How Fast Do You Learn?? [Academy]

I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I try to make up for it by learning as much as I can, as fast as I can. Every day I’m surrounded by people who are smarter and learn faster than me. Therefore, to keep up, I follow the advice of author and podcast guru Tim Ferriss who said, “Always believe you’re the dumbest person in the room.” Well I believe I meet that standard whenever I’m with someone other than myself. If I believe everyone else is smarter than me, I work harder to keep up, learn faster and end up ahead of most everyone else.  

The only way I got through college was by taking copious notes. I wrote down everything my professors said in every class. I had notebooks full of lectures. When every class is full of IQ’s higher than yours, you need to figure out how to maximize retention, even if it means carrying the information around with you. My note taking got me through college.

When I got my first job in research, I KNEW I was surrounded by people smarter and more experienced than me. Again, I found myself to be the dumbest person in the department so my entire focus was on learning all I could. It paid off as it got me promoted ahead and above many of my so-called, SMARTER peers.

In today’s fast changing seed marketplace how do you keep up with all of the changes? Do you believe you’re the dumbest person selling seed for your company? Do you spend as much time as you can learning how to stay ahead of everyone else so you can be the only one impressing the farmers you work with? It takes very little time to fall behind. In fact, any seed seller can be obsolete in a month if they aren’t adapting to changes. Most seed sellers don’t keep up. In fact, so many have fallen so far behind in their skills they’ve lost their ability to help farmers go where they need to go. The reason they fall behind is because they’re mesmerized by new products and technologies coming to the marketplace every year. They believe the only skills they need today are product knowledge skills. Worse yet, that attitude has rubbed off on their customers who have been indoctrinated with the same attitude. The result is stagnation of progress when working toward higher yields and profits. All farmers want to do is focus on choosing the right varieties rather than changing and learning new methods of producing higher yields.