The One Key to Success

Never stop learning. Regardless of how much formal schooling successful people received, their quest for learning never stops — meaning they’re all autodidacts in some form

Lincoln was self-taught

“My alma mater was books, a good library…”

— Malcolm X

Recently, I had to complete one of those internal online courses for my employer. If you work for a large organization, there are usually at least ten that need to be done as part of the onboarding process when you start. Then, there are a few more that need to be completed each year, most of them focused on HR and safety issues.

When you finish them all, your profile includes something like this:

That’s not there by accident. But how many people really do click through and choose electives they don’t need to for a job they already have?

While it’s true that there are evil corporations that want nothing more than faceless automatons that only care about work, it’s also true that all employers — even the evil ones — want people that are highly skilled and willing and able to continue learning. Hiring, firing, and training people is expensive and time-consuming and inefficient. No one wants an long-tenured…