Category: Thinking

Self-awareness is probably the answer many would give to this question. You need to be aware of where you were, what you’ve done and where you are now. If you see progress in yourself, then you’ve improved.

I strongly agreed with this statement – and I probably do. But it’s only recently that I’ve realised how hard this is!! There are two situations that I’m realising this in.

Badminton

This is normally pretty easy to monitor improvement in, play tournaments and see if you are getting better results, beating people that you’ve previously lost to. But what happens when you stop playing tournaments and when you start again there’s a whole new group of people to play against, and thus no bench mark. That’s the situation I’m finding myself in. Playing new people, winning some, losing others – but struggling to know if I’m a better player now than I was a year ago, it’s not like I can remember exactly how I played back then.

Business Knowledge

I’m learning a huge amount whilst on placement and being exposed to new things all the time. It’s a wealth of knowledge that’s bound to improve my understanding of business and general decision making in the field. But how can I measure this?

I’m very confident that I know more than I did before starting my placement, but I wonder if other areas of ‘thinking’ or ‘decision making’ that aren’t as prominent during my placement will decline, again I pose the question, how can I measure this?

I think the best solution must be to make yourself vulnerable and accountable to others that will see you grow and develop. They will notice changes and improvements, and if your conversation is open and honest then they will be able to tell you.

A question that has come to my mind a number of times these past weeks and even more so today after watching the snapchat of Fraser Williams, co-founder of Repairly.

His story today showed him and the team working on plans for Repairly, mainly financial plans.

He spoke about the importance of planning but also mentioned how one of his co-founders compliments the team well as he’s good at planning – implying Fraser isn’t?

In any case, planning isn’t necessarily a skill you will learn at University, mainly because there are endless ways to go about it. Yet planning is something I am learning a tonne about now on my placement – so is some ‘experience’ needed initially to gain that skill set?

It’s a concern that has come across my mind on several occasions when looking at young entrepreneurs – do you really know enough yet?? I certainly don’t feel like I am even close, yet many around me are starting businesses successfully… so do they know a lot more than me?

Fraser goes on to say that he doesn’t believe planning is necessary for the starting phases – it takes time away from the hustle. Planning, however isn’t the only skill; sales, finance management, people management etc. all skills that you won’t be guaranteed to learn at university yet are crucial for business success.

So how do people succeed – they bring in the right people!

Repairly’s team is growing, constantly bringing in new people that compliment nicely. So no, university doesn’t teach you everything you need to know to start a business, yes experience will help you improve, but you’ll never know it all – as they say, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know!

(Hear from Fraser himself on snapchat @fraser357)

“No, no, I think you’re born with talents and you acquire skills” were the words of one of my colleagues only a few days ago. Words that got me thinking about what talents and skills actually are and how people acquire them.

Are you born talented? Or do you have to work to develop it? What about skills; surely some people are naturally gifted to have a certain skill set, but can’t everyone eventually learn a skill?

It reminded me of a saying – Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn’t work hard.

So let’s dissect the two areas and see what we have…

Talent

‘Natural aptitude or skill.’

If someone is born with a natural ability for something they are said to have a talent for it. Whether it’s genetics that makes someone more suited for something or it some mystical ability that a person happens to have from birth, it seems that talent can’t be taught, it is natural.

By this definition, aren’t we constantly using the word in false context? “Roger Federer is very talented” – well firstly, at what? You can’t really answer ‘tennis’, he wasn’t born a Wimbledon champion, it took years of work for him to develop the ability to be a champion. So what was the talent he was born with? Mentality, perhaps good genetics to train his body hard, good eyesight, or will we just have to classify it as an unknown set of abilities that work for tennis and he is able to excel faster than others because of this head start, whatever it may be.

Skill

‘The ability to do something well’.

You can definitely learn a skill, playing the piano, for example, is a skill that is learnt. It may take longer for some people than others but everyone can make some progress in learning a new skill. It is the development of an ability.

Roger Federer has hundreds of skills that accumulate to make him a world class tennis player; his serve, his ability to read the game, perhaps even his work ethic is a skill. Are they all built up over time or was he born able to do such things?

I view skills and talents are very mutual things, you can’t have one without the other.

I do believe in natural ability – a talent – and therefore do think that some people are born with a head start, not everyone can run like Usain Bolt! However, I believe talent can be extended upon through the accumulation of skills as if they’re building blocks. Have enough blocks in place and you have extended, or create a new, talent.

Perhaps if this depiction is accurate, hard work really can beat talent, if talent doesn’t work hard.

Dear recruiter,

If you aren’t headhunting University students, you’re missing out!

I’m not sure if it’s because I’m a university student and would love for some of the big name companies to headhunt me, or because I’ve been listening to the autobiography of Elon Musk and heard about his recruiting tactics, that I felt an urge to write about this.

When sourcing the best, young engineers for SpaceX, Elon Musk contacts teaching assistants or college administrators to ask for the details of engineers with good results and a passion for building things outside of their academic work. On several occasions, he offered jobs within weeks of first hearing a student’s name.

