“In times of change learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists” – Roland Barthes
A while ago we touched on ‘resilience’ and I felt that given this had been addressed it was time to move on to other things – but decided today that there is a difference angle to consider – and at is about giving things a go or ‘learning’.
Did you know that Einstein, at school, was so dull he was called “Dull Albert” – and he was described as mentally slow, unsociable and was considered to dream foolish dreams? It took 4 attempts for him to finally make the grade into Zurich Polytechnic School…. yet think of his greatness.
History is brimming with examples of people who have tried all sorts; crash landed and then bounced back.
Apparently (according to Colin Hiles at RogenSi) their bounce back could be attributed to their ability to learn – or their ability to ‘learn how to learn’ that was key.
If you think about us humans – most of us don’t want to fail – in fact we fear the ‘f word’ terribly. We worry about meeting expectations and making a mistake or trying something new and as a result many of us never get started on a pathway to reach our goals.
It may sound strange – but it’s kind of like failure avoidance which really becomes success avoidance.
So – the question is “what allows others to bounce back when others quit?”
Well, it seems, it is the ability to learn.
Apparently:
- most entrepreneurs fail an average of 5 times before they are finally successful
- Entrepreneurs consider failures as learning experiences that lead them to success.
The simple, easy, insightful question we need to remember to ask ourselves along the way is; “What have I learned from this experience?”
It opens us up to getting valuable feedback from what once could have been called a ‘failure’ – but really is another event on the learning track.
And perhaps about now we should take a moment to pat ourselves on the back – because if you are reading this you are already on a learning process.
To keep learning … is to keep moving forward.
