As a business advisor, people often assume that I should know it all about
business if I am going to advise others about their businesses. They often
expect that a business advisor wouldn’t need an advisor him/herself.

Nothing could be further from the truth – or smart.

I saw a television show a while ago featuring Warren Buffett and Bill Gates giving a talk to students at  Columbia University. It was a fabulous dialogue between two of the brightest
business minds of our time.

What struck me?

BOTH of them had had mentors who advised THEM on their business direction and careers.

Too often, I work with successful entrepreneurs and professionals who like the idea of improvement, but wouldn’t consider (or just simply resist) spending their time and money on
professional development or even working with a mentor themselves.

Listen:

You gotta learn to grow. You gotta take input and coaching to improve. You gotta “sharpen your saw” to  succeed.

In today’s competitive environment, staying the same is actually sliding backward. There is so much to
learn, so much information, innovation is happening at the speed of light.

Let’s say you buy into my “sharpen your saw” advice. How do you choose where to spend your time learning
and with whom? Here are a few tips from someone who is a work in progress, someone who will NEVER graduate from the school of
success and life, someone who is a learning junkie and glad of it (If my  corporate colleagues from my past life could see me now, they would shake their
heads in disbelief- I was a hard case back then:).

• Take an advanced course in something you are already good at. Great at speaking ? Go the next step. Excellent at social media – seek out an advanced course and dive in.
  Leadership is your thing? Find a top-tier conference and hang with the best of  the best leaders to stretch into higher ground.  (I recently took my own coaching here and took an advanced speaking workshop to take my speaking to the next level).
• Learn something you are absolutely certain has no relevance to your business or life. Think you don’t even have time to learn more about what is relevant? Think again. You have no idea how an art class, a dance class, a cooking class, a social media class, an e-learning course could impact how you see your business, give you an idea you
  would never have had, or meet someone who could catapult you into a whole new realm of success.
• Get a top-grade mentor. It’s ridiculous to believe that great sports talents ALL hire coaches, but we business people only regard mentors as incidentals. This is a
  perfect example of why people TALK about success, but few actually PRACTICE WHAT IT TAKES to achieve success. I’m talking directly to the coaches and consultants
  out there who often think that others should hire them, but they don’t REALLY need an advisor. What’s the message you are communicating to the business community by this approach?

There was a lumberjack.
First week on the job, his boss was thrilled because he sawed 50 trees. The next week on the job, he sawed 20 trees. His boss was a little concerned. The following week, the lumberjack sawed only 10 trees. His boss asked him what was wrong and told him to get his production up or else.

Our lumberjack was perplexed. He couldn’t figure it out. He knew his job, he was strong and energetic. Then the lightbulb went on over his head. That next week his production went back up to 50 trees.

His happy boss asked him how he did it.

Our lumberjack smiled and said,  “I sharpened my saw.”