Richard Branson
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Sir Richard Branson, the founder, face and voice of Virgin, is one of the most quoted businessmen today. He has achieved so much as the head of the many business entities in the Virgin family. And he didn't do it by following the rules.
You don't learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over.
~~ Richard Branson
Richard Branson's quote here is one that most parents will understand. If you've had kids and watched them grow from birth to toddler, to adolescent, tweens and teens, you remember the lessons and rules you gave them on learning how to walk.
Wait, there were not lessons, AND there were no rules.
First off, they couldn't have understood them if there were, but more importantly, that isn't how we learn at that age. When we are just starting out we have to learn by doing.
We start to stand by ourselves . . . . Then fall over.
We fall over and over. We hit our head a few times as we pull ourselves up at the table. We struggle, then fall over.
We learn. We try again. We learn, and then finally, when you least expect it, the we let go of the table and this time we walk. . . by ourselves . . . sometimes falling but getting back up again.
Finally, we get the strength and skill built up in our legs, we get the hang of it, we get our balance.
And then, we're are off and running and roaming around doing things we didn't expect.
We worked so hard to learn . . . by doing . . . and by falling over . . .
We didn't follow the rules. We didn't go by a lesson plan. We didn't, but we learned.
Sometimes we plan, study, review, again and again before we attempt to do what we want to do. And never do!
Sometimes you have to just Do and Fall Over a few times.
One summer, Hatsumi Sensei, the Grandmaster of the martial art I studied, was in the San Francisco for a seminar. He did a Q & A session and one of the students asked him,
"How should I teach ninjutsu to my little girl. She is only 2 years old, but I want to start training her now."
Sensei, looked at him, and very matter of factly said,
"You should be watching her, learning from her. Little children do what's natural. They move naturally. . . "
That taught me a lesson that I understand today. We need to be like children in many areas. I love to watch babies. They take in everything that is going on. They listen, they watch, they do! They copy and imitate what we do until they become good at it. They don't just watch and study us. . . they duplicate what we do, until they can do it like us.
Do you spend too much time watching, thinking, studying, . . . Researching things. . . instead of doing?
Do you get into Analysis Paralysis?
I've hear it said that "Research is 90% Procrastination."
Learn by Doing and Falling Over.
Go out Today and Do Something.
