Positive Principles Newsletter
May 2004
____________________________________________
"We should not only use all the brains we have, but all that we can borrow."
- Woodrow Wilson
____________________________________________
This months tip -- Always be open to learning
Just this week I was again reminded of the importance of humility and being
open to learn from everyone.
One day, my daughter Alexandra was home sick from school so I took her with
me when I went to run some errands. That morning, I was working on
a piece of business marketing literature so I took it with me to review
at lunch and make a few edits. While we were standing in line, Alexandra
noticed the paper I was holding and asked to look at it. I thought, "Sure,
what does it hurt to make her happy and let her take a look?" So, driven
more by a desire to please my daughter than to learn from another person's
perspective, I handed her the marketing piece and asked her what she
thought.
What followed was amazing. I watched as my 8 (almost 9) year old daughter
carefully and thoughtfully reviewed what I had developed. She then offered
two or three very insightful and helpful comments on what she got from the
brochure. To be honest, it never occurred to me to get input on this piece
from my child. What a mistake that would have been.
As we grow in both knowledge and skills it is easy to discount or ignore
input from people that we might perceive as less skilled or knowledgeable
than us.
Whose input do we discount? Maybe it is our children, our spouse, our
employees, people with less formal education than us, and . . . the list
goes on and on. Is it possible that they see something we don't
see? Despite what we think sets us apart from them, could we learn from
their perspective and experience?
Virtually every successful person I know or know of says that their
willingness to continue learning was critical to their success.
So for now, I encourage you to remember this month's tip . . .
Always be open to learning
Have a great day,
Guy Harris
The Recovering Engineer
