This is the time of year when I have to make a mental adjustment to my timings. If you want to go anywhere around this town early in the morning or in the early afternoon, you need to add 10 minutes for the school buses. Never fails that when you’re in a hurry you wind up behind one!
My older daughter is a teacher and both my wife and I began our careers that way. It’s a big responsibility showing other people – young other people – the way to navigate themselves through a particular topic and, hopefully, the world in general. There’s also something teachers are required to do which is a great thought for those of us out in the business world.
Teachers are required to keep learning. Most places ask teachers to get their masters or other advanced degrees to maintain employment. I know lawyers do continuing legal education and doctors have to take on-going training as well. Most businesspeople aren’t asked to go back to school and most don’t, which is a shame. In the media and digital worlds, things change at least as fast as the law or developments in medicine, and there’s only so much you can learn on your own. Even worse is the possibility that you learn something incorrectly – I sure would NOT like a self-taught accountant doing my books!
We’re always surrounded by knowledge and the opportunity to acquire more. Frankly, I’d head back to college full-time in a heartbeat if you guys would pay my mortgage! In the meantime, I try to learn from everyone, both those folks who have more knowledge about a topic than do I as well as those people who I know are totally wrong but my offer insights into how that thinking came to be. I am usually reading a book or two about business and I try to attend seminars and conferences when I can. While information can find us these days, it’s much more likely to if we give it some help.
Are you heading back to school this fall? If it’s not “real” school, what are you doing?
Consult Keith 