Never too old…
Monday, September 15th, 2008I’ll be turning 32 in a few weeks, and sometimes I still suffer from the teen age ‘know it all syndrome’. I’ve gotten past the point of being defensive if someone tries to teach me something and I’ve long since learnt the value of listening to those that have skills beyond my own or in different areas of specialization, but every once in a while I still get blind sided by someone telling me something that seems SO simple right after I’ve heard it.
This of course leaving me wondering “well, why didn’t I think of that??” The answer is simple enough really. Nobody really has the same perspective on things as someone else. Everyone has had a life that’s a little different and hence different people can think different things about the same topic. So where’s the real lesson in this? Is it in knowing that some people are just smarter? or is it in realizing that though you can be smart yourself, the smartest thing you can do is be willing to listen to someone elses words? It’s really not that tough, though as small business owners we often find ourselves thinking we can always do it easier and cheaper ourselves.
Why is this the case? We’ve all done it.. and at the very beginning it’s simply because we don’t have the money or the contacts to have someone else do it. What we need to watch for is when we reach the point where our time is worth more doing what we are good at than floundering away at something we aren’t. When was the last time you took a bit of a look at the different things that make your business run and see if maybe you could actually SAVE money by having someone else do something you either don’t do very well or something you realy don’t like. Maybe it’s time you should.