I just read a wonderful article about how unknowingly certain phrases, characteristics, adjectives and such give a bad impression to others when we are speaking about ourselves (Although they are fine when it is another saying it about you). It offered a very good illustration of two letters of introduction: The first full of superlatives and the second was brief and straight to the point. I am now completely convinced that it is best for everyone if we strive to simplify our phrases to be as concise as possible in our communications.
I sometimes forget to consider how someone might misinterpret enthusiasm for arrogance. It has been especially difficult as a self-taught person facing misconceptions about that, to not succumb (when provoked) the urge to demonstrate knowledge. (Or to flaunt a degree) But again, it is now crystal clear to me that a simple discussion can give the false impression of flaunting, especially to a disinterested recipient, even if that is not one's true intent.
Someone who has the advantages of an "ivory league" education (My wife Maria for instance) is simply more recognized for that endeavor. Such are the terms of societal recognition, our meritocracy. I truly believe that school is great but contend that it is not as good as learning. We should try the ice cream before we celebrate the packaging. I read the books in school and truth be told really failed to grasp the telegram and radio signal transmission's until seeing the devices actually working at the Science and Technology Museum in Chicago. Experience brings ideas to life.
In my humble opinion it is better to have not only read Hedrick Smith's "Power Game" but to have actually experienced meditating while sitting in Ford’s Theater or pondering the things in life that are worth dying for while standing in Arlington Cemetery. (Even more enlightening would be if you have deployed in service to your country on foreign soil).
Knowing that there are 435 Congressional Representatives is much different than actually watching sessions where they're adopting legislation in the Nation’s Capital. Or rubbing elbows with a Senator in Old Georgetown or on the subway and striking up a conversation. It is amazing what people will tell you if you only have the audacity to ask.
What is a geology course at the university compared to seeing the volcanic rock of Mount Saint Helen up close, or having made the trip to Utah’s Hoodoo to see the wondrous Pink Cliffs? One can read the word "solitude" in Webster’s, but one only has inkling until experiencing a hundred miles of utter desolation along route 50 in the Great Basin.
Formal Education on a resume makes it obvious to others that someone is more or less at a certain level. But people never stay at any level, life is constantly changing. I hereby renounce and for evermore refuse to use or to accept “paper education” as leverage. I think we stick ourselves and others in a box when we rely on our paper merit.
It is the difference between the player and the fan. It has been said that you may be able to fool the fans but not the players. To anyone who has participated in a sport at any length, he or she sees the game in an entirely different clarity than those who have only been spectators. So much is overlooked when one does not really understand what he is seeing. In Mixed Martial Arts, those early competitions (Remember Denver in 1994) where the fans saw men laying up top of other men and seeming to rest, the bottom man flat on his back defending himself from a guard position, spectators grew bored and tired, not understanding the true struggle occurring before their eyes. The changes in leverage and positioning in such circumstances are often very subtle, the contestant’s must be patient, until one man finds a weakness, until one of the competitors makes a vital error. Only when the timing is perfect does the fighter act, at which point there is an explosion of power, technique and leverage. what follows is a transition to a more dominate position. Then the martial artist's skill is apparent to everyone, because it is more exciting and people are paying attention. Position then submission. It follows a series of offensive techniques, some are defended well, others not so much, until a finishing arm lock, triangle, omoplata or any of a variety of chokes is successfully applied to submit (But if necessary incapacitate) the opponent.
A civil engineer, for example who has a working understanding of weight, density, volume, velocity of flow, and pressure head might not have fully grasped one of the greatest applications of a engineering principle known as "detention time". The concepts really are only academic until the student is standing on the Hoover Dam or some similar miracle of the human spirit and has truly contemplated its peculiar significance. It is great to be able to plug and chug the calculations for brake horsepower but that is in no way equivalent to seeing those giant turbines in action.
