failure
Jim Carrey told us that his dad wanted to be a comedian. And he failed at it. And it caused him to change his life direction and while it did provide the means to the end of caring for his family, it wasn’t the dream he wanted. And the lesson Jim shared in this, was that you can fail at what you don’t want to do.
But you can look at failure another way. There is a lesson in the information technology space that has shown me a better way to approach something. And it wasn’t until I had to use this in a different way myself, that I was able to see and harness the true power of the words; and the very idea itself.
When we try and fail, we oftentimes become discouraged. This can cause doubt in itself, but moreover, if left to fester this can lead to complete dismissal of an idea, and an outright change of direction in a person’s life.
So when we are the ones running the show, and we are tasked with the “impossible” that we always talk about attempting to achieve, and it is time to begin building up the team; this is the moment that the lesson will make the most sense. This is something I learned in late 2018; and thought I understood wholly; but it was not until late 2020 that I saw it from another perspective. Maybe this will help you to see that sooner than I did.
Start where you are
When we start where we are, we are throwing out the reservations. We are giving up the Ego and saying “OK, I know a little bit about something and a lot about nothing. Let’s begin.”
When everyone knows that everyone is there from ground zero to learn and positively reinforce each other, it can be a faster journey to norming. Nobody is nervous about another person’s skill set. Everything just “clicks.”
When you are bringing folks together in cybersecurity to learn a new thing, you’re going to see a lot of mixed strengths and weaknesses. This can make folks intimidated to work together. It also means somebody may have more experience with a topic than you do.
By being the best teammate you can be, you are setting everyone up for success, including yourself. By constantly starting where you are, you are giving yourself the opportunity to accept a different perspective on a challenging topic; and you are giving others the opportunity to experience your perspective too— along with your ability to empathize and communicate without bias or ego.
When you know you don’t know, you’re starting where you are.
Of all the foolproof methods to success you will see out there— this is the only one that I know works every time.