When you are running a business, you are CEO, Chief Everything Officer. The learning curve to succeed would equate to learning 1 year's work in 1 week. This entire process taught me plenty about how to learn multiple aspects in the shortest time and how to become a better version of myself. Today I want to share with you 5 important lessons if you want to optimize your learning curve.

1. Dare To Ask Questions

When you start off in any role be it as a boss or a staff, you don't know much about your job. Most people go through the process trying to figure everything out themselves after basic training is given to them. This process is usually the slower option. For me, I ask a lot of questions because I want to learn fast. Having said that, I don't mean asking questions to be spoon fed. For the record, I'm very against spoon-feeding. You ask questions to learn, not because you are too lazy to google.

What asking questions truly means

There are a couple of common problems encountered when applying this point. For starters, many people don't dare to ask too many questions because they think too much. They think people will judge them, dislike them, etc.. Another important observation is sometimes people don't bother asking questions because they only care about getting the surface level of the job done. They don't care enough to do it well. For example, 'who cares about this new technique someone got outstanding results from when my existing method can still help me meet my minimum performance standard?' It never once occurred to them that maybe if they learnt this new technique, they might meet their minimum performance standard in half the time and have more time to slack... The last problem about asking questions is when someone takes 'daring to asking questions' literally without EQ and ask obvious questions where the answer can easily be found in their company inbox, portal or can easily be googled. Who wants to spare effort to help someone who is taking their time and helpfulness for granted?

When I say ask questions, I mean ask questions that can get you ahead in your work and the answer will most optimally be only found in the heads of your experienced colleagues. An obvious lazy question would be like product related information that can be found in product specifications. A learning question would be something like asking someone with proven success how to market a certain product or service optimally. Also, ask specifically so that you really can get started and not in a generic manner where you still have so many questions that you procrastinate. Anything that appears unclear appears difficult and we tend to delay difficult tasks.

2. Have Higher Standards

If your goal is simply to earn enough to get by, frankly a lot of people only need $2000 to $3000 a month. So why do most of us strive for a higher wage? We want to do better than subsistence right? This idea applies to our minimum performance standards at work too. When we set targets for ourselves, it is important to set one where we need to stretch our abilities to achieve it. If we can easily achieve the goal we set for ourselves as long as we go to work, I guarantee there won’t be any personal growth because we do not need to learn new skills to obtain a different result. A lot of times we may find ourselves contented with doing just enough and this can make us happy for as long as we can get away with it. However, a crisis, new policy changes or a new competitor can easily disrupt our livelihoods because all this while when we are staying contented in our comfort zone, the world is changing. There will come a day where old knowledge and old methods become obsolete and all the lead time which we could have used to learn new skills will suddenly look like time wasted.

By simply setting higher standards for ourselves, we will have to alter some of our existing behaviors to attain the new results. This will already set you on the path of progress as you would have learnt something new. With the current state of the economy, you never know when your newly acquired skills can save you.

3. Dare to entertain possibilities

Human beings would still be stuck in the middle ages if not because humans dared to dream. COVID19 might not have spread so rampantly if we did not have ships and airplanes. Obviously, I’m saying this in jest. These inventions helped mankind see the world. Did you know that many people once ridiculed those who said flying was possible as silly? I assure you every brilliant idea was once touted as difficult or crazy before it came to fruition. I think what’s worse is if the one pouring cold water on the idea is yourself!

Personal growth always starts with a dream. Only when we believe that something is possible will we bother to put in effort to make it happen. It doesn’t matter how small the dream is. If you tell a person who stutters that one day they will give a speech to a rousing applause, he or she may already self-sabotage the idea with self-doubt. However, if this person happen to encounter success stories from elsewhere such as seeing a video of Nick Vujicic playing the guitar, maybe they might be inspired to try overcome their stutter.

