Law #1: There are two and only two ways to learn: experience and reading.
1st Corollary to the 1st Law: If you’re going to learn from bad experience, learn from someone else’s!!!
No one ever enters a race determined to finish last. No one ever pulls an all-nighter before a final exam hoping to fail the test. And no product development engineer ever begins a design with the ultimate goal of designing a product that doesn’t work. Yet many folks have entered races for which they have never trained or even observed being run; many more have crammed for an exam without having attended a single class or studied with someone else; and countless product development specialists have gone “into their closets”, spent countless hours “inventing”, without ever examining the marketplace they wish to enter. The world is full of people who insist upon making their own mistakes, refusing to learn from others…
The truth is that most of us hate hearing “Don’t do that”, forever believing that it is unwarranted criticism or an attempt to “control” what we think, do, and say. So often when we do hear that phrase, our stubbornness creates the very momentum we need to continue on towards inevitable failure or to experience what is often called “The Law of Unintended (or Unforeseen) Consequences.” Many will no doubt counter with, “What about determination, eh? What about the Little Engine That Could? I think I can! I think I can! Don’t you think you’re quelling dreams with the direction you’re heading in here?” Nothing could be further from the truth. There is a big difference between one who desires to quell dreams and establish control, and one who has a mentoring motive or God-honoring desire to adaptively challenge someone to steer clear of those obstacles that the student or protégé cannot foresee. The three year old does not know the danger of a hot stove, prompting his mother to yell “Don’t touch that!”…and in many ways, all of us are three years old, refusing and/or rejecting the wisdom of those with respectable motives. The problem is often that we “believe” that in any given situation, circumstance, or challenge, we know more or better than anyone else. Those who have that kind of arrogance are destined to a life of learning only from their own bad experiences, and sadly, often being proud of it.
Years ago I was stubbornly adding a bunch of bells and whistles to a product design, ignoring the market demands or the counsel of others. I was convinced they were all wrong. Although I had been told that “bells and whistles” generally only add ten percent to a product’s value and appeal, but often cost ninety percent of any R&D budget, I chose to ignore the wise counsel…naturally, I knew they were wrong! Months beyond the scheduled start of production, a fax arrived one day to my attention which simply read:
THERE COMES A TIME WHEN YOU MUST SHOOT THE ENGINEER AND GO INTO PRODUCTION
The fax was from a man I greatly respected, Jim Hall. I read it about 50 times, laughed, cried, realized that he was right, stopped doing what I was doing, finalized the design, and went into production. Shortly afterwards several people were killed by lightning at a major professional golfing event and our Storm Alert hit the national news…our small company had the only affordable lightning detection device on the market, and we became the go-to experts as a result. Had I stubbornly stuck to my own agenda and avoided Jim’s wisdom, I would have ultimately lamented a huge missed opportunity.
I still have that fax. And my youngest daughter, Kimberly Canfield, has the middle name “Hall”. Not because Jim gave me one good piece of advice. But because this wise man sowed into me for many years and helped me to avoid a lot of bad experiences that I would have otherwise insisted on experiencing myself. I can say the same thing about my mom and dad and many other folks, too. Proverbs 1:8 says, “Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching” and Proverbs 28:26 says, “Those who trust in themselves are fools, but those who walk in wisdom are kept safe.” Good teachings to live by!
