The Ripe Stuff

Why Skills Trump External Validation on the Quest to Becoming MORE

Introduction

As a studious young boy in grade school, my grades were well above average. I was humble about it, too. I was constantly awarded the coveted “A honor-roll” certificate, a testament of my “competence”.  My drive to constantly study so that I could earn all A’s, I believe, stemmed largely from the fact that my  father checked my progress report card every six-weeks to ensure this was the case. This is my earliest memory of what it meant to achieve “success,” high grades equal success. Logical, right?

Fast-forward a few years into the future, and I am beginning to work towards my pilot’s license. This is a very exciting time for me, as I had been wanting to be a pilot ever since I can remember. Okay, so what are the requirements to obtain a pilot’s license? Well at a minimum, the FAA (that’s the Federal Aviation Administration for the uninitiated) requires that you have at least 40 hours of flight time and be proficient in performing certain maneuvers. Forty hours, okay check. Well as I progressed through my training, I eventually arrived at the magical 40 hours of flight time. Success achieved, right? Bring on the license!

Wrong! I was nowhere near being a qualified pilot. How could this be? Doesn’t the 40 hours validate that I have “what it takes” to pilot an aircraft? Well as it turns out, it’s not that simple. See, the requirements are to have a minimum of 40 hours of flight time and, and this is a big and, be proficient in performing certain maneuvers. I didn’t know this then as an amateur student pilot, but it’s obvious now looking back; just because you reach some arbitrary numerical threshold, doesn’t mean you’ve “you’ve got the right stuff” to operate the elaborate machine that will grant you the miracle of flight. – Your skill must be ripe.

Intention

This was a valuable lesson for me, and one that I will carry into all future pursuits. Going into something with intention is invaluable. See, my childhood conditioning had me believe that numerical thresholds meant success, any grade above a 90 percent meant that I had achieved success;  similarly, logging 40 hours of flight time (erroneously) meant that I was now a competent aviator. This notion of hitting a certain threshold to validate your competency is ill-conceived; I had gone into my aviation career with the wrong philosophy.

I should’ve gone into it with the intention of becoming a competent aviator. Isn’t it obvious? Would you rather fly in an airplane with a pilot behind the controls that has logged an arbitrary number of hours, or would you rather have a pilot that has the skill required to safely get the aircraft from point A to point B? If you like arriving at your destination, I’m sure you’ll pick the latter. I believe this is the wise philosophy to approach any venture; that is, “what is my intention for going into this? What am I trying to get out of this?” It is my belief that the same applies to those people who are looking to make a lot of money out of their business pursuits. I don’t believe there is anything inherently wrong with wanting to make a lot of money, but the philosophy of intention says that it could be dangerous. Measuring your success off the amount of money you make could be the wrong yardstick, e.g., if you’re in sales, then as a salesman (or woman), is it wiser to measure the value that you provide to the world as the number of sales you make, or is it the skill that you offer on building interpersonal relationships and the ability to influence people through inspiration and rightful action? Let your moral compass decide. See, it takes a systems level thinking approach to understand that your actions will have an effect on the whole; this is one notion that should not be taken lightly.

Deliberate Practice

With this philosophy in mind, how do you acquire the skill that should inevitably be a measure of your success at doing “the thing?” – Deliberate practice is the tried and true way to get good at anything. Athletes understand this principle all too well. It is well known that the larger-than-life basketball megastar Michael Jordan was cut from his high-school basketball team. Is this because the coach failed to see Michael’s greatness?  Or, was it because Michael Jordan was a poor player at the time? I’m willing to bet his performance was sub-par in comparison to the others. It is also well known that after being cut, Jordan dedicated himself to working harder than anyone else on the court, a work ethic that he carried with him throughout his entire basketball career. 

When he was a rookie with the Chicago Bulls, he was constantly “pushed around” and over-powered by the stronger players on the court. So, what did he do that off-season? He hit the weights. He knew that physical strength was a weakness of his, so he doubled down on gaining muscle and becoming strong. He was deliberate about what he was going to concentrate on – his weakness, his physical strength. He engaged in deliberate practice.

Michael Jordan exploited the principle of deliberate practice to take him to the pinnacle of basketball stardom. Did it require grit, an indomitable amount of will, perseverance, and pushing through an inordinate amount of friction? Bet your behind it did. That is how it should be, no shortcuts.

Feedback

Feedback is probably the most important tool one could use to increase their awareness at their performance proficiency (or lack of). A car mechanic will work very hard at diagnosing car engine trouble, then implementing a solution to fix the problem, but it’s not until that car engine runs smoothly that the mechanic knows that the solution was found. This is feedback, it’s information! Feedback is really the only way to know if your skill is improving. As it goes for business pursuits, the feedback that businesses get from the marketplace will always be correct – whether they believe their product is good or not, that doesn’t really matter does it? Only the information received from the market matters. This is feedback.

Pilots receive feedback on their control inputs from their instruments, basketball players from their points scored during a game, businesses on their number of products sold, public speakers do so with the size of crowds that they draw in. It’s all feedback. Therefore, it is so important to use this invaluable tool; the only way to sharpen one’s skills on their way to becoming more, is to consciously seek out feedback and have the fortitude and open mindedness to listen and implement it.

Conclusion

I want to leave you, the reader, with this one notion: systems-level thinking. For the betterment of the planet, and to increase our collective-consciousness, I believe that we should enter any transaction only if they benefit all involved. My trademarked three-step process (lol, not really) to ensure that we enter pursuits with a value-focused mindset is by: 1. Entering with the correct intention, 2. Gaining rare and valuable skills through deliberate practice, 3. Seeking and welcoming feedback in order to become more.  

References

Images

The Ripe Stuff. Source: https://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/2016/12/the-ripe-stuff-john-glenns-1998-return-to-space/amp

Intention. Source: https://medium.com/thrive-global/the-difference-between-ambition-and-intention-118a90b329da

Deliberate Practice. Source: https://jamesclear.com/beginners-guide-deliberate-practice

Feedback. Source: https://realbusiness.co.uk/giving-employee-feedback