Don't Follow Me, Follow My Moves

How often do you get upset about your organization’s culture? Do you ever question why your organization does not reach its full potential? Have you ever questioned if your C.E.O should be fired or resign? Over the years, I have witnessed several C.E.O’s (Presidents) come and go never fulfilling promises of change, transformation, and glory. Oddly, experiencing this misfortune has been a blessing. I believe experiencing so many unfulfilled promises from leaders has been a gift for me to learn from their mistakes. In other words, everyday I believe it's my duty to become an active learner. An active learner is a person that uses their prior learning to cross-reference and fully comprehend information. An active learner is a person that understands that learning is not a spectator sport.

As a former student athlete, I learned that in order to leverage yourself as a major player in the game of life you must study others. You must learn from their mistakes as well as their strengths. To put it another way, you must study the moves of the people that are in the career or position you want. For example, if you have dreams of being the next Jay Z, listen to his advice and “don't follow him but follow his moves.”

If an active learner were to follow Jay Z’s moves there are at least four things that would standout. First, you would learn that it is important to do for self. Second, you would align yourself with the right people. Third, you would always promote your success and forget about your failures. Last, after achieving success you continue to search for new opportunities.

Former Olympic hopeful Molly Bloom, is a great example of an active learner because she was able to turn a small window of opportunity into a million dollar business. Molly watched her former boss make mistakes running an underground poker tournament. Although she knew nothing about poker she watched, learned, and then addressed what her boss was missing to succeed. In fact, her success was so astonishing that she had a movie made after her called Molly's game.

Given these points, being an active learner is important because it allows you to grow at an accelerated speed. It allows you to process things quickly while paying attention to details. It provides you the hard skills that get you hired and the soft skills to avoid you from getting fired. Therefore, stay current, pay attention, and love learning because learning is beautiful.