Learn Your way to the Top

Genius, so said Thomas Edison, is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration....and related to that, the contemporary version - success is twenty percent inspiration and eighty percent perspiration. The implication of all this is that only hard work guarantees us the results we desire. Now who am I to argue to time-proven principles? Who am I to attempt to discredit or discount words born of experience? I wouldn't be so foolish as to attempt to.

Nonetheless both time and experience have taught me that perspiration bears good fruit only as it is tempered with learning. Thomas Edison himself (hard as it is to believe) is said to have made ten thousand failed attempts to invent the light bulb before he eventually 'happened upon' the solution. No......in fact there was no serendipity about his discovery. At the end of it all he is said to have boldly declared "I have not failed, I have just found ten thousand ways that don't work." In other words, he learned his way to the top. Every failed attempt was a learning opportunity - an eye opener that took him closer to the eventual solution. Obviously he would have had to have been intentional about grasping the lessons in order to have advanced his chances of success.

Still, (and we may not see eye-to-eye on this) I believe the greatest growth opportunities come to us through direct learning. Jim Rohn (to date the biggest human influence upon my life) is known to have said..." life puts some of the more valuable things on the high shelf so that you can't get to them until you qualify. If you want the things on the high shelf, you must stand on the books you read. With every book you read, you get to stand a little higher." Words bring light. With enlightenment comes increased capacity, and ultimately increased value.

But ultimately, whether it happens directly or indirectly, our pathway to the top of whatever field we choose must be marked by learning. The results we seek, cannot come alone by perspiration. Perspiration should, in fact, come at the back-end of learning. We call that applied knowledge. Indeed, 'better than knowledge is applied knowledge.'  It's the difference between working smarter and working harder. It's about looking for the lessons, taking them and introducing them into new, untried scenarios. It's about becoming thought leaders, satisfying curiosity and driving innovation. It's coming to understand that 'sometimes we win and sometimes we learn'.... for always there are more lessons in failure than there are in success. It's about approaching life as a student.... on your way to  mastery - learning your way to the top!