Never give up your right to be wrong, and be sure to give others that right too.

   Why would we want the right to be wrong? Don't we want the right to be right? No, if the world is going to move forward, we want the right to be amazingly wrong. 

   Imagine if the rule for learning to walk was pass or fail. If you could not walk at the right moment, you were fitted with leg braces and sent off - consigned to the label of "non-walker" forever. Perhaps this seems an exaggeration. But we do this with people all the time. 

   The key to mastery is effort and time. For some, mastery takes longer. But the end result may actually be superior expertise compared to the person for whom it came easily. Why? Because we learn from our mistakes. All those blunders provide an information set on what to do in the future.

   For the best levels of expertise we need to embrace more than one path to success. We can't just pick the front runners early and "label" the rest as incapable. But, we like our human filing cabinets. This person is one of "these", that person is one of "those". It's neat and clean. Except when it's us being stuck into a particular drawer or onto a certain shelf.

   Because in our heart we know it's rubbish. The whole reason we like the "filing cabinets" is because figuring people out is messy. Many of us are more bright than our transcript lets on. Most of us have a topic we are interested in, but are too timid to pursue. So we'd under perform on knowledge but over perform on interest.

  It's worth it to evaluate each other with greater depth. In a world going shallow, go deep. Be willing to accept mistakes from both yourself and others. Pursue mastery right through a barrage of errors. Everytime we fail we get a bit better. 

  Suddenly we can be better than the best, a breakthrough occurs and we are soaring. After sloppy results and discouraging reviews, we jump ahead. We discover something new that benefits the world. A moment which requires our patience and that of those around us.

  Never give up. Never give up your right to be wrong, and be sure to give others that right too.

You've got to risk the terrible and pathetic, in order to get to the graceful and elegant.

   If you haven't been bad at something recently, then you probably haven't tried anything new. The awkward bumbling of trying the unfamiliar is something many adults don't encounter very often. A pity, since the mastery of just about everything starts out badly. As toddlers we bumped and scraped our way to walking, which most of manage quite easily now. But often there are scars to show our early efforts.

   You've got to risk the terrible and pathetic, in order to get to the graceful and elegant. Nobody is born a ballet dancer or a piano player. Try, fail, try again, fail better, and so on, until there is something there worth showing off.

    In a world of rapid change, getting used to trying new things is pretty important. Fumbling with editing a video, sorting out a new app on your phone, wrestling with pronouncing a few words in an unfamiliar language are all the sorts of things you'd be advised to suffer through. Because you'll either be involved in the changing world, or left behind bewildered by it.

   So, go on - be terrible; it's the key to greatness. 

   

An ode to Excellence, a #twog for Tom.

In the past couple days I engaged in a flurry of activity encouraging people to follow Tom Peters (@tom_peters) on Twitter to get him across the 100,000 barrier. 

Now why would I do such a thing?

There is more than one answer, so here you go:

1) If you are serious about success, Tom is an excellent resource. Funnily enough, I think the fact that such amazing content and interaction is essentially free throws people off. Don't value it by the price, value it by the utility.

2) As Cameron Morrissey (@ManagersDiary) coincidentally wrote in his recent blog entry #200, (Celebrate Milestones - http://dld.bz/c6cBm ) milestones matter. Sure, Tom is a remarkably accomplished and successful guy. Does that diminish his desire for recognition? I haven't asked, but I rather doubt it. If success alone was enough for most, there wouldn't be so many multi-gazillionaires still working and so many top athletes stretching their careers. 

Let's sound the trumpets as he crosses the line! Three cheers. You'd want the same.

3) I also did it because I like Tom and I'm grateful to be acquainted with him. He gives a tremendous amount of himself on his Twitter account. Moreover, he is the kind of person that everyone should hope is advising them or their employer. He cares about people and it radiates through virtually everything he talks about. In a world of self-aggrandizing dolts, Tom shines through as a genuinely nice fellow who happens to be very knowledgeable about leadership. 

