On Learning

Recently I went to Toronto to visit a few friends. One of them was my former boss when I worked as an Executive Assistant for the UW Federation of Students. He gave me a tour of his new job (he's a Urban Planner for a Hospital), and two things struck me while conversing with him.

1. His story (read ideas and ambitions) have not changed. In fact they have been very consistent and authentic in terms of his ideological predispositions on society. This is extremely important for personal marketing (and branding) if you wish to effect greater social change.
2. He had difficulty answering a basic question: What is the most important thing you've learned in your position? His non verbal communique suggested I put him in an uncomfortable position. That this type of question is too weird (or worse shouldn't be asked).

After much reflection and thought he came up with an answer - but it didn't seem authentic. You've heard it many times a response just to kinda shut you up and move on. Don't get me wrong I'm pretty sure he's doing an excellent job in his field, but why is it so difficult for people to answer such basic questions? Because they perceive them as loaded questions, and are used to verbose answers with lots of stilted language.

I think answering this fundamental questions is one of the most precious ways to not only market yourself, but help those around you make sense of the world. As Seth Godin puts it: "Being Safe is Risky", remarkable ideas, things, or people don't come from being safe - quite the opposite.

Educating others can be one of the most profitable and rewarding things that you can do. When was the last time you educated someone? Try it, (it doesn't have to be long) short and simple will do just fine in this attention deficit economy.