Growing

Still Discovering, Learning, Making A Fool Of Yourself

Garth Beyer

“I don’t mind looking stupid. I don’t know everything.”

Those were the words of a well-seasoned PR pro after asking what “lossless images” were during a meeting.

While she thought she was making a fool of herself, I was thankful she asked because I had no clue what lossless images were either. In fact, it sounded like they were saying lostless images, which made it even more confusing.

It’s a fairly natural situation that if you have a question about something, someone else in the room has the same question, but so follows the tragedy of relying on someone else to ask the question.

Please learn that asking questions that help you discover or learn something new — essentially asking questions that make you feel you’re making a fool of yourself, have the exact opposite effect.

It shows you care. It shows you’re humble and can embrace humility. It shows you believe you can still grow.

 

Stay Positive & We Get Better When We Continuously Feel Like We’re Making Fools Of Ourselves

They Weren’t Always The Way They Are

They Weren’t Always The Way They Are

Garth Beyer

Conversations And Opinions Change

Richard Branson. Bernadette Jiwa. Chris Brogan. These idols of ours, they weren’t always this remarkable, this flawless, this all-knowing, this helpful.

Jump back to page 400 of Seth Godin’s blog and notice how different the style of writing is.

Listen to the first few podcasts of Debbie Millman or James Altucher and notice how different their conversations are.

Watch some of Tim Ferriss’s old YouTube videos compared to what he rolls out today.

They weren’t always the way they are now. Through falling, failure, and feedback, they’ve come a long way. However!

If we asked any one of our idols if they are happy with where they are at, they would say there is still room for improvement, that they’re still tweaking things, still trying new ways of communicating, of growing.

The way they are now won’t be the way they are 20 months from now either.

You can’t glide at remarkable, you can’t plateau at incredible, you can’t pause at excellent. These labels are only stamped on those who keep moving forward. It doesn’t do anyone justice when we just accept that someone is talented.

Nor does it do us justice to think we can’t also work to where our idols are at now. They’ve made it to remarkable and work to stay that way. Why can’t/shouldn’t/won’t we?

 

Stay Positive & Let’s Do It

Photo credit

Progressional Hierarchy (professional food chain)

Garth Beyer

We constantly view the food chain from left to right or bottom to top, with each animal to the right, triumphing or feasting on the animal to the left in order to survive and grow.

The same goes for the professional food chain, which we try to soften by calling it a hierarchy to establish a sense of “order” rather than “dominance.”

There’s a plot twist to this view of positional establishment – rather a perfect 180 degree twist.

In the professional world, it’s not about feasting on the work of those lower than you. (Although some people decide to take this dark side to development, alas, it pays to recognize that whatever success they acquire is short-lived) In the professional world, it’s about feasting on the work, the success, the ways of growth from those above or to the right of you.

Climbing on the shoulders of giants isn’t a “bad thing” when the giants help you on to their shoulders. It’s what I call the progressional hierarchy of the truly professional world. It is a food chain, if you want to call it that as well, which brings us to greater heights in our lives, in other’s lives, and in the world.

In the wild, growth is developed through the consumption of all that is lower, slower, less necessary, and less important.

In the real world, growth is developed through gathering all the knowledge and experience of those who are above us, bigger than us, better than us, more educated than us, and – dare I say it – more passionate than us.

 

Stay Positive & They Are More Passionate … For Now At Least

Garth E. Beyer