Our LEARNING Curve is Our EARNING Curve!!

In my Consulting or facilitation sessions on leadership with corporations, I often come across many participants who would find time in the breaks to discuss their challenges and seek inputs. What intrigued me was, why only a few and often the same individuals come to me. How were their motivations different than the others in the group?

In one of my drive back home, i was chatting with this Ola driver Omkar who was from a small town in Uttar Pradesh. In one of our small talk, he shared that he was a carpenter earning a meagre 8 - 10 thousand a month staying in Mumbai with his family in a slum, till a few months back. One evening at a roadside tea stall, his close friend from his village talked him out that if he learnt driving, he could earn 20000 thousand a month. The calculation was simple, a more than100 percent increase in his earning if he learnt the new skill. 

While it sounded like a no brainer, as to why he must have learnt driving, there was something that struck me about this story. Leaving the comfort of a profession that has been mastered over years, gaining knowledge and honing skills, must not have been easy for Omkar. Forget the resources needed to learn the new skill. 

He had gotten me inquisitive and i asked him how and where did he learn driving.

He candidly shared that each evening he would pay Rs 50/- to his village friend after returning from work and learn driving in the owner’s car which his friend drove. Today the same guy earns 25000/- a month and stays in a society. I had to drive my grey cells a bit to understand the relationship between these rhyming words learning & earning. 

I could finally deconstruct the elements of his motivation and the many participants who come in the breaks to me, as i fathomed there were three aspects that were interplaying in a sequential order:

1. Influence and Impact - Whom can I trust who could explain how do I grow?
2. Focus on Needs - What do I need, which I don't have today?
3. Perceivable Benefits - What can i see happening in future, if I learn it?

Omkar heard his close friend whom he could trust. Trust led him to hear him out intently. The friend focussed on Omkar’s needs as he knew him well and understood his need to earn more for his family’s sustenance in Mumbai. Possibly they must have been discussing this often in the past. Omkar could see an exciting picture of his future which was invisible to him, but made visible by his friend. His commitment, more specifically motivation to act, just followed. 

This was truly an Aha moment….but then i wanted to test this hypothesis ……I reminisced my own story, and i could find the reasons of taking up challenging assignments, touring in interiors of Bihar, U.P, Rajasthan and Nepal, joining an MBA program, and investing a big portion of my savings into some interesting learning and development courses in the past years. 

These situations were perceived extremely challenging and discomforting personally, i am not factoring the discouragement from some people around, against me taking up these assignments.

Was the pain worth my gain? Did my learning curve mimic my earning curve?

The answer is an EMPHATIC YES! I grew both within and in the organisation. Could muster the courage to leave the cosy job to start on my own.

Soon I could piece together the sequence of ….those who influenced me and how and why I committed to walking out of my comfort. It were those leaders whom i trusted, they knew my needs and motivations and they painted the beautiful and tantalising picture of the future for me. My sincere Gratitude to all of them! They built a life!!

I am just continuing the Legacy ….in what I do today and now!