Learning is best treated as a lifelong pursuit.
The diploma is a milestone, not a finish line. The most useful things I’ve learned came after the credentials stopped mattering. ITIL frameworks taught me how to structure work, but Jim Collins taught me what to build toward. A Tim Ferriss interview sent me to What to Make of a Life before it was even released. Good to Great I’ve read twice, and I’ll probably read it again, because the second pass was different from the first and the third will be different from the second.
Books work that way. So do people, if you listen.
Listening is the part most people skip. It’s easy to read, easier still to talk, but listening is where the actual learning happens, and it’s a discipline. I try to read broadly and listen carefully, in roughly that order of frequency. The goal isn’t to collect information; it’s to keep the shape of my thinking honest. If I’m not encountering ideas that push back on what I already believe, I’m not learning, I’m rehearsing. Lifelong learning isn’t a slogan for me; it’s the only way I know to stay useful, to my work and to the people in it.
– Nolensville Elementary School: 1979 – 1985
– Page Middle School: 1985 – 1987
– Page High School: 1987 – 1990
– Ezell Harding Christian School: 1990 – 1992
– Western Kentucky University: 1992 – 1997
Work In Progress 