PhD, schmee-h-D

August 26, 2008 4:32 PM

You don’t need a Masters.
You don’t need a PhD.
In fact, you don’t need ANY acronyms, letters or designations after your last name.

You need experience(s).

That’s what people trust.
That’s what people relate to.
That’s what people use to judge you.
That’s what people validate your expertise by.
That’s what people measure your credibility by.

I think IBM pioneer Tom Watson said it best, “Good judgment comes from experience. And experience comes from bad judgment.”

You need experience(s).

AND, along WITH those experiences, three other things:

FIRST: Constant and intelligent reflection upon those experiences.
Because, as my mentor, William Jenkins taught me, “We learn not from our experiences but from intelligent reflection UPON those experiences.”

So, as you experience life, remember to ask yourself:

1. How are these issues related to each other?
2. How can I profit from this experience?
3. How can I use this idea, principle or technique to achieve my goals or solve my problems?
4. How can this mistake be quickly made into something good?
5. How could this mentor me?
6. How does this fit into my theory of the universe?
7. Is there anyone in my life that I treat this way?
8. Now that I’ve done this, what else does this make possible?
9. What happened to me during this experience?
10. What is another use for this failure?
11. What went right/wrong/perfectly about what JUST happened?
12. What worked well and why?

SECOND: An extraction of lessons learned. Because nobody cares what you did. Nobody cares what you know. They only care what you’ve LEARNED; and, how those lessons can help them improve their lives.

Therefore, as you experience life, remember to ask yourself:

1. Can I transfer this information into something else I do?
2. How can the basic concept be applied to different areas?
3. How many different ways can you leverage this?
4. In what kind of future situations could I use these learnings?
5. What did I JUST learn from this experience?
6. What did you experience today that taught you something about your work or life?
7. What else is like this?
8. What have I seen, read or done today that relates to another idea or theme in my life right now?
9. What’s the Universal Human Emotion/Experience?

THIRD: A platform to share those lessons learned. If you don’t write it down, it NEVER HAPPENED. And, writing is the basis of all wealth. The challenge is, how are you going to share that with the world?

Well, as you experience life, remember to ask yourself:

1. What type of list could I immediately make my idea into?
2. What journal does this go into?
3. When will I write about this?
4. How many different ways can I share this intellectual property?
5. If I were to share these lessons in a speech, what would I say?
6. How can I make this experience useful to my fellow human beings?
7. How can I make writing a part of this?
8. How can I conduct a debriefing?
9. Who else needs to see this?

REMEMBER: If you want to prove your credibility and validate your expertise, you need experiences.

AND, you need to compound those experiences with a system of reflection, extraction and sharing.

If you can do that, people will no longer have to ask the question: “So, is this your direct personal experience, or are you just quoting someone else?”

PhD, Schmee-h-D.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
How do you let experiences change you?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “9 Ways to become THEE Expert on Just about ANYTHING,” send an email to me, and I’ll send you the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
[email protected]

Ready to turn YOUR experiences into money?