“If only I knew then what I know now.” We've all said it at one time or another as we look back on our earlier struggles from the vantage point of hard-won experience. In fact, if you're like most people, you've probably said it several times, each time you've had what I call an “a-ha moment,” where you learn something new and realize how your life would have been different if you'd known it earlier.
When you say this you're not just saying it would have been nice to have this knowledge back then. You're suggesting that if you did, you would have done things differently – you would have acted decisively and with more confidence. You're assuming you would have been more strategic with your time and resources, less distracted by “noise” and more focused on what really matters. You promise yourself that's the way it's going to be from now on. Eventually you have another “a-ha moment” and you make the same promise as the cycle continues.
Wouldn't it be great if you could take the collected wisdom from all those moments – especially the ones you haven't had yet – put it all together and put it to use right now?
Well, the fact is, you can do that, because the knowledge of best practices is already out there. It doesn't matter what issues you've had, or are going to have; someone out there has gone through it before and has solutions or even just a way of looking at things that you haven't thought of yet. The truth of what works is out there. It's in Study Clubs and workshops. It's in the minds of industry leaders and your colleagues.
It's important to surround yourself with people who share your passion and have insights of value. It doesn't matter if it's with us at Spear (although of course we hope it is). The important thing is that you find people you trust and work with them to develop your skills in a progressive, layered way. The alternative is continual trial and error, and that is a slow and painful way to build a career.