When we create with new knowledge, the level of learning is highest.
Editor’s note: Knowledge is power, but we can’t assert that the more knowledge we have, the more successful we are. For entrepreneurs and businesses, how to apply knowledge to work is the most important. Entrepreneur, JetForm CEO and founder Aytekin Tank believes that entrepreneurs should pursue quality rather than quantity when learning.
When we were young, we thought that knowledge is power. When our education system assesses a student’s abilities, the more information she has, the higher the score.
Today, when we start a business, we think that the more we learn, the more competitive we have. 24 hours a day, we can absorb knowledge at any time, and there are various courses online. In fact, about 80% of companies in the United States provide online training to their staff.
I am the CEO of JotForm. This company was created by myself. I always feel that I should keep my mind at all times and keep abreast of current information. When I wrote this article, I saved about 100 articles in my Pocket App. Sometimes I am very anxious, unable to control, for fear that the industry has a good idea, I missed it, for fear of a transformative event, I missed it again.
It turns out that the higher your academic performance does not mean that your later achievements are higher; the more knowledge you do not mean that your business is more powerful.
You can look back at students who are not performing well, such as Steve Jobs. He averaged average grades in high school. For example, J.K. Rowling, her grades at Emer University are only equivalent to C. In the end, both of them deeply influenced their own industry.
Why? Because it doesn’t matter how much you learn, it’s important to apply what you’ve learned to your actual work, but also to be tactical. When you apply online and are ready to learn something new, there are some places to pay attention to. Don’t just look at the quantity without looking at the quality.
Don’t memorize, learn to apply new knowledge
Many people associate “learning” with “recollecting a lot of information”. The two are not the same. Learning requires us to have a deeper understanding:
The Atlantic Monthly contributor Ben Orlin said in the article: “Memory is like a street street: it goes in parallel with the best part of learning, there is no intersection. It avoids all actions and does not need to learn. It will let you know something and answer some questions without understanding.”
According to Bloom’s taxonomy, when we create with new knowledge (generate, plan, or create original materials or ideas), the level of learning is highest.
For this reason, the world’s most successful entrepreneurs will gain knowledge through creative experiments, and they will be able to use knowledge immediately.
If you are learning a foreign language, it is of course useful to remember words, but only using words is a real learning. Those who master the second language will tell you: When you start to communicate with others in a new language, you really learn.
Get new areas with new thinking
When we learn something new, we sometimes have to re-understand what we know. If you don’t do this, it’s very likely that you will throw new information into the old framework.
Because of this, many excellent entrepreneurs have a “beginner’s heart”. This idea comes from Buddhism Zen, which means that you are close to everything with a ignorance mentality. When Marc Benioff acquired Time magazine and Hooman Radfar investment casual fast food chain Sweetgreen, they had such a mentality.
Because once you have a beginner’s heart, you will ignore any assumptions that have gone deep into your mind, including limitations and thinking about infinite possibilities.
Suzuki Junlong Zen Master once said: Face everything with the heart of a beginner, you will see countless possibilities, if you use the expert mentality to observe, the possibility of seeing will be much less.
It’s hard to forget what you already know. If you want to nurture a beginner mentality, you can start with questions rather than answers, keep an open mind, don’t care how much knowledge you have, and consider more in any situation. A perspective. Don’t blindly follow the first impression, start with multiple perspectives (consider “yes” “no” and “like”), and then pick one.
If you have a beginner’s heart, you can not only see the blind spots of your own knowledge, but also enter the new field with modesty and curiosity.
Maximize learning fun
When we are children, the motivation to learn is curiosity. We learn to eat, learn to climb, learn to walk, talk because of natural interests. After entering the school, learning becomes tiring, and we are forced to learn and have nothing to do with interest.
If you can find interest again, the efficiency of learning will increase. For this reason, researchers have been actively studying “interests” in recent years. They found that interest can make our thinking clearer, deeper understanding, and more accurate memory.
Interests can even help learners overcome learning difficulties and cognitive impairments. A research and development found that some students are interested in reading and mathematics. Although the test scores are not good, when they encounter text and math problems, they are less interested than those who are not interested.But the students with higher scores are better.
As an entrepreneur, we should know where our real interests are. If you encounter topics that are not of interest, we can participate as little as possible, and we can give these tasks or projects to people who like to do it.
Every successful founder knows that there is no need to do everything. To expand your business and become an effective leader, you must learn to entrust things to others in a comfortable way. In this way, you can focus on more advanced issues and focus on the areas of greatest interest.
Generally, when I know that someone can do something better than me, I will assign the task to him, and he can get better results in less time. For example, for every UX upgrade, I don’t have to master it all. I can trust my designers and believe that they are top-notch.
When I first founded JotForm, I thought this way: Some organizations have time constraints, they should hand over the online form to us to save time. JotForm has 5 million users. They don’t have to spend time coding code. Just rely on our experts. Our experts know various programming languages, understand graphic design, and master WEB. In this way, customers can save a lot of time and pay more attention to the mission and goals of the organization.
For many entrepreneurs, continuous reading, searching, and accumulating information can give people the illusion that they seem to be very successful.
When it comes to learning, sometimes “less is more”, because a smaller number often means higher quality and you can become a more efficient leader. Therefore, we should pay attention to what we are really interested in, cultivate the mentality of beginners, and give low-value, unwilling to do to others. Also, don’t forget: when you learn new things, you should use them right away.
Translator: Xiaobing Hand