A big part of progress comes from hope and entertaining possibilities. I can tell you that prior to joining my current firm, if anyone were to tell me that as a financial advisor you can conduct a business without looking for leads, I’d tell the person he/she is crazy. Yet, because I really had a colleague who does business through this model, I entertained the possibility and my social media page was started last April 2019. I can tell you this model was particularly helpful during the circuit breaker when I still get new enquiries coming in without leaving my home. If I douse cold water on the possibilities from day 1, how would I reap the fruits 1 year later?

4. Be impatient about your progress but realistic about your timeline

Life is a marathon not a sprint. Especially in the current technological age where we are so used to instant gratification, it’s hard to think long term. This is why some experts and even my mentors advocate patience. Certain forms of growth and progress need time. For example, you can’t give birth to a baby in one month even if a man impregnates 9 women. So why did I say we need to be impatient about our progress?

It is my observation that whenever we tell people not to be hasty about the results because certain things take time, they end up taking their own sweet time to get basic things done. When people say some foundations take time to build, it’s with the assumption that people are working their optimal on a normal day. For example, Apple won’t develop such a loyal fan base if they took 5 years to roll out the next version of iPhone. They rolled out a good phone once a year or every 2 years and build trust with consumers. The trust simply grows stronger each year. Likewise, even if we know that our big aspirations will take time to materialize, we should strive to achieve it sooner rather than later. This means that we should not be contented with just doing the minimum but to innovate and explore new ideas to see if we can do things better.

It is precisely because of this impatience that I am able to find the discipline and motivation to write articles, produce infographics and recently rolled out my own video. I did everything on my own with no outsource help. Was I seeing results even when I only wrote articles? Yes. However, maybe with multiple channels of outreach mediums, I can get better results. There’s no guarantees. My message is really to push the limits in order to see if you can reach your goals sooner. It is the effort that counts.

5. Take Ego Out Of the Equation Of Learning

The people who learn best are the ones who can detach their ego from their learning process. This does not mean that we got no pride. Mind you, at the time when I joined my firm, I’ve already had a good number of sales awards and incentive trips on my resume. However, I’ve always chosen to adopt the mindset that I’m a rookie in new knowledge. Ego can be represented in 2 ways. One, you cannot afford to lose face, hence it holds you back from doing anything. Two, you think you know it all, you become unteachable. Both are detrimental to growth.

The fastest way to learn is to adopt a teachable attitude. Of course, there are caveats to do this smartly. Some people are too humble they take advice from everyone including the unqualified. You will end up with unfiltered good and bad knowledge like that. Learn from people whom you wish to be like. That’s the safest. Next, adopt a teachable attitude for real. A lot of times, those with ego delude themselves that they are teachable but they are mentally rejecting every suggestion that is outside their comfort zone. I mean, seriously, if it’s within your comfort zone, you would have done it already without need of a mentor telling you. Usually the best students are those who want the outcome so badly, they are willing to take any kind of hardship to get there. Sometimes this include putting pride aside for a while. For example, someone you dislike might be the best person to teach you the skills to become better. The feeling might suck to seek help from someone you don’t like but it’s temporary. The skills you gain in the process are permanent.

Summary

To sum up, here are the 5 growth lessons I learnt:

1. Dare to ask questions

• Be naturally curious about how the best people do their stuff and find out from them.

2. Have a higher standard

• Set goals that require a stretch in your abilities to achieve. Only then you will push yourself to do more than what you usually do.

3. Dare to entertain possibilities

• Not being able to do something now does not mean you will forever not be able to do it. However, for you to put in effort, you need to believe it is possible first.

4. Be impatient about your progress but realistic about the timeline

• Always look for ways to achieve your goals sooner while acknowledging the magnitude of your goals. This way you strike a balance between being enterprising and getting disappointed.

5. Take ego out of the equation of learning

• Adopt a rookie attitude to learning and take action. Zero action x potential = zero.

If you believe you are ready to be groomed and would like to explore a career with high income and growth potential do drop me a message.

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Disclaimer: The content created are based on my personal opinions and may not be representative to everyone or any organisation. If you have any doubts or queries pertaining to insurance or investment, please seek professional advice from a trusted adviser in an official setting. You may also reach out to me if you do not have a present adviser using the message box under 'Let's Talk'.