Life and time are world best teachers. Life teaches us the use of time and Time teaches us the value of life.

Why Being Alert and Open-Minded Is Essential to Being Successful

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The first tier of?success?is “alertness.”

This trait is: “Be observing constantly. Stay open-minded. Be eager?to learn new innovative technology and improve by trying.”

Experts consider alertness essential to growing as a person.

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Abraham Lincoln once remarked,

“I never met a person from whom I did not learn something;

of course, most of the time it was something not to do.”

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“But that’s learning just the same.”

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We must be alert and alive and be observing constantly, seeing the things that are going on around us.

Otherwise, we are going to miss so many things from?which we could improve ourselves with regenerative advances.

We must not get lost in our own narrow tunnel vision and selfish ways.

Beyond observing all the time, however, is the important detail of staying open-minded.

Always stress the importance of being open-minded in everything in order to take advantage of every opportunity?to learn something new which can complement our lives besides the traditional.

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My colleagues were free to disagree.

Some wouldn’t disagree that much while others frequently disagreed.

I wanted them free to make suggestions.

I think a yes-man is absolutely no good at all.

You need someone who is going to take issue with a critical mind.

I wanted them to?have ideas of their own?and yet, at the same time, know that only one can make the final decision….

If the decision that I made, as the lead person, was contrary to what they believed, they had to accept it as if it were their own, even though they disagreed. That's the responsibility that I will take.

That’s something I learned in my career, whether it be with colleagues or partners:

When you disagree, don’t be disagreeable about it.

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In fact, it’s rather interesting to see just how open-minded we really were in terms of welcoming suggestions,

and how we were encouraged to be open-minded, too.

Colleagues offered comments about my boss’s?willingness to listen?to and learn from the ideas if they might help the team improve:

“Yes, we were free to disagree; in fact, he encouraged us to speak our minds.”

“He was always looking for help, comments and any kind of disagreement.”

“Oh yes, we were very free to disagree. He encouraged it.”

“We were free to disagree. He did not want yes-men. He wanted people who would express their ideas.”

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He was a great person to work with in that respect because he was very open-minded.

He’d challenge you on a lot of these things—he was very challenging—but not on whether he liked it or not, but on how much you’re sold on it.

“He was always open-minded and willing to try something if we could justify it in our reasonings.”

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Once more, the other part of the definition of alertness: “Be eager?to learn and improve.”

He felt that a person must be ready and willing to embrace whatever lessons—positive or negative—that life threw in their way.

To him, it was the surest way to grow.

No matter how knowledgeable or experienced we believe we are on a subject, there is always something more to learn.

We need to believe this firmly, dedicating ourselves to learning something new every single day.

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It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.