Real Learning is Absolute Pain — Discuss.
I’m happy to say that over the past year or so I’ve rediscovered habitual reading. I think this is very important for most people to have as a skill in their lives.
One of my mentors regrets being too late to begin nurturing this school, and argues that we should all endeavor to read at least one non-fiction book a month.
If you were to comb the habits and skills of ‘high-performing’ people as I do, you will notice that a high regard for the importance of reading is an ever present. I take this as a very strong hint for how I should be budgeting my time.
As a young boy and teen I regularly read fiction. Now I very much enjoy non-fiction reading as a major avenue for my ongoing education, learning and nourishment.
The title of this piece was inspired by my most recent completion — Peter Drucker’s seminal book The Effective Executive. In it Drucker argues that effectiveness can be learned, but that he cannot (and has not) written a textbook for this. Rather, the goal of the book is to stimulate readers to begin this learning for themselves.
Certain lessons are hard to teach via textbook if they are heavily reliant on individual assembly. Not all skills and learnings are neatly arranged blocks of content that simply need to be transferred over. Business is one such domain which departs from this style of learning.
Really, the books vs. textbooks style of learning I rely on for business education is based on the fact that what is valuable to me are the lessons, experiences, thoughts and insights of others.
“The only real mistake is the one from which you learn nothing” the famous saying goes.
And so I have a commitment to observing and learning the lessons learnt by others through what we call ‘mistakes’ and ‘failures’. I however prefer to adopt Spotify’s terminology, where they refer to failure as “the accidental discovery of something new”.
On reflection, I think I deeply appreciate the learning of others because of the learning I’ve had when I’ve… well… “accidentally discovered something new”.
And in my experience, the biggest learning comes after the most painful moments. In Jim Collins’ recount of his first meeting with the legendary Drucker, he records the end of their interaction, an end I find so strikingly humble.
At the end of their day together, the ever-grateful and young Collins asked “how can I repay you” to which Drucker replied something along the lines of “my dear fellow, you’ve already taught me so much”. Collins reflects that Drucker was always looking to learn from everyone he met, even at an old age and with his status as the father of modern management.
I pray we all can adopt Drucker’s hunger for learning, so that we can learn from and then ultimately avoid the pain of others.
by Joe Wehbe
Thanks for Reading! Nothing makes me more excited than people reading my stuff, this has always been one of my dreams… to write! It took me a while but hey, I’m still a young guy!
I also hang out on Instagram and LinkedIN. In case you don’t find me boring :)
