Edited Short Excerpts and long quotes from insightful books
The Experimental Mind-set
Action learning, presupposes a willingness to experiment, at least in small ways, understand why things went right or failed and incorporate what’s learnt into the next step of the effort
The excerpt below from author Josh Kaufman’s book The Personal MBA highlights how an experimental mindset encourages learning through action and improves systems in a business:
“The only way you learn to flip things is just to flip them!”
Julia Child, world-renowned chef, after flopping a potato pancake onto the floor during her tv show
When improving yourself or your business, it's often not clear what approach will create the intended result. That's where the Experimental Mind-seat comes in handy.
Constant experimentation is the only way you can identify what will produce the result you desire. Often, the best (or only) way to learn is to jump in and try. At the beginning, you may be in over your head, but there's no faster way to learn what works. Once you're committed to exploring something, you'll learn faster than if you'd cowered on the sidelines.
You learn the most from what doesn't go well. As long as your mistakes don't kill you, paying Attention to what doesn't work can give you useful information you can use to discover what does. All failures are temporary- what you learn in the process always helps you move forward.
Experimentation is learning through play. There's no need to build yourself up as a "serious businessperson" who cringes at the thought of the slightest mistake. You'll make thousands of mistakes over the course of your career, and that's okay. Every experiment teaches you something new, and every new lesson you learn increases your capability to accomplish great things.
Experimentation is the essence of living a satisfying, productive, fulfilling life. The more you cultivate an Experimental Mind-set, the more you learn and the more you achieve
“The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.”
– Herbert Spencer
Welcome to the 'New Mercuri Mail'.. The India Journal of Mercuri International!
This is the 'Go To Place Sales Newsletter and Journal' of the discerning Sales Community! Continuing its 35 year long tradition of sharing knowledge curated from the best of sales and management literature, here come interesting new features, all with an unwavering focus on making a difference!
Happy reading and reflecting!
Team Mercuri India
The India Journal of Mercuri International - SEP 2022
