At QuantumShift’s leadership development program, one of the many tips that attendees received was that in order to succeed as an entrepreneur, they would have to dedicate themselves to a life of learning. Focusing on improving yourself and a dedication to knowledge of all types was a main ingredient to having a successful business.
While many balked at first, thinking this meant continuing education, what was really meant by this was learning more about yourself, more about your customers, your product and anything else you were interested in. It was the actual learning experience that brought the owners of these companies to the forefront and helped them keep up with ever changing business demands.
They found it was not so much about balancing learning with their other interests, as it was about priorities. One of those priorities should be to always learn. In today’s quickly evolving business community, knowing what you need to do is just as important as finding the time to do it. We all have the same 24 hours a day, yet some people seem to accomplish all they set out to do, while others don’t do much of anything.
There is also a difference between information and knowledge, which leads to wisdom. Many of us have lots of facts that we have memorized or data that is stored in our brains. We have access to tons of information online. However, knowledge is being able to interpret this information, analyze it and put it to use.
Changing your daily routine and realizing that each thing you do is a choice, will gradually result in a change in your life and these business owners found that the more they became interested in not only various aspects of their business but hobbies and subjects which were far outside of the scope of business, the more they found different ways to provide new services for their customers. The small act of even the simplest changes seemed to activate something that evolved gradually and then began to pick up steam.
Looking back, in the past, what these entrepreneurs were gathering would have been considered knowledge, a general understanding of various skills and principles, but most of us have lost the ability (or interest!) to learn in this way. Discovering a new way to do something routine or adding to what we already know and then applying it to our lives seems to be a lost art.
Amid all of the other tips that these entrepreneurs received, they realized that learning in a classroom or learning a new business skill has somehow become more important than expanding their interests. What small business owners are now finding out is that learning itself is a skill, and if they wish to excel, learning must be practised.
© Copyright 2016 Chris Draper All rights reserved.
image courtesy of henley.ac.uk
