They say that the real learning happens when you leave school and leave university. You have the drivers’ license, now it’s time to drive. But how many people enter the real world and keep reading, find better teachers and reach new levels of expertise?
Being part of the business learning community, here at Zoomination, we see curious business owners continuously joining us every week to learn:
- How the newest software can be used to expand their companies (or render them obsolete)
- What to do to lead from the front as business owners, creating real leadership
- How to take action, at the right time, in the right volume.
- And so much more…
There is an art to learning continuously. We’d like to uncover what it means to get the real value out of plugging into an online learning process.
Do You Need Help?
It’s one thing to think: “Man, I need help.” It’s an entirely different thing to say out loud: “Man, I need help.” Confronting the reality of “not knowing something” about business is often the toughest pill business owners have to swallow. As a human being, the idea that you might be wrong, in general, is the most difficult thing to admit.
This is why you’ll find that so many people actively don’t seek out books that teach marketing, leadership and sales. Doing this means you’re wrong about something!
So, it becomes easier to say: “Man, I’m like forty-years old, I don’t read!” or “You need to strike a healthy balance” (balance, looking more like extra time on the golf-course, or more time in front of the TV…) Your bank account is the ultimate realist, however. And eventually, you won’t be able to keep excusing yourself from taking the right action. You will find yourself looking for online courses, to improve yourself and your business. And eventually, you will admit:
“Man, I need help here.” This is where you submit to the process.
Submitting To The “Idea” Of The Process
Journaling, Meditation and Therapy all share one thing in common. They separate the “you” from the thoughts, feelings and emotions you are having. Sometimes it’s hard to try to fix our businesses, because we inject a ton of our personality into it and by extension, our own very human flaws too.
- We may be too controlling and do all the work ourselves, leading to staff that don’t feel comfortable doing anything without your permission.
- We’re nervous about the new age of marketing and as such, hunker down on what “used to work” before.
- We feel safer dealing with the “same-old” problems, and therefore don’t expand to seek better quality problems.
These are all very real examples of imprinting our businesses with our mental states – it happens all the time – and small businesses suffer from it.
To grow a business, we must by default, grow ourselves. Otherwise, the business will always revert back to its previous mental state (yours). Submitting to a continuous learning process is less about the lesson and more about you deciding to grow. Not just your business, but yourself. Your ideas. Your thinking towards your own thinking. You might say: “Does this line of thinking serve me? It can’t be! Look at the state of my life? My bank account? The quality of work my staff offer?”
The questions you ask yourself each week will improve, and ultimately, you’ll create a firm approach to observing your attitude towards your business.
Your Actions, and Iterating Them
See, it is in this space of observing our thoughts, actions and the motivations behind actions, that we find what is truly important.
- Why did we start this company?
- Can we take this husk of a business and make it truly special?
- For our staff to work at? And our customers to subscribe to?
From these questions, we can decide the most important action to take at that moment.
We can understand that, yes, while we take new actions (based on the latest trends, what works in business now) and we see the new results…
While we might fail at certain things, we are not failing as people, we have simply made a mistake in business, a whole different playground. This process, of continuous learning, gives entrepreneurs the freedom to go out and make mistakes and successes, without the shame of failing.
In summary
Plugging into a continuous learning program and getting the real value out of it, is not an admission of failure as a business owner, and by default as a person. By choosing to learn week-on-week, you give yourself the permission to take action, be wrong about a few things and learn from these things. All without bruising your self-esteem as a business owner.
It’s tough out there. But by giving yourself the permission to be wrong, you give yourself the freedom to become tougher.
