Beginner's Mind

In any job market, experience and expertise are highly valued. So, there is no wonder that we want to showcase our brilliance and point at our special skills and accomplishments that prove our worth. As a consequence we are afraid of disclosing information that points at areas we don’t know much about.

It’s hard to be a beginner again after years of building capability and projecting n image of a professional in the field. But I dare you to go to that place once in a while.

Last summer, I decided to get a job in a café. Serving coffee has been my escape dream for years (easy, no deadlines, making people happy, predictable schedule…). I’ll never forget how inadequate I felt during the interview. Whatever my value was in a corporation, it had not much merit here and I lacked the basic experience of working in retail, using a cash register, and operating a dish-washer.

It made me think of the following:

• We can only gain new skills, knowledge, or perspectives if we are willing to be complete beginners. Forget your pride and assumptions. Be ready to start from scratch with a child-like curiosity.
• You value is relative to what’s needed. I may qualify for a highly specialized 100K position and at the same time not be eligible for a low paying job. Narrow specialty is constraining. How flexible are you?
• The #1 ability we need to develop is the ability to learn. And I don’t mean just learn more of what you already know. Diversify! Find out how you learn the best – by trying, observing, reading, analyzing...? Take your learning muscle to the gym on a regular basis.

Well, there I was, washing dishes, struggling with the cash register, and feeling like a complete idiot, embarrassed to share my corporate background. What would they think?

But on my 4th day a coworker looked at me and said: “You should be a manager here”. It was then when I realized that I was approaching the whole experience from the perspective of “What would I do if I were a manager here?” From that angle, no job was dirty to me. I didn’t mind cleaning the tables or the floor, because I cared about the customer’s experience. I was noticing all the processes related to re-stocking, ordering, division of responsibilities and so on because I understood the importance of a business foundation.

You see, you’ll always be able to mix your past experiences with the new ones and that ‘s what will make you stand out in the crowd. Where can you be a beginner today?