Do what you love, come as you are
This is a really interesting video. One man looks at a problem and creates a innovative solution, this is perceived to give him an unfair advantage and he has to create a new solution, and again this is perceived to give him an unfair advantage. All done with intuition and bits of a washing machine! I thought the comparison with the latest and greatest technology offered an important lesson though, we will all forge ahead to try and transform, to find the next thing to gain incremental benefits - but there is still a huge amount that can be learnt from what has past, which could still bring huge benefits.
The other point around if he was an Athlete or just a clever Engineer really made me think about my career, much of what I do/have done in the past is instinctive. I often wonder having left University after two years if I did the right thing, at the time it just felt like the right thing to do but I do wonder if it would have made a real difference had I stayed. As I've progressed in my career I've developed my own ways of validating and confirming what I do before I follow through on things by building on my core intuition with skills and experience garnered from those I've worked with, and of course with the odd training course here and there.
Whilst watching this it made me think yes, leaving University was absolutely the the right thing to do, that piece of paper I would have received would in no way have helped me develop in the way I have and more importantly, it brings home that I absolutely need to keep doing what I do and not lose sight of how I do it.
There is so much pressure nowadays to keep re-inventing yourself, to 'transform'. For myself, there is a core thread that you have to maintain, a sense of self that is driven by whatever your dreams are, surrounded by what comes naturally - keep these things, cherish them and then augment them with whatever 'new' thing today's transformation calls for and you really can't go wrong.
This is all summed up by a simple phrase you will hear in Microsoft, but recently reminded to me by Sarah Mocke - Do what you love, come as you are.
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