3 posts tagged “learning”

Needless to say, having a wee bit of imagination is a good thing. Unlearning to learn some visual tools and skills seemed appropriate so here is what I have just picked up and reading currently.

More on it when I get through it but I can tell you that after about 40 pages, I am buying a big whiteboard for the home.

The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures

Dan Roam

Swimmy, Stripes and Orbitting the Giant Hairball are all excellent hand drawn visual presentations of very powerful messages. Furthermore, with coffee shops being a part-time habitat for me, napkins are always plentiful.

My professional life started as a Field Sales Executive in the enterprise space back in India - fresh out of college.

Here is what I learnt that helps me every moment of life:

1. I had to deliver to survive and if possible, do well
   
2. I had to always be creative to deliver beyond expectations
   
3. I had to understand people and their motivations, not to mention their body language really well
4. There was no room for ego
5. I became comfortable with commitment and delivering against it
6. I learnt the relentless pursuit and perseverance
   
7. I learnt how to never give up
   
8. I became extremely comfortable with accosting strangers
9. I learnt how to engage CEOs to the security guard who signed me in into the company and realized that business was all about people
   
10. Finally and most importantly,I had no one to blame - economy, politics, "the leads are weak" etc. - but myself for not meeting my quota. As Woody Allen said "The only thing standing between me and greatness is me”

Imagine: 1) The Dream (2) Working hard towards it (3) and Living it

This was one of the most empowering statements for me since I landed in the US - fortunately being in a TOTALLY new country (and my very fist time out of India) helped. Every thing was different - from driving on the "wrong" side, toggling the light switch the "wrong" way to turn on a light, looking at menus that were incomprehensible, responding genuinely to the question "How are you doing?" to not knowing what to do when a girl leans over to you when I was about to "supposedly" start dating [my wife and then my girl friend].

The single most powerful statement in all those FOB situations was "I don't know". I learned so quickly that I continue using it to enrich my life - personally and professionally. I noticed that many avoided that acknowledgment from fear of being judged or embarrassments. Unfortunately, the more time one took in saying that and learning, one only got worse off. After being a few years in the US, one probably should know what a latte is.

A really non-judgemental place to practice it would be kids, teenagers - they know a lot of "new" things and you will be amazed at what you can learn.

Imagine: No Judgements