Experience may not be the wisest teacher

It's been said that experience is the wisest teacher. I'm not sure that's entirely accurate.

When it comes to learning, the wisest teacher would in fact be a wise teacher, (not experience) or more accurately, the wisest learning comes from putting into practice what a wise teacher shares with you, This then creates the experience from which you can then draw on when encountering similar future challenges.

Let's expand on this. In order to learn road safety, as a child, did you step out into the path of an oncoming car, or did you heed the guidance, advice (and sometimes wrath) of your parents when near the road?

For those of you Australians old enough to remember the 'Hector The Cat' road-safety TV commercials, it was all about guidance-"look left, look right, look left again, then walk straight across the road; don't run". You didn't need to learn from being in the path of an oncoming car.

So why then are critical and important, and even everyday concepts (such as the title of the article) so clearly and regularly mis-communicated?

Often when ideas are transcribed, they are reduced into their lowest common denominator, shortened to a sound bite, or cut back into a simplified message for a simplified marketing audience, so that the subtlety and nuance is removed. This limits learning, and understanding.

It might sound like I'm trying to split hairs, but I'm drawing a distinction between words & context. Often what we say isn't quite what we mean, and using (or changing) words can have marked outcomes on an audiences' understanding of the idea that we are presenting.

Let me explain in more detail. As my great & wise mentor, Neville Christie shared with me, for some people, words and their context, are everything. For these people it's not enough to get close, you must say what you mean. For others, who think visually, they must see it in pictures. For still others, they must feel it.

But for the wordsmiths, in order to get closer to the feeling or the look of something, they must be able to describe it.

When writing a content social media piece, or writing a book, a thank you note, or even in a conversation, there is an opportunity to craft a better message, not by being shorter, but by being better.

Which is something I learned (& am constantly putting into practice) by a wise & trusted mentor. The words we use may only be 7% of a communication message, but when you add in the way we communicate & the feeling behind them, that adds up to a whole lot of difference in the meaning, & therefore, your outcome

So when it comes to words, sometimes, for some of us, 'less is not more'. Which was something I learned first from a wise teacher, before I was able to expand upon it from experience

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About Daniel

Also travelling under the alias of 'That Startup Guy' , I am a co-founder of StartUp Foundation (The Startup Accelerator for Experienced Professionals) and am intensely, deeply, passionately dedicated to "The intersection between personal mastery & business entrepreneurship".

I spent 20 years in corporate life before catching the startup bug. My first venture as an intrapreneur now turns over more than $10 million in profits per year. I've since designed, built & launched 14 startups across ecommerce, hospitality, social networking, logistics, financial services and the not-for-profit sectors.

If you've got an experience about startup failure, why not share it? If you've got a question, reach out to me via your preferred social media. And if you like the article, please follow me and share it.