About wisdom, empathy and espresso

On his social media channels James Hoffmann the coffee connoisseur covers oceans of coffee wisdom in a most entertaining way.

Every now and again he tries to apply coffee knowledge to other areas (e.g. making a chicken stock). On one of his latests videos James talks about important lessons he had learnt early on in his coffee carrier. I thought to myself, "well, this is definitely applicable outside of the coffee world".

Lesson #1

Understand the Gap between Information, Knowledge and Wisdom.

While we may accumulate piles of books and articles and what not, we often neglect the most fundamental aspect of transforming knowledge into value (i.e. the ability to use your knowledge and experience to make good decisions and judgments"). In my opinion, the only way to gain wisdom is by putting the information to practice and by transitioning from outputs to outcomes. You may fail and then fail again and occasionally succeed, but this is the only way to move from Trivia master and become a subject matter expect.

To learn more about transforming information into actionable wisdom, check out this phenomenal book.

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Lesson #2

Have empathy to your employer.

Occasionally I stumble upon a mismatch between ones own motivation and drive versus the company's north star and objectives. This phenomenon occurs more unintentionally then purposefully. Think about it. Encourage your peers to invest thought in it. Ultimately, success and fulfilment are achieved once alignment is reached.

On this point, having a genuine sense of WINNING TOGETHER and working hard to help others success - is key.

Having a transparent Roadmap and well thought success metrics (quantitative and qualitative), objectives and key results - can make all the difference

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Lesson #3

Broaden your horizons.

Becoming subject matter experts and mastering our craft is always expected of us as professionals. However, once we choose to actively pursue OTHER areas of expertise; done well (without ever compromising our core skills), that will bring us to the next level.

Product Managers for example can spend their entire career successfully, without ever deep-diving into Code / BizDev / Customer Success / Design principles / Improv lessons / Big Data / Communication Skills / Statistics / The art of negotiation and what not.

But once they do, they start flying.

And who knows, maybe you'll find out that your are a multipotentialite

Check out James on facebook, coffee fans or not, you'll love him.