Navigating the road ahead
Farrah Gray/NNPA Columnist
Issue date: 1/4/09 Section: Business
Getting you where you need to go takes two separate efforts - one to look at the map and the other to look out of the windshield.
Once you have defined your goals and vision, you have to learn what it takes to get there.
Education and training is important; it's the second component to "doing the knowledge." And you have to have root knowledge, not branch knowledge. This means you can't just skim the surface of a subject matter and suddenly become the master of it. Having a comprehensive knowledge requires digging deep, even if you are ahead of the game at the start with a bundle of natural skills for a particular subject. That's when you're likely to take too many uncalculated risks and enter a minefield ill-equipped.
Study your chosen profession. You can acquire that knowledge in school or in life. Mentors and teachers come hugely in to play here. These are the people who can give you the information you need to move forward, especially at the start line. They often make for great cheerleaders, too.
Even the cream of the crop has coaches, teachers, and mentors. Famous singers have singing coaches. Olympic athletes have coaches. Actors have acting teachers. Bestselling authors have editors.
Professionals like lawyers, doctors, and scientists have mentors - those senior to them who know more through more experience, and can inspire new ways of thinking and problem-solving. We all need someone who can take our raw talent and transform it into polished talent. We also need people who can challenge our thinking, and get us to acknowledge a different perspective from time to time.
Trouble is, as witnesses to (and for some, envious admirers of) others' success we typically see the end result rather than a progression of practice, practice, practice.
When we watch a star perform on the stage or a runner dashing to the finish line at the Olympics, we forget to consider all the manufacturing that went into that single, winning moment. We skip over the hours upon hours of missed attempts and fine-tunings that helped usher out that now dazzling performance of talent. We are in awe of the outcome but fail to acknowledge and appreciate all the in-come leading up to it.
Once you have defined your goals and vision, you have to learn what it takes to get there.
Education and training is important; it's the second component to "doing the knowledge." And you have to have root knowledge, not branch knowledge. This means you can't just skim the surface of a subject matter and suddenly become the master of it. Having a comprehensive knowledge requires digging deep, even if you are ahead of the game at the start with a bundle of natural skills for a particular subject. That's when you're likely to take too many uncalculated risks and enter a minefield ill-equipped.
Study your chosen profession. You can acquire that knowledge in school or in life. Mentors and teachers come hugely in to play here. These are the people who can give you the information you need to move forward, especially at the start line. They often make for great cheerleaders, too.
Even the cream of the crop has coaches, teachers, and mentors. Famous singers have singing coaches. Olympic athletes have coaches. Actors have acting teachers. Bestselling authors have editors.
Professionals like lawyers, doctors, and scientists have mentors - those senior to them who know more through more experience, and can inspire new ways of thinking and problem-solving. We all need someone who can take our raw talent and transform it into polished talent. We also need people who can challenge our thinking, and get us to acknowledge a different perspective from time to time.
Trouble is, as witnesses to (and for some, envious admirers of) others' success we typically see the end result rather than a progression of practice, practice, practice.
When we watch a star perform on the stage or a runner dashing to the finish line at the Olympics, we forget to consider all the manufacturing that went into that single, winning moment. We skip over the hours upon hours of missed attempts and fine-tunings that helped usher out that now dazzling performance of talent. We are in awe of the outcome but fail to acknowledge and appreciate all the in-come leading up to it.
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