Why? Because university students are unique…

1 – They can be moulded

A student with little experience is not yet ‘set in their ways’, they can’t use the phrase “oh, we’ve always done it like that”, because they have never done it.

This was appealing for Musk in a unique aerospace company that was breaking all the rules. A new recruit wasn’t aware of the rules and so had no concerns breaking them. He could influence their style of work to suit him – this was more valuable than years under their belt in his opinion.

2 – They aren’t tied down

No house, family, only some (student) debt, and freedom to move. It’s a lot easier to hire and move new graduates than it is to ask a recruit from another company to move homes with their family to join your company.

3 – They have lots of energy (most of the time)

The right students will work tirelessly. Maybe longer hours, maybe multiple jobs. They want to prove themselves and will do everything they can to prove it.

This might pose the issues that it can be harder to keep young recruits entertained, but if your company is good enough and the role is flexible, that problem will solve itself.

4 – You might not get a second chance

You can build loyalty by showing faith and providing an opportunity. Whether you want to hire to retire or just utilise young recruits for their creativity whilst they’re fresh, if you miss your chance to get yourself known, it may not come back around.

Of course, in many cases, there is no substitute for experience, but if you’re looking for people to work hard and bring in new ideas, you’ll find those people in University. But don’t always expect them to come to you, you need to go to them.

Just over a year ago I posted ‘Pitching – Control What They See’. It was one of my first posts, and is still one of my most read!

Events this week have made me remember this post. I wanted to explore what I said to see if I still agree.

1 – The Voice

I gave the advice that you need to be in control of your voice and recognise when it might speed up or shake.

This is harder than it sounds, it means you have to not only think about what you’re going to say, but also what you just said. You need to listen to spot when you might be sounding unnatural and correct it.

I mentioned that you can pause and take a breath. What I would add is that you shouldn’t be afraid of silence. If your content is good and you’re engaging with your tone and body language, then the audience will be very patient. You can take your time to make your words clear and effective!

2 – Body Language

Here I mentioned the uniqueness of people’s nervous movement. I’ve come to see many more variations on this over the year. Every time you can see a person wishing the movement wouldn’t happen, but they seem to not have control. Again it’s about self-awareness; find out what it is you do and be ready to spot and control it.

Now, my general advice for body language is to be open. Legs shoulder width apart, and don’t be afraid to take a few steps. Arms away from your side and talk with your hands, it displays lots of confidence whilst actually giving you an outlet to release the nerves!

3 – Content

The sentence I used to sum this up a year ago is definitely the sentence I’d still use –

Understanding, rather than learning.

Think about it, you could talk about your childhood, school, hobbies etc. a lot easier than astrophysics (unless that’s your hobby), because you know and understand what happened and why. You aren’t remembering lines, you’re remembering memories, stories, and information that are then turned into words to speak.

This is where you can over-rehearse. Practice saying the same thing in a different way, then if you feel nervous you’ve still got multiple ways to proceed.

To this day I still feel nervous when pitching, yet I try to portray confidence. As mentioned in the original post you can’t control what people think, but you can control what they see!

Whilst recording a podcast earlier this week (stay tuned for it to be released next week!) I asked the question about the value of University. The response surprised me a little, my guest spoke about the need to have an aim, purpose and plan for what you want to accomplish and do at University. It makes sense, right? Yet, I found it almost impossible to do this when I look back. I didn’t know who I’d meet, what I’d do, what I’d like and dislike, and so to be able to have a clear aim before arriving seemed pointless.

It’s made me think, how important are plans? One of my first ever blog posts was about this – Plan to Act.

This coming Monday I’ll be starting my placement, a big change and a new challenge, and this has made me rethink about this topic.

Here’s what I think now…

1 – Plan by thinking

What is a plan? You could say it’s a list of aims, set of objectives or steps.

But what if you don’t know what can be done or achieved?

I believe ‘planning’ could just be thinking. Take University, before you start, have a think about things that would be good to try, skills to learn, places to go… They might not be possible, also there will be new things to see and do which you can’t actually plan to do before arriving. Therefore, think about what you do know and have an idea of how to approach the challenges.

However, it’s unlikely that you can literally plan steps to achieve things, sometimes an ambiguous aim is all you can have, but it’s better than nothing.

2 – Be flexible

Don’t be afraid to change from day one!

New people, information and thoughts. Be flexible to change your aims straight away! Each day, in a new situation, will teach you something new about what’s possible and so you’ve got to use that to help you plan. It can be ever evolving.

3 – It doesn’t have to be formal!

When you tell someone to plan, they think of lists and mind maps and time spent doing nothing other than making notes to finalise later on.

A plan can be a small thought that comes to you at any time. You can plan by talking to others, by hearing from others and asking questions. You don’t always need a long list of steps, a plan can be a single sentence – “I want to leave University with a first”.

To return to the point made at the beginning, do you need a plan, aims and a purpose before starting something new? Well not like you think… it doesn’t have to be big or complete, but make sure you do know why you’re going. If you have a why you have a reason to do things and make the most of it.