Have the Courage to Become a Beginner--Again!

The art of being a beginner is lost in our business culture. Most of us drive to be an expert. We believe we have to be “good’ at something in order to be financially rewarded. We want to be a top sports figure or CEO who is paid as the best in their field. Dead are the days of the proverbial “renaissance man”, the person who knows a bit about everything. This “worldly man” (or woman) would be interesting to talk to about almost anything. Nope, light chatter is dead. With so much information available on the web, we have become an expert culture. Why shouldn’t we know everything we ever wanted if it is all just a click away? It takes a big commitment in our society to become an expert at the expense of learning about so many other things. We ask our children at 17 to decide if they want to be a doctor when they enter college. It takes over decades to become a medical expert. This is why it is so scary to be a beginner. As we get older, we become more invested in leading about knowing about a particular area. We are more comfortable being “The Oracle”. Who wants to start over from the beginning? Me. There is a joy about being a beginner. I get tired of always leading. As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a leader. Even though I was one of the smallest kids in my grade school, I managed to convince other kids to be my lieutenant so I could be the general in our army game. As I grew up at any organized activity, I had to be at the front of the line. In Boy Scouts, I was the senior patrol leader. In my regional youth group, I was the president. Unfortunately back then, I had to be the leader or nothing at all. Maybe that is why I left a large corporation like IBM and started my own businesses. I reasoned that as the founder and first employee of my own business, I always got to be the leader by default. Now, almost three decades into my business career, I cherish those moments where I get to be a beginner again. Where they are not looking directly at me for the answer. In these case, there are no expectations. Not having to know anything can be very relaxing. Asking questions and actually listening to the answers is educational. Five years ago, I decided to start taking karate lessons. Showing up for the first lesson as a student was the hardest part. As with most traditional martial arts, karate has a very well-defined pecking order. Practicing karate as a white belt, I began at the bottom of the pile. As a beginner in karate, I learned to rest my mind and stop taking responsibility for knowing anything. I was taught to just watch and do but not think. I was taught to focus on my own progress rather than the progress of others. Learning to be a beginner again is a great way to develop your leadership skills because it teaches you to be open to learning something new. It gets you comfortable with not being an expert and not having to know the answer. In our business lives, we become too narrow in our knowledge too quickly. We specialize too fast and it prevents us from learning and enjoying what others have to teach us. In his book, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Shunryu Suzuki teaches that we need to let “doubt and possibility” enter our thoughts. We especially need this a business world where things are constantly changing. Make me a promise. Become a beginner – again. At something, anything. It’s freeing and what’s is more, it can be a heck of a lot of fun.