“Should I get an MBA?”
My multi-talented little cousin, an avid reader and a walking talking encyclopedia, asked me this question.
“If I were you, I would never outsource thinking, especially life-altering decision making.” That was my first response, half jokingly.
Later, we talked about him getting involved in a long-term project. I asked him: “What is your personal goal for participating in this project? What do you love to do and what are you good at?” He was annoyed by my “useless” and “stupid” questions. “We are talking about the project. Why are you asking so many questions about me? I don’t know the answers and I have no time to figure them out.”
I bet he is not the only person on the planet willing to spend countless hours to learn about the latest technologies, the current news, the popular trends, and the stories of successful people and companies. Not to mention investing two more years of his life for another degree to improve his qualifications. Unfortunately, he neglected to acquire the single most important expertise of lifetime ……
…… Self-Expertise, which is the deep knowledge about oneself by answering these three questions: Who am I? Where am I going? What do I want?
Each of us came to this world with a purpose, a set of natural talents, propensities, and limitations. This information is the unique code for unlocking the doors to personalized life path with infinite potential. When we become experts of ourselves, we know better what motives us, what kind of work we love to do, what kind of life partners are suitable for us, what kind of environment best supports our growth and how to make life’s important decisions. Think about the saved energy and time!!
Self-expertise is the foundation of all specialized tools (skills and knowledge) that we pick up along the way. These add-on “tools”, such as an MBA, are there to facilitate our journey, not goals by themselves. Without knowing who we are, what we want and where we are going, we may be investing in tools we never need.
“What are your personal goals?”
“What do you love to do?”
“What are you good at?”
These questions will be asked constantly in a Teal organization. Because we do our best work when we love what we do, and we are most energized when our personal goals are aligned with that of the organizational purpose. In Teal organizations, we can no longer outsource decision-making to bosses. We have to choose our own projects and our own teammates. Do we know our criteria for making those choices?
If not, then nobody else will do it for us. It may be a good idea to get started. Knowing intimately the most important person in the world, ourselves, is the most challenging yet the most rewarding undertaking imaginable. And it is the beginning of all wisdom and miracles.
