I don't often do guest posts, much less posts written by folks who aren't teachers. But Quinn the Business Bohemian is a friend and a writer. If we've shared a meal together, you generally get a free pass at a guest post*. I am extremely suspicious of three things: 1. Grown men on BMX bikes. 2. Anything that comes too easy. 3. People who act like they don’t have anything to learn. I remember being in my 20s and not trusting anyone who fell into category 3. I used to think, “people in their 30s think they know everything. Just because you have a couple kids doesn’t give you a monopoly on wisdom.” At the time, I was young and hungry for knowledge and experience and had a general distrust for older people that acted like they had nothing to learn from me. And now that I’m in my thirties, I still feel that distrust. Age obviously isn’t the deciding factor for all of this, but with a little bit of age came a little bit of experience, a little bit of success and a lot of ego. Now that I’m in my 30s I’m faced with the truth that I DO possess more knowledge and experience than ever. As a businessman, I’ve travelled the world and learned the inner workings of international business. I have become an expert in supply chain and a student of business from all aspects. I am well versed in both the manufacturing industry and the service industry. I’ve honed my managerial skills and have learned from the mistakes of others as well as my own blunders. I allowed myself to be mentored by anyone who had something to teach me. In a nutshell, I feel like my business instincts, coupled with my vast education in business (both local and international) have made me a force to be reckoned with in the business world. Uh oh. I’ve become the enemy. That same egotistical mid-30s arrogance I despised when I was younger has made it's way into my life. Where did I go wrong? When did I become so self important and knowledgeable? As I reflected on these questions about a year I came to a troubling answer: I learned a few things, thought I knew more than I did and then stopped learning. It was a pivotal moment for me. I had to identify when I’d lost my passion to learn and evaluate the next step for my career. Ultimately, I decided to make a career change to go into an area of business I’d never been in. The last few months I have been getting trained in an area that is completely out of my comfort zone. I am being trained by someone who is younger than me, has less business experience and shows little to no respect for my knowledge or past experiences. How dare he! He even has made the misstep of saying he is “parenting” me (and he almost got punched). He hasn’t studied Goldratt’s theory of constraints like I have. Nor has he sat across the table from a powerful Chinese business owner and negotiated million dollar contracts like I have. What does he know?! Well, here is what he knows: He knows more about this area of business than I do. He has experienced the ups and downs of this part of business in ways I have not. He has talents and instincts that I will never have. And the bottom line is that he has something valuable to teach me. Inexperienced or not, he has knowledge that I don’t. This career change is reminding me how vulnerable the process of learning is. In order to learn I have to make myself exposed in ways that are really uncomfortable. I have to choose to put myself “underneath” someone and allow them to guide me and correct me. It’s painful. The amount of humility required seems barely achievable for me. The truth is, I haven’t handled it well at all. I’ve been overly sensitive and difficult to teach. I am remembering that the process of learning is a very emotional experience, not just an intellectual one. As him and I go through the messy experience of teaching and learning, the data transfer seems like a small part. It’s not just my vulnerability as a student, but his as a teacher. We need to be aware of the undercurrent of emotion in the learning process. I am not just learning a new area of business, I am learning how to be vulnerable in ways that are difficult for a 30-something know it all.
*Consider this an open invitation, Philip, Hadley, Stephen, Shelly, Robert, Russ, Becky, Jeff, Yancy, Tony (and the New Hampshire crew), Paul, Tim, Nick, Michelle, Amanda and co-host of CuriosityCast Jeremy. And if I've forgotten you somehow, please understand that it's an accident. I'm not a detail-oriented thinker. 
