There has been a theme running through the week and through my head. I’ll call it learning.I gave a presentation on Monday about web 2.0 technology and how to use some of the tools on the internet for marketing. There was a woman in the audiance who told me that she doesn’t use her cell phone because she doesn’t know how to retrieve voice mail messages from it. There was another in the room who doesn’t use email because he just doesn’t get it.
While showing some buyers a home that exactly fit their needs they told me that they did not want to buy it because of the wall paper in the dining room and the paint colors through out. It seems that they don’t know how to paint or remove wall paper and don’t have the resources to hire the work out. Neither buyer felt that they could learn how to paint or remove wall paper, so it was on to the next house.
The ability and the desire to learn new things is a skill that not everyone has and I am begining to think it is the most important skill. There is seldom a day that goes by that I don’t learn something new. Sometimes it takes time, and research but I think that a person can learn anything they want to.
The picture in this post is a light painting. A friend used the term in a conversation. I had no idea what she was talking about. I checked with Google and read up on it. It looked like fun. So I took my camera, set the shutter speed for oh so slow, aimed at some neon signs and paned back and forth. When I have some time I plan to experiment a little more.
There are some great places on the internet to learn new things. There are forums, blogs and there is youtube. I have found videos on a variety of topics that interest me and have used them to teach myself new things. I also love Amazon.com, often I can find a book that I can learn from.
There is always something new to learn, and always a way to learn it. If I hear a word I don’t know the meaning of I look it up. If someone mentions some software or a web site that I am not familiar with I look it up.
I have a hard time understanding why a business person would not be able to learn some of the basic skills needed to run a business. I can’t imagine not wanting to learn something or not being able to. The more difficult something is to learn the more rewarding it is once it is mastered.
I wonder where today will take me and what I will need to learn.
