Friday, 4 January 2013

‘Everyday’ Intelligence: Live and Learn


We have all often wondered what to do when life gives us lemons.

Some of us have got used to making lemonade; others have simply kept the lemons, as a souvenir of sorts.

I, personally, have never seen the problem with lemons; I like lemons. Their bitterness reminds me of life: no matter how bitter and sour it is, it’s good for your health and general well- being.
I remember going to an interview once and being asked what kind of animal I saw myself as.

A dung beetle.’, I said.

The interviewer stared in disbelief and amazement for what seemed like ages and asked why.

Because sh*t happens anyway; I might as well get something out of it, right?’, I said with a sly smile on my face.

Although that did make the interviewer laugh, I was quite serious; it must, at all times, be remembered that, as we live our lives, things around us happen for a reason.

I am most definitely not trying to be mystical here; the reason is quite simple, namely:

We must learn from everything that is happening around us and to us; and learn fast.

It is a very simple concept but people tend to quite often forget it in their busybody existence.

Many of us, for instance, think that their daily 9-5 working schedule has taught them enough and, thus, shut themselves out to their working environment, obliterating any chance of improvement and, consequently, future promotion.

The main reason for such behaviour is the fact that, once they are used to something, people tend to take it for granted.

Take a person who has worked at the same workplace for twenty years. Imagine that a new system is introduced and the said person keeps making the same mistakes for over a year (even though he has been shown how to avoid those), knowing that his employer will not dismiss him because of his long history with the firm.

Such a scenario might have been possible in the eighties, even the nineties. But today, in world of staggeringly high unemployment rates, chances are that such a person will be dismissed, and rightly so.

Alas, if you refuse to learn yourself, you will be taught the hard way and will often lose whatever you have previously regarded as granted.

Another point to make is that, in today’s world, learning from what’s around you at your own pace is not good enough; you need to learn quickly and efficiently.

In today’s credit crunch, it seems a lot more important to keep your existing clients rather than search for new ones. Having said that, if a mistake is made, it needs to be amended and seen to with almost inhuman alacrity; it is quite true that it is human to err and divine to forgive. Alas, not many businesses or employers see themselves as God these days...

Some might say that today’s article is an insult to the reader’s intelligence; I beg to differ.

Once more, the above is not a cliché; rather, it is a very simple concept that people tend to forget to apply, the consequences of which can be dire.

Even so, in the light of the above, those consequences can be easily averted; after all, why take the risk?

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