Monday, March 4, 2013

Learning Curve


"Your old road is
Rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend a hand
For your times they are a-changin'" 
- Bob Dylan (1964)
"The Times They Are A-Changin'" 

Recently I experienced and throughly discussed with my dad, the strange phenomenon of feeling like an old dog needing to learn some new tricks. 
My job at Make-A-Wish, dealing with social media is a constantly evolving industry and it is easy to become complacent. What keeps me current are the various interns that I I've had and continue to have the privilege of working with, a special shout out to faithful blog readers, Kelsey Montgomery and Emily Wagner! The last few months my social media practices for MAW had gotten a little dusty and were in need of some updating, lucky some new PR interns started just in nick of time with some new great new ideas to keep things fresh. Strangely however this left me feeling a little shown up and behind the times, I am used to being the innovator, the young mind shaking up the norm, I would be lying if I said that my ego wasn't left a little bruised. After some serious personal thought and discussion with my father, an expert at all things business, I realized that everyone goes through that feeling at some point and you have two choices; either you realize you don't know everything and learn as much as you can from the people that know more or fight it and get left behind. My father and I talked about how my role as manager of social media means leading others in the right direction and using the collective knowledge of the group to the advantage of the organization. The influx of new information is endless and you can't get in its way and refuse to learn, It is an important lesson to learn at any age.
I don't want to be this guy!
  I've realized that even at 21, I can feel old and obsolete sometimes but I need to set my insecurities aside and absorb as many new ideas as possible from this life. I believe that the single biggest failing of the human race is not excepting new ideas and fighting the tide of positive change, be humble and realize that someone always knows more than you do but be happy because it means there is always hope for the future. 

P.S. At my dad's request, Sandra Bullock!


3 comments:

  1. if art school has taught me anything, it's that I don't know everything, every day I am learning something new whether it is technique or something about content, or how to do something completely different, or how to see things from a different perspective. my problem is a am very stubborn in how i do things, do it's become a bit hard for me to accept all of this, but I am trying!~

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  2. Great blog post thanks for sharing.

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