Learn with these 3 great tips and improve your personal brand. Some months ago I was asked in an interview about what was the best tip I had ever received in my life. It was a great question and it was difficult to me to decide which was the best tip ever. In fact, I chose the best 3 tips I had ever received. And some weeks later, I wrote a post about it: The best 3 tips I have ever received. And this post has been, by far, the post with more visits during last year in my website.
And some weeks ago, I was listening a podcast where Michael Port, one of my “professional heroes” was asked about the 3 best tips he could give to any professional. After some moment thinking about finding the right answers, Michael explained these 3 great tips. I admire Michael and I really trust his opinions about the professional world. For this reason I took notes about these tips and now I want to share it with you. I hope you like them and can be useful for you.
- Develop deeper relations with people you like and you think can have a positive impact on your future. Every single day you have to work on deepening this kind of relations. Our professional world is not a vacuum, it is mainly human relations. And I cannot agree more on this tip. When I review my professional life, most of the opportunities I have ever had have come from personals relations. Most of the people who supported me, who recommended me or who opened doors for me where in fact personal relations I had been cultivated for years. So, networking is a really indisputable action for you in the future. According to Tom Peters, “If I had to choose only one strategy to develop my personal brand I’d chose, without any doubt, networking”.
- Get comfortable with discomfort. In a changing world like today’s world, most of the things you’ll have to do – in order to be successful – will be new. So, in this way the more comfortable you feel with discomfort the better you will deal with your challenges (or with your problems). Consequently, learning new things, discovering new techniques, new tools, new ways of doing things will be completely necessary for you in the future. Learning, studying, attending congresses, reading, listening to podcasts is no longer an option. It has to be your commitment in staying up to date in your profession. And also you will have to unlearn, to forget some things you learnt some time ago in order to learn new ideas.
- Recognize that your job is solving problems. You cannot imagine a problem-free journey as a professional. You have to understand that solving problems, for you, for your boss, for your company, for your customers… is the essence of your profession. In this way I wrote a post, some weeks ago about this idea. You can read: What problems do you solve? No matter which is your profession, how much experience do you have, what responsibility you have… your job is solving problems. The bigger the problems you solve, the more successful you will be. The fewer people can solve the problems you solve, the more money you will earn. Really understanding that your job is solving problems is a huge step forward in your professional life.
3 tips of an outstanding professional like Michael Port. 3 ideas to focus on in order to develop yourself into a better professional. And let me finish with quote I love from Michael Port: “To think big is to love the universe, to embrace our passion. To love is to fight for what we love. What a waste not to, when we have only this one life to live”.
