Once upon a time, there was a young man – fresh out of university, bright eyed and full of confidence. Armed with the latest theories of the sharpest academic minds, he was ready to show the world that he could do better.
Luckily, the young man’s first job was for an older man, a man who knew which of the theories were useful and which ones made not one bit of sense in that particular industry and market. The older man’s words were from day one ‘Forget everything you have learned in your business course, your business education starts here.’
In hindsight, the combination of both a rigorous education and learning at the feet of someone with experience is better than either on their own. But the lesson of listening to elders is one that should never be forgotten.
Later in my career, I was reminded of the lesson during a management training course. At a retreat in the mountains behind Jakarta, we played a turn based game in teams – the goal, to venture into the desert and return with as much treasure as possible in the shortest amount of time.
Like any game, there were rules, and decisions to be taken based on risk. A simplified version goes like this:
- At the beginning each team chose how much food and water they would take, based on an estimate of how many days they would be travelling.
- The desert was prone to sand-storms. If your team was moving on a day when there was a sandstorm, it may lose food, water or even team members.
- Each turn, the team had to decide whether to move or stay put. Each turn there was a forecast for the chance of a sandstorm the next day.
So, the quickest way to the treasure would be to move every turn, but the risk of losing your food and water and team members increased. Too cautious and you would not get the treasure. There was one more piece of information that was given to all teams.
In the village where the provisions were bought and all the teams started, there lived an old man. Each team could decide not to venture into the desert on the first turn and instead pay to consult with the old man.
Most of the teams – young and confident, perhaps even arrogant decided to charge into the desert. None of them made it back. Those who took the time to hear what the old man had to say learned that there was a sandstorm every third day. Armed with this information, teams could choose which days to stop and which days to move with certainty.
It’s a lesson that has stayed with me for 20 years.
Later in my career, on a trade mission, in search of a different kind of treasure, I met an older man who knew the short-cuts. While others charged off, unwilling to accept that they still had much to learn, I sat and listened. The knowledge gained that night was invaluable. The lesson holds true in the real world, not just the games.
Of course the gender of the experienced person in the lesson is irrelevant, and could just as easily be an older woman, but the advice is the same, the challenge is to find a mentor.
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