"THERE IS NOTHING MORE NOBLE THAN UNDERSTANDING AND APPLYING SOUND DISCIPLINE"
T A MCNEIL
JUST FOR A LIGHTER SIDE
Start Anywhere - Greatness Doesn't Know Where You Begin
One of the best ways to improve performance is to change where you start.
You don’t need to start at the bottom of the mountain to get to the top. You can learn from the people that came before you.
Standing on the shoulders of the people that have done what you want to do changes your starting position. You’ve unconsciously done this all your life. Consider how you learned calculus in school. Isaac Newton climbed the calculus mountain years ago. And while you might never reach the summit, you’re certainly not trying to work out everything for yourself. Learning from his work allows you to start halfway up the mountain.
There is a wrinkle worth pointing out. Most of what you learn in school changes slowly. However, in the real world, a lot of what you need to know to get ahead changes quickly. And that means finding someone with a lot of experience and learning from them isn’t the best approach.
Experience can be deceiving. When I worked at the three-letter-intelligence agency, I had a mentor who was 25 years older than me. While it was well-intentioned, the specific advice he offered me to get ahead wasn’t relevant anymore. It worked for him 25 years ago, but the environment had changed too much. However, his general advice was spot on.
When starting a new job, find the person that just got promoted from the role you got hired into and ask them for specific advice. The word specific is important. These are the tools, the techniques, the skills that worked in the same situation you’re coming into. If you talk to someone who climbed the mountain a long time ago, odds are the specific advice isn’t as relevant as things have changed.
You control your starting position more than you think. For specific advice, find someone a step or two ahead of you. For general advice, find someone older who can put things in perspective.
FARNAM STREET
BRAIN FOOD
Shane Parrish
ALBEIT THERE ARE NO SILVER BULLETS - THIS IS CLOSE
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