Don't get me started about the difference between the hordes of career MBA's (some churned out by little more than diploma mills) by contrast to one whose experienced and skilled at start up ventures, who has had real skin in the game, Trust me when I tell you that these are very different kinds of knowledge. Of course it is certainly possible to acquire both the body of knowledge and the experience. But this happens only by application. It is good to be prepared if in your case this means spending a hundred thousand dollars for something you can learn from reading the right books, go for it. If nothing else you will make some good friends. Not to dismiss the many noble institutions of learning, not the hard work of those who've attained their recognition. It would behoove everyone to remember where the knowledge is first discovered. (with the exception of scientific research performed at universities) that would have been in the field. Once a discovery is made, the process is then carried into the classroom where it is typically at least one step removed from true applications.
A company’s growth is seen on the Balance Sheet from period to period. But this is but a necessarily overly simplistic glance at a company. There is no substitute for experience and research skills when you are determining the value of an asset. The many shipwrecks caused in the stormy seas of Wall Street‘s blind navigation with too great an emphasis on limited controls such as PE ratios without really grasping the intricacies of how that is manipulated by inappropriate accounting practices attests to that fact requiring no further explanation.
Not to say that financials are irrelevant. Financials help us to understand how the top line and everything in between connects to the bottom line. From this, those of us managing businesses learn to set up KPI’s , our mathematical skill helps us to quantify change. The right skill set is indispensable to know where we have been and where we want to go. But until one has made the actual trip, a thousand decisions every month, taking resources and making the actual operation work (yes marketing and the top line sales, but also controlling the cost of goods sold (or the cost of Services), the staffing, core operations or production, project management, complying with regulations and putting out fires . Until one himself has achieved the position of a market leader, until one has fallen on his face, gotten up and continued to fight, it is only a soft knowledge that which is acquired. Books can only provide a superficial insight, and it is not an apprenticeship that leads to mastery. One's judgement can only be hardened to the strength of a leader by time in the fire. And still I have found the best way to learn to block a punch is to get into the boxing ring and spend some time in the danger zone.
Without such bold entrepreneurship where would all of the specialists find work? The CPA’s, i.e., analysts, commodities traders executive support team, and the attorney’s, could not be employed to post and critique results had not there been someone to post them. They would simply have no occasion to make educated (and often wrong) guesses about those voluminous transactions conducted by the entrepreneurs’ construction. Of course assumptions are a major part of thinking, I concede that they are quite necessary. To be educated is to be opinionated, it goes hand in hand. The older experienced worker should have the wisdom to know the difference. Assumptions are fine so long as it is understood that it is only guessing. And so long as we do not fail to recognize the value in education is not merely in having it, because it is mercurial. It is about what is done with what we have.
One should never stand in the way of a doer. Credibility is in the doing. Never presume what can or cannot be done. What if George Washington, or Woodrow Wilson, or Eisenhower had presumed that they could not, where would we be now? Who would have the audacity if it were possible to go back in time to tell Edison that Rockefeller s oil lamps will always be the default solution to our lighting needs? And so the ones who have the will to create something, to build something they do not make excuses, they do not accept obstacles, instead they persevere. Realize the amazing possibilities available in the age of technology. Every man and women alive today has more knowledge and potential power at his fingertips than the greatest genius or captain if industry did a hundred years ago! Who can say what anyone might accomplish, if they only will and endeavor to do it. After all, the books in academia simply (and not so much) describe what people have done in the past in the real world. Books and Professors are wonderful; I hope to write many more books. (if only for the experience and knowledge gained by the efforts) But books really only begin to prepare us. They give us fodder to think about, and they only point us to where the best experiences are. When someone gets the bug to learn (as oppose to simply score or make a grade) the floodgates open, at that point there is no turning back. It is pure and wholesome and has a dignity of its own merit. It requires no certification.
Given the tendency for others to misconstrue our intention it seems to me much better to simply tell about what we have actually done, with honest not overdone modesty. So i like the article I mentioned above because it reminded me that my own characteristics, awards and degrees are just accumulations from the past. Thinking about solving a problem, thinking of correcting a failure is so much more instrumental than thinking about past success. These recent years have taught me that it is better still, whenever at all possible to avoid communication overhead with anyone not supportive of my aspirations. Just avoid such negative influences altogether and do not waste any energy thinking about them. It is best to just keep doing and let the fruits of our actions speak for themselves.
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