in for, but also more important items that I didn't know existed. Or, to put it another way, I can undertake to learn A, but I'll stumble upon Z in the process, and that will make all the difference. Speed enables me to sift through lots of silt and inevitably I'll find gold, or who knows, diamonds, even if I'm in a less than ideal place.

(2) If you're slow to learn, you'll be reluctant to adapt. In business, sloth at best means a s-l-o-w death.

(3) Learning NEW things ushers in the ABANDONMENT OF THE OLD, a necessary condition to innovation and breakthroughs. Or, as a glib baseball coach once said, "You can't keep your foot on first, and steal second!"

(4) Feedback loops are not naturally occurring in many fields, and especially for entrepreneurs and the self-employed. We have to seek them out and develop them, even if it feels like we're forcing information from people. Every day should involve some explicit "polling" of customers. "How did that set of audios work out for you?" and "How are we doing?" should be constantly asked, and we should listen especially for what information ISN'T immediately forthcoming.

Every few years yet another soldier emerges, blistered, tattered, and paranoid, from the underbrush on an island in the Pacific, only to be informed that World War II ended more than 60 years ago. Here, he has been waging battles against enemies that have been friends for more than a half-century.

The picture in his head has been hopelessly out of whack with the "reality" of the surrounding world, but without information, how could he know that?

Make sure you're in a position to learn as fast as possible!

See Also : Lens Canon