(Pic: #246 just finished 1KM swim and 20KM cycle. Heading the transition area and prepare to run 5K)
Dressing smart is just the appearance. To be successful, you need something in your ‘brain’; something that makes you ‘standing out’ in the crowd.
For most people, they have the best knowledge after the last education (degree) when they start their first job. After that, your knowledge level tends to drop year by year. If you don’t ‘add’ knowledge to your brain, then by the 10th year, most people are actually using past knowledge to do a modern job. Believe me, this is exactly what’s happening to most
people in the industry (and don’t be surprised)!
You may said that after 10 years, you gain a lot of experiences. However, science shows that ‘experience does not always lead to excellence’. This means that experience is good to have (and essential), but you cannot rely on experience to excel in your career. You need ‘fuel’ to feed your brain in order to succeed.
Back to my client: Mr. G. told me that the last formal education he had that is related to his current work was about 10 yrs ago when he was in a university. After that G. hasn’t got any training that can boost his competitiveness at his workplace. So, I sat down with him and went through a few options that he could do to boost his skills. At the end, he chose an online course that could teach him how to code in SAS for data processing because his company uses SAS and his dream job requires some understanding of that software skill.
A few weeks into this online course for G. now and he is happy about it, although he no longer has that much time in the evening to watch TV. At least, he finally realises that what helps him at workplace is not what’s on TV, but his skills and knowledge.
When was the last time you invested in yourself on skills and knowledge? It’s never too late to begin; life is long.
Dr. C. Richard Wu @ REEAConsulting.com
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