DAY 15: THE MISTAKE OF WANTING TO LEARN EVERYTHING!
Good evening.. How was your day?.. You know that type of people who keep opening topics endlessly!.. Just a while ago, I was with an elderly person, and he's one of those. I wanted to leave more than a quarter of an hour ago maybe, but no way to ask for permission.. The problem sometimes is that you don't want every time you meet them to interrupt their conversation and leave. That would seem impolite.. The man I was standing with is going through tough times these days. The days have played their game with him. He used to be a women's hairdresser, and I learned from him that his financial situation was very good.. His clothes and appearance truly indicate that!.. He's getting older and has stopped working. His wife passed away recently. He has two unemployed sons and faces a real problem in spending on them.. He comes to the library almost every day, reads the news, interacts with others, and tries to keep himself active. He told me just now that sitting at home will hasten his end!.. I totally agree with this. Even for us young people, it has the same impact.. If you were in my place, you would surely give him some of your time!.. The world, when it turns on someone, is truly painful!.. We also push the elderly into retirement in a terrible way. Not just from work, but from almost everything!.. I also suggest to him and people like him to give space during their conversation for others to leave politely if they wish.. I suggest that to myself sometimes! (Smiling)
What do you think if we leave people to their own affairs and I talk to you today about one of the mistakes I made while working on the project - and even in my life outside the project, which I still make today, albeit to a lesser extent.. Okay, I'll assume your answer is "yes, let's do it.".. This is one of the benefits a person can get when talking to themselves (smiling).. The mistake I want to talk about is what I call "the desire to learn everything!"
What do I mean by "the desire to learn everything"?.. Whenever I want to do something, I feel a desire to learn everything related to it so I can do it correctly, and if I come across important information or topic, I always want to learn it.. It's not just a desire, but more like a necessity. Something essential that I must do!
Side note: You notice that in most of the articles I write, I usually tend at the beginning to define what I'm talking about?.. This is something I learned since childhood and every day I feel its importance more and more.. Sometimes we face people who talk about topics we don't fully understand what the definition is for them, which leads to lower-quality communication because we don't fully grasp the framework being discussed. For example, if someone uses the word "freedom" without specifying what they mean by it, each party will base their viewpoint according to their own definition of freedom, which may not necessarily be the same... And so on.
Let's continue.. This matter is sometimes wrong, as it makes things take more time than necessary and sometimes distracts my focus from the main thing I want to do. This has happened to me several times. For example, once I was learning strategic planning, and during the course I was attending, the lecturer started talking about the internal and external environment of companies, and I realized I had gone off track!
Not only that, but it takes on many other forms. For instance, if I want to build a project, I feel the need to go through all the processes by myself, even just once, to see how things are done – as I did in my project. When I start doing something, I usually extensively research the matter.. Also, I always have a list of topics I want to learn in the coming months.. until recently, this caused me a lot of pressure!
You may be wondering, since I am aware of this issue and its consequences, why don't I stop doing it?.. I can discuss the answer from two perspectives, one related to me and the other to what I want to do.
Regarding myself, at the beginning of any task, I try to understand the system and how things work to come up with my own perception, which takes some time. However, later on, it helps me make decisions more quickly and in a way that aligns with the system as a whole, not just the part I tested. It also makes a significant difference in the medium and long term, something I don't want to completely give up, but I can improve its efficiency, which I have already started testing. My idea was to identify a factor/variable to help me evaluate how much time I should allocate to this stage in what I want to do, and the factor I chose was return on investment (ROI). If the project or what I want to do is expected to yield a significant return on the time and other resources I will invest, then I give this stage a longer time that corresponds to the return, like starting a new project or learning a new skill. However, if the return is low, I also allocate less time, like buying a consumable item..
Another aspect related to me is that I am one of those who always strive to deliver their work in a perfect way. This is incorrect sometimes because it requires more time. It is common among some people, including myself. Like in the first point, it offers benefits that I do not want to lose. Ultimately, we judge others based on the results of their work.. but the problem here is that this matter cannot be easily addressed and eliminated because it is linked to ideas, beliefs, and how you see yourself and what you can offer.. Here, I try to apply the same principle I applied in the previous point, which is to make the level of quality I want to deliver linked to what I can get out of this work.
Also, one of my personal traits is that I like to make decisions that I am completely confident in. This makes me spend more time researching. It is commendable in ordinary life, but I have found that it is not entirely the case in the business world, where not all data is completely clear, or it is not expected to become 100% clear, as that may lead to missed opportunities and sometimes hefty costs.. Therefore, they tend to make decisions faster and test things more quickly.. Of course, as you know, this is not the case in all situations, as some decisions must be carefully studied because the cost of correcting an error, if it occurs, can be very high.
In addition to what was mentioned earlier, I am naturally a curious person about what is happening around me and how things work. This is very appealing to me. As you know, curiosity is a good trait that helps a person to grow and develop, but like other things, it needs to be put in the right framework to reap the maximum benefit from it and avoid it turning into mere nosiness at times, which is not always easy to control!
One last idea regarding me plays a significant role in this mistake, which is that I believe any new idea or information could make a difference in what I create. The reason for this is that I usually tend to design solutions and steps in the matters I work on based on the data I have. The nature of this assumes that any change in the data could make a fundamental difference in the plan, which sometimes drives me to delve deeper into understanding things. This is exactly what happened when I learned about the 'customer journey'; it truly felt like it transported me to a different level of thinking in business!
As for what I want to do, I can suffice by discussing why I didn't stop "the mistake of wanting to learn everything" in three simple and direct points: Firstly, as I mentioned before, I didn't have anyone to work with me on the project, and I didn't have the funds to hire employees, so I had to learn and do everything by myself. Here, I faced and still face difficulty in determining what I really need to know, so I am always forced to search to find what I need. Secondly, I have no experience in building projects or companies, so I was also required to learn what I could and search for it. While the third point is the absence of a mentor to direct me, which makes all the aforementioned more challenging and time-consuming!
You notice from the points we discussed, whether regarding me or what I want to do, that all these points either offer important advantages that it wouldn't be wise to lose, or they are linked to ideas and beliefs that need some time to develop, or I am compelled to follow them according to the circumstances I am in to complete the work. Therefore, these are things that cannot be completely eliminated or fully embraced, but rather need to be developed in their use and limit the situation in which they become a problem! It's not as clear-cut as it may seem at first glance.. As a startup project, this also makes things more ambiguous!.. And throughout all this and during work, I am always haunted by this question: Is what I am learning now what I should be doing, or is it the mistake of wanting to learn everything?.. This feeling constantly pressures me, although its intensity decreases over time!
So far, this is one of the topics that took me a lot of time to write about. It is vast and has many aspects that can be discussed, especially concerning the business world.. I hope that circumstances will favor us in the days to come for that, and I also hope that the dish my mother prepared today is one of the dishes that I prefer (smiles)..
Until I meet you tomorrow, take good care of yourselves,
Good night,
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