Why do we ignore good advice?

I was invited to speak on ‘How to write engaging emails’ at ‘Well Said’, a TedX inspired town hall of ICICI securities last week. While compiling my thoughts, I went down the memory lane when my English Teacher in school had to try hard to get me to converse in English.

Despite his insistence, my friends and I would converse in all languages but English. The convenient excuse we offered ourselves was, ‘Why do Engineering Aspirants have to worry about languages?’. However, I had to work extra during my days at College of Engineering Pune and even Stanford University to get my communication right. That learning came at an expense! There’s something about the mind that often tempts us to learn only after committing mistakes.

Circa 2010. When we started Jombay, our focus was to build the product, and establish the product-market fit. When our  Board of Directors suggested spending time on compliances, systems, and processes, excuses of time, and priorities always came up from our side. Later we ended up paying extra attention, time, and money to get everything in place as we as we raised the next round of venture financing. Again, what is it about the mind that often learns at a cost?

When someone more experienced tends to advice, juniors take some and ignore many. The self realization happens only after going through the experiences, often expensive ones. In our High Potential Assessment, we insist that our clients measure Openness to Feedback, Adaptability, Learning Agility of the candidate. We have seen a high correlation to this and the person’s growth in an organization.

People who grow fast, in my experience, are very good listeners, open to feedback and are smart at learning from others’ experience to avoid falling into pitfalls. What holds us back from learning or listening to advice then?

Does the human mind ignore advice to prove itself right? Does it have to do with our schooling or teaching system, in which students are ranked by who is right most often? We learn most from failing, yet we don’t have systems that reward failure. Is that the reason our mind tries to prove itself right? Just thinking!

With loads of wishes for Ganesh Utsav & Teachers day!Mohit

P.S. What’s up with the Jombay team for the last few weeks?

The Team has been busy designing and rolling out Assessments for:  

1. Hiring at a Large Life Insurance Company
2. Campus Hiring at B-Schools for a Consumer Electronics Company
3. TSM to ASM & ASM to RSM promotions for an FMCG brand
4. Fashion Consultant to Assistant Store Manager promotions for a retail player with more than 1000 stores
5. Key Delivery Manager career progression Assessment Development Center at one of the leading IT services company in India

About Me: 

I am the Co-founder and CEO of Jombay, an award-winning Talent Assessment and Development company. I have been featured in Fortune India's 40-under-40 list for 2015. Prior, I was the country head of mig33, a mobile community of more than 60 million users. Before that I was at Stanford University in California. Follow me on twitter: @mohitgundecha

Read other articles by me:

1. Is Z equal to X and Y?
2. They'll call me freedom #RaiseAFlag
3. Udta Punjab or Udta India?
4. Diversity is a mindset, not a board level agenda
5. Five Types of Start-up Love - Sunday Economic Times