Mistake #4 Learning from the Average
“Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star.”
-W. Clement Stone
Do you have any weird habits that nobody knows? It might be picking the nose when nobody is around, or singing in the toilet while peeing, or daydreaming with the moving cloud in the sky. I have many weird habits that my friends think I am a weirdo. I used to memorize a deck of poker cards in a particular order just for fun. A man sitting next to me in the train left the seat, fearing that I was a psycho who would stab him with a knife any minute.
In the domain of learning a subject matter, I had one more. I liked to peek at the books which leaders read. I liked to steal people’s thoughts, especially from successful leaders. I liked to know what they were thinking and what made them great.
By reading what they read, I turned my brain wave similar to theirs.
Built to last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, a very famous book written by the legendary entrepreneur Jim Colin. It’s a book a company director should read. I knew it because I peeked at one of the director’s desktops. I ran to the bookstore immediately and finished reading the book in one sitting.
I was following the leader’s path, with a sneak peek into and inside their minds.
It’s eye-opening, and I felt pulled by the leadership. I decided to do something more to tap the leader’s brain. At the time, I was volunteering to do research for a book project about Hong Kong startups. I needed successful entrepreneurs to gain insights for the book. It’s a perfect reason to approach the leader. Hence, I summoned up the courage.
“Hey, I am approaching you for a book research,” I was acting casual to hide my nervousness. “Do you think you can spare 20 - 30 minutes for an interview?” Also, I stood my spine straight and looked into the leader’s eyes.
“That sounds cool.” The leader replied. “YES!” I cried out in my heart.
“Let’s schedule a session and get the ball rolling.” I followed up right away.
It ended up being a 2-hour session, which was supposed to be 20 minutes. The leader spent more time than planned for me to answer my questions, ranging from personal development, startup environment, relationship, to whatever topics you can think of. We talked about everything.
Was it a trajectory in my work life? You bet. I became a top performer from this day onwards. I knew more than other colleagues did, not in terms of confidential client information, but in terms of a top performer mindset. The leader shared with me all the wisdom that what made a great leader great.
Servant leadership. Checked.
AQ. Checked.
EQ. Checked.
Business acumen. Checked.
Whatever mindsets enable a follower to become a leader; the leader got me covered. I was a SpongeBob striving to absorb all the water he poured on me. I was full enough to puke. My stomach didn’t digest well, but I felt great. I felt like the powerful Goku in Dragon Ball Z after absorbing the infinitive energy from the universe.
I became a Super Saiyan who paved my road to Assistant Project Manager later.
Read the next chapter: Mistake #5 Stop Learning
Or table of contents: The Game