Ignorance is a Choice
Are you a podcast listener? I personally prefer to hold a tangible book in my hands and read, re-read, and make notes in the margin. It takes me a bit before the words really resonate. That said, podcasts are something I've taken up listening to when I'm grocery shopping or sitting on the sidelines at my girls’ sports practices.
This blog isn't actually about podcasts. It's about something I heard a mentor of mine say in her podcast. She said, "ignorance is a choice." Those words hit me. I realized that if I was super honest with myself that I have used ignorance - the things I am not well versed in - as a crutch. We all have, haven't we? I'm sure you can think of something you're not super great at, something that just feels clunky and inefficient because it's not your area of expertise. Asking an accountant to design their own logo is going to be unnatural for them. Asking a sales guy to learn new software is going to feel unnatural too.
Now, this conversation can go two directions and I know some of you will want to call me out on this if I don't put it out into the open. From a business mentorship perspective, I am no stranger to telling others to delegate out the small tasks, their weak spots, and to leave it to the experts. I stand behind that. If you have the financial resources to do so, absolutely delegate. Leaving it to the experts will not only shorten getting from A to Z on a project, but it will eliminate the distraction and lost time in fighting your way through the thick forest. On the flip side, you are not always going to have the resources - money or people - to delegate to.
You will inevitably come across something someday that you're unsure how to navigate.
This is the intersection where so many people get stuck. They find other things to work on instead. They pretend the issue isn't there. They tell others they cannot do the work, fix the issue, or proceed any further because it's something they don't do as well, or haven't done at all. Yes, friends, sometimes things might be beyond what YouTube and Google can help you with. I get that. If your computer legitimately won't turn on then you need to take it to a tech guy. Agreed. Most of the time though we can probably get farther than we think.
I wouldn't have my company today if I couldn't figure out how to create a website. For the record, it was my least favorite part, but I did it. I'll call myself to the carpet for using this crutch for quite a while though. I have always relied on the excuse that I wasn't as tech-savvy as others. I am an Elder Millennial, as they call us, so we weren't as immersed as those that are even just a few years younger. I avoided starting my business simply because I knew the website was going to be a daunting task. One day, I decided I was going to find a blog or video on how to do it. I read a blog that brought me to a hosting company. I followed video steps one at a time until I had a host and a site. (Honestly, there's a chance that I just used the wrong wording there... but you get what I'm saying, right?). Nonetheless, I figured out enough to get started. Creating the layout of the site was very cumbersome. I seemed to find every glitch that there possibly could be. Back to YouTube and to a tech-savvy marketing gal that I knew. I told her what I'd done, what I'd troubleshooted, and asked her to look at things with me. She'd send me back videos guiding me on what to do next. I figured it out.
What's the last thing that you told yourself - or someone else - that you weren't good at? What's the last thing you can remember that you didn't know how to do? What effort did you make to try and figure it out before you gave up on it?
I can tell you this - pushing through the mud to create or fix something is going to get you farther along on your journey than ignoring it will. Taking one step in an uncomfortable direction will get you one step closer than you would otherwise be. The honest truth is that your company resources, or Google or YouTube or one of your colleagues can probably get you started in the right direction. They can get the momentum going. It's your choice whether to give up, put a pin in the idea, or to dive in head first. I just want you to know it's hard. The entire journey - whatever yours looks like - is going to have elements that suck. It's going to have things that stop working, or that feel incredibly unnatural to you. That's okay.
I can promise you this: with each step that you take, you start to see the very next step. You likely won't ever see the entire roadmap (I've tried tracking it down, and apparently they don't sell it), but the path starts to appear as you walk. A huge dust storm may prohibit you from seeing more than 20 feet in front of you, but even when you walk right into the dust storm, you can see one foot at a time in front of you, and that's all you need to keep moving forward. When you feel stuck, just remind yourself that your friend, Stephanie, didn't know what she was doing in the beginning either. I didn't know how to create a website, but I figured it out. I didn't know how to replace myself in my full-time business (in order to start a second business), but I figured it out. I didn't know how to launch a career as a motivational speaker, but I took a course and began to figure it out. I didn’t know how to publish a book, but I started writing it anyway.
Do you see the trend? This is the same trend I want you to follow.