In my experience, it is really hard to appreciate the value of inexperience. When I look back at my life, some of the most powerful experiences came about because I just didn’t know better. Here are a few examples of times when I went into new adventures inexperienced.
Everyone in the room looked at each other. Then they all looked at me. For an hour we had struggled to make a decision. Round and round we went, looking for more information to guide us, wishing we could just walk out and defer our decision. With all eyes on me, it was time to push through the obstacles.
Karalee and I were riding up the gondola together first thing in the morning on Blackcomb Mountain. It was looking like a great ski day when one of the people we were randomly put together with looked over at our ski poles and said “those must be old–they still have leather straps.” He was right.
I spend a lot of time helping entrepreneurs and their teams figure out why they do the work they do, what they are going to focus on, and how they are going to measure their success. While these are important, the most important question is:
Who?