The Knowledge You Need to Succeed

By Carl Woolston • April 25th, 2009 • Email This Post • Print This Post

That you are subscribed to this blog is probably a signal that I’m preaching to the choir, but I want to emphasize something that I’m deeply passionate about. We have a problem with leadership and success education in this country. If I wanted to I could find all sorts people, organizations, and government policies to blame for this problem. That however, is not the purpose of this blog. I want to speak briefly to the mindset and attitude we need to obtain an in depth education.

When I speak of leadership education I’m not talking about learning the basics. I’m talking about depth in our education. How many of you had this experience. The teacher or professor would announce an upcoming test and you would cram and memorize whatever facts that you were supposed to learn in order to get a good grade. You would pass the test and then forget most all the information you just memorized. This process was repeated in biology, math, and many of your other classes. For me, I focused on figuring out what the teacher wanted for answers and then spitting those answers back so that I could get a good grade. Maybe your experience was similar? Although this is a part of education, education for leadership and success (I define as making a difference and making money) is vastly different.

The knowledge it takes to be successful in the real world is not stagnant and is rarely something you memorize. It is understanding mindsets and psychology. It is understanding how to leverage technology. It is understanding how to relate to and interact with others. It is understanding patterns of history, how the marketplace fits into these trends, and how we build something that lasts. It is understanding the relationships between message, strategy, systems, and cash flow. Success education is understanding how to take a vision of what we want for our lives and assembling the right tools to make it happen. It is a journey and not a destination.

On a larger scale, learning the trends of marketing, the web, and technology are among this depth of education that every organization must adopt to succeed. Once again, not just memorizing facts but constantly learning as to be aware of changing trends, mindsets, and how to relate to your customers.

To every man is given a choice he makes alone,
It is a choice that no other can make for him,
It’s a decision that he must bear on his shoulders,
And reap the consequences of this one decision,
not just one time - but over and over again:
Will He Learn?

As a side not, thanks for all the feedback this last week on the webinar we did with the Center for Social Leadership. If you missed it, you can download The Economics of Influence MP3 for free here. We’ve enjoyed interacting with you on these webinars. We’re hearing some great comments back on how Hub Mentality is making a difference in your business and lives. We’re also hearing back from organizations both large and small about its relevance in today’s marketplace.

Until next time…

**************************************

Carl Woolston is a business and marketing consultant with KGaps Consulting, a co-creator of the proprietary marketing methodology “Hub Mentality,”, and a co-founder of The Center for Social Leadership.