The GREATEST Risk to Anyone is Doing Nothing

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Chapters

• 0:37 Embracing Change for Career Development
• 4:16 The Importance of Continuous Learning
• 8:30 Expanding Skills and Self-Improvement

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:37

You know, I hear it all the time in my work and in the last two, three years our company has really invested in something called coachability, working with individual contributors and certainly leaders, in helping them become more proficient in their career development. And I actually do a lot of journaling and I was thinking about a number of people and I'd say about three, four weeks ago I got a phone call from an ex-client who I developed a pretty good friendship with Great guy, and he called me up and he said I just want to thank you. Are you aware of what happened to my old employer? I said no, what's going on? He said they filed bankruptcy.

Speaker 1: 1:18

Now I'm not going to mention the company name, I'm not going to rain on their tough times, but they had a switch with leadership and it did not go well and this gentleman was not being heard and he was very concerned. He said I don't have a degree, I just don't know what I'm going to do. And you know I just I am not a risk taker and I'm like, wait a minute, the greatest risk you can have is doing nothing. Now, the other person I'm going to share is my wife. My wife has been a pediatrician in practice for 25, 26 years, the company she was working for going through major changes which in theory, wasn't great for her. And I said you know, go out and start talking. I don't want to start my practice over, I don't want to, and people will push back, they will ignore their present reality in the pursuit of avoiding to change something. And it cracks me up because change is inevitable. The greatest risk we can take is doing nothing. Now I'll share this with you. Had my wife quote, unquote stuck it out and she was the last one in her group to do so she probably would not be employed. That's how much this organization was having a challenge.

Speaker 1: 2:31

My friend, my client, who called me two, three weeks ago, he said do you remember the comment you made that you said someday, when I move on and I'm successful and I start learning to believe in myself, people are going to start calling me for advice. He goes it's happening. And I said what did those people do? He said nothing. See, when we rely, when we've been brought up to get a job and be reliant upon the company to train us and they should train you. Be reliant upon the company to train us and they should train you. As it relates to the job. So recently, working with a financial services firm, I did a poll. I said how many of you are learning something outside of your current job that could help your career, but it's not done through the company or on company time. We're at about 40% of people said I'm doing nothing. Another 20% said maybe an hour. So studies bear it out when people are learning, they're happier.

Speaker 1: 3:34

When you learn, you protect yourself, you insulate yourself from market shifts, and I'll share this with you. I took a course last night on AI and I'm looking at it because it's going to affect our coaching space. Do I think it'll replace human-based coaching? Absolutely not. I think it will accelerate it. Yet I need to learn what it is, and there is not a doubt in my mind that it is going to disrupt every single industry. What are you going to do? Well, I don't want to learn it. You may not have a choice. So the flip side is what if you learned it before someone else even thought about learning it, before someone else even thought about learning it? Now, let me digress.

Speaker 1: 4:16

I want to share with you not a great story, and it got me thinking about my son. My son does some painting. He's an interior painter, he's an exterior painter and he's painting my wife in my house right now because we're getting ready to sell and all of a sudden I'm looking at our kitchen. I said to my wife, I said he's really good at this. I would not be a good painter, I don't have that attention to detail. It was so spot on and I thought you know what? It's a pretty good trade to learn. And my son goes what do you mean? I go AI is not painting the inside of your house anytime soon around cabinets like we have. He said I never thought of that and all of a sudden now he's doing side jobs in painting.

Speaker 1: 4:56

It got me thinking about somebody about 35 years ago and that mentality that I'm about to share is still prevalent today. I had a secretary whose husband worked on a piece of machine, a proprietary piece of machine, so he was a specialist. He had special knowledge, special skill, and I remember her telling me the union's really going to stick it to the owner. I'll never forget it. This is gosh. 35 years ago and I said what do you mean? She said oh, they're going to stick it to that owner. And I said why would you want to stick it to the owner who started the company out of his garage, grew it into a multi hundred million dollars, some business into a billion publicly traded. Why do you want to stick it to him? Aren't you guys on the same team?

Speaker 1: 5:44

Now, by the way, I'm not against unions, I don't know enough about them, but they had an adversarial relationship. Now, what they failed to realize and I said this to her I said remember, that's a dangerous proposition. I get that people want to make more money, but I'm telling you right now, be careful, don't let somebody speak for your husband, because what's going to happen is they could move those jobs the next year. They moved all the jobs to Mexico and Alabama. As I understand it, her husband never regained his status or his income potential because he was very segmented. He was very focused on that one piece of equipment that he really did have a great deal of proprietary knowledge, which is awesome, and then the equipment went to Mexico and Alabama for cheaper wages.

Speaker 1: 6:36

Were they wrong, fair, unfair? I don't know. So think about that just for a second. Think about that. What happened? That person stopped learning. I mean, how often do we hear in the workplace I just want to do my job and go home. Well, I'm going to really be a jerk If you just want to go into work and just do your job. You just might be out of a job tomorrow if you stop learning, learning, getting feedback, looking in the mirror, differentiating yourself and I share this all the time when I do public speaking 71% and the numbers according to the latest study are even worse, but 71% in the Gallup study shows that people are neutral or actively disengaged or they're negative. Only 2.9 out of every 10 people are positively engaged. Think about that, everybody. Think about that.

Speaker 1: 7:33

There's never been a greater time because the numbers are going in the wrong direction To position yourself for job security and job growth. If you're learning, if you're getting feedback, you're going to feel different. You're mentally going to increase your self-awareness and your emotional intelligence. You're going to be perceived more positively. I know because I get the objections all the time. Well, you don't understand. We're pretty busy. I've got a family and kids and a wife and a husband at home. I hear it every industry Like it's unique. It's not unique. You either succumb or you overcome. There is no middle ground, because middle ground is looking at someone saying, well, I kind of wanted to learn some new things, but I didn't have time. That's fine. If that's your reality, your reality might change and, as harsh as I sound right now, it's like people got to freaking.

Speaker 1: 8:31

Wake up. Truth be told, I'm building out a whole new piece of software. Truth be told, I'm building 14 AI tools as I sit here today. Truth be told, I'm building out some AI-driven assessments as we sit here today. 12 months ago, I had no thought of doing those. Now. Do I think they'll land? Do I think they'll help people? Yeah, do I think we're going to use all of it? Probably not. I people yeah, do I think we're going to use all of it? Probably not. I'm taking a sales training course right now. I'm also taking an AI course online right now. Do I think I'll learn all of it? No, do I feel better? Oh, hell, yeah. So if we have to learn, we have to ask for feedback, we have to think about ourselves as a brand and the key question you have to ask yourself what have you learned and what have you done to differentiate you? Good luck.