The Sanford Berenberg Experience: Message of the Day

Good Morning,

Most people will tell you that learning is a good thing. Well, I would like to think that all people would consider learning a good thing, even if it is only for themselves (with exception to evil geniuses).

Yet, there are times that learning is shunned, blocked and attacked.

I want to let that sink in for a moment.

There are people & organizations who will attack you for learning, or for even attempting to learn.

Let me walk you through this.

There is basically two types of learned material.

1. What you did not know before.

2. A correction or update to what you knew before.

That is, we either learn something new, or we find out that something we thought we knew before was not entirely accurate, up to date, or relevant in today’s world.

So why would anyone attack these?

Part of it is where we learn. For example, many people learn from the mistakes they make. Or, better, learn from the mistakes that others make.

What if told you that there were organizations where mistakes were simply not allowed.

That instead of learning from mistakes, people had to ensure they were perfect each and every time, or else. In that situation, not only are people deprived of learning on how to do things better, they live with the stress of a tightrope walker without a net.

In some arena’s people are held accountable for what they believe, and are considered fickle of they ever change.

In the world of politics, candidates are attacked for changing their minds. That, if they find out that they did not have the full information, they are called to the carpet for changing their minds. In cases where people waffle, it is important to call them on it as it is an indication on how they will lead. But when someone learns something new, they should be praised on learning, and not forced to hide it or worse ignore it.

In other areas there are those who need to be right that they fight anything which may indicate that they could be wrong. That learning something new, if it disagrees with their current believes just must be wrong.

Knowledge is a living, breathing entity. It grows in all directions. We learn more about our past, our present and our future every day. Some of these new concepts are new facts found from past truths, which we can now see more clearly than in the past. You know, like how bran is healthy for you, so eat a lot of it, except that now bran is not that good for you, so don’t eat that much of it. Maybe next year, bran will be back in. Stay tuned.

Learning is good, and it helps us all get better.

We should refrain from allowing those who would stifle learning by outlawing mistakes or failure, holding people accountable to their beliefs no matter what, and those who must be right at all costs…lighten up, perfection is far from readily being available.

When we learn and grow daily, we improve ourselves and we improve our organizations and we improve the lives of those around us.

How could this dichotomy of learning ever be a bad thing? (with the possible exception of the evil genius who learns how to take over the world).

Enjoy (unless you are a mad evil genius bent on taking over the world)!

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
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