I’m a Gin drinker. Bombay Sapphire martini, dirty, up with one extra olive to be exact. It’s the only time in my life where I sound “cool” ordering a drink. Not James Bond cool, but still kind of worldly. This is the only way I know how to order a martini.
Anyway.
The other day I spoke with a former co-worker. He and I started new jobs around the same time and he had come to me for advice on dealing with having to answer to a new group of people, who do things a lot differently than he was used to. He was being somewhat micro managed at the time and it was a more attention and coaching than he was accustomed to. He went from winning his way to having to try to win “their” way.
There are 1,000s of ways to win. Take a look at the shelf of self help, marketing and management books at Barnes and Noble. 1000s of books on winning and how not to be a dick to people. Millions of dollars being made in this industry and maybe one day I will throw my hat into the ring and try to make a buck or two….or I’ll just keep blogging, I am not completly convinced that someone would actually pay for the stuff I write.
Anyway.
He was shaken. A bit rattled by this new attention that he was getting from his new employers. After some success of doing it his way, he hit a road block of sorts and was having to go through the learning process of doing it another way. Starting over and second guessing yourself can get you rattled. Professional pitchers, making millions of dollars a year, often get rattled and pulled out of the game, only to start another in 4-5 days. We all get rattled.
Having to explore another way of doing it is a challenge. Anytime you push (or someone else pushes) you out of your comfort zone, you have to almost start over again. You have to relearn your job and you second guess everything. Nobody says you have to give up all your previous knowledge and skill. Yet, in order to grow, learning different ways to do things is imperative. Even if they are wrong, you won’t be able to convince them of this till you completely learn their system. When making this transition, you go from feeling like the smartest person in the room to feeling like the dumbest. That’s ok.
Remember when Tiger Woods changed his swing completely? His swing coach didn’t like what he saw in arguably the worlds greatest golfer and had him change his approach to the sport. Some would say his swing coach was an idiot, but you can’t argue with the results right? He was more successful post change than he was doing it his way.
In short, (guess I could have just written this and been done with it)… There are a 1000+ ways to be successful. It wouldn’t hurt you to learn more than one.