4) The final reason, which is something obvious: I did it because I felt like it. If it makes him smile, then my mission is accomplished. 

Thank you Tom.  For sharing your thoughts and insights on a regular basis on Twitter. For sidestepping the trolls, and steadfastly holding down your end of every argument. You could have the campfire all to yourself, but you open it up frequently for anyone to pop by for and enjoy some heady conversation. 

Congratulations on cresting the 100,000 follower mark. There couldn't be a more deserving person.

#Twog, a brick of trust.

In thinking about a recent chat about business, one word just nailed me: Trust.

Books, you need it. Speaking, you need it. Blogging, still need it. Twitter - check. 

It's why an audience or client returns for more. The theme is pretty much endemic to life. We take innumerable leaps of faith daily.

Driving - trust. Turning on the water - trust. Sitting in a chair - trust. Entering credit card information online - trust. It's everywhere.

What can we do with this information? Well, I just started trying, and will continue to try, to promote the idea of a #twog. A combination of a tweet and a blog. The idea is to generate trust in content.

What to do with a twog? Bridge the gap between tweeting and a blog. Most importantly, establish trust that you respect the reader's time.

Nothing happens without trust.  Get twogging.  140 words at a time.

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

   A great quote from Mark Twain. I love putting it on Twitter. It always gets positive feedback. But that is actually rather ironic. If so many people love that quote, then why are such gargantuan sums spend on schooling?

   In a similar sense, parent after parent brags about how their child does in school. As I parent, I too feel some of the glow from a "good grade". Some is a simple matter of wanting to let my kids know that I appreciate the effort they make. But I question how important the grade is, what meaning it actually holds. Moreover, I wonder how much more meaningless it becomes when put into a global schematic.

   As someone who is "successful" I look back at my own schooling and see how incredibly unprepared my schools and teachers were for me. I did well in school at times, but was pretty much always a discipline problem. Mostly because I refused to accept some lessons as true. I wasn't content to just digest and regurgitate the information they fed to me. I wanted some answers. They didn't like that, they didn't like that at all.

   A dramatic example occurred in the seventh grade. Having been asked to solve an algebra problem I went up to the chalkboard and began scrawling out my answer. "No, no, no" my teacher screamed. Bewildered I looked over to her. "You have to show ALL YOUR WORK." she continued. Right about this time my blood headed to an immediate boil. I stormed over to my desk and grabbed my things. I then walked back to the front of the class and threw my books onto her desk. "If your way is so perfect then do it yourself" I shouted. I then proceeded to walk out of the class, and out the front door of the school, and continued walking until I was home roughly four miles away.

   A rash decision? Maybe, but I don't regret it. She was wrong to publicly humiliate me for not following "her" method to precision. It was also pretty obvious from the way I wrote the equation that I had used logical thinking to arrive at the answer. Her goal wasn't that I simply know the math. Her goal included my submission to her methodology. As you may have noticed, submission isn't my strong suit.

   The problem, from my vantage point, is the teacher's desire to make me conform to her methodology. She valued compliance over competence. It doesn't matter why. Schooling should create thinkers, not fleshy calculators. The desire for compliance makes children into pliable robots who indirectly learn to keep their head down, and put out what is asked. No more, no less.

   "Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel." - Socrates

   Socrates knew something about educating people. If we spark a student's passion, we unleash a powerful force upon the world. Imagine a world of people taught to think rather than simply remember. We need people who push boundaries rather than retreat inside them. 

   How different might my education have been if I had actually been encouraged to think differently. What would my perspective be if it had been molded through an educational model of investigation rather than recitation and repetition.

   As parents, students, or both, we need to demand that school provide a true education. School must provide the spark, the catalyst, that will drive students to excellence. Not excellence as measured by a standardized test, but excellence that is demonstrated in ideas and actions. 

   As much as I love the Mark Twain quote, I'd be happy to make it irrelevant.