“There are many arts among men, the knowledge of which is acquired bit by bit by experience. For it is experience that causeth our life to move forward by the skill we acquire, while want of experience subjects us to the effects of chance.” PLATO
The Experience Paradox is the fact that one needs experience to truly value the benefit of experience. How many of us have looked back as adults and said, “Wow, my dad was right.”? Admit it. We’ve all had that realization about a parent, a coach, a teacher, a colleague, someone older who we thought at the time didn’t really get it. And then one day, as we got older, we realized that they really did and we probably would have been better off to listen more to what they had to say. It takes experience to value experience.
When I started my first company, I was an intelligent, ambitious, confident, creative, hard-working twenty-four year old who knew almost nothing about the field I had entered – marketing. I didn’t work for a marketing company before starting my own, and I didn’t even take a marketing class in college. But what I lacked in training and experience, I made up for in belief, diligence and a willingness to do whatever it would take to succeed and be the best at my chosen craft. A little naive for sure, but I was young and too inexperienced to know better.
Within the first twelve months of starting Pinnacle Promotions, a sports marketing firm that later turned into an integrated marketing agency, I had devoured every book I could get my hands on about advertising, marketing and professional service businesses. I read every trade publication cover to cover each week and went to conferences to network and listen to experienced people give presentations about their work. My passion to learn enough to be able to out-think my competition was boundless and I soaked up everything I could learn like a sponge. But even with my daily studying, there were just some things that I could only learn by experience. To bridge the experience gap, my partner and I (another hopeful twenty-something with no experience) hired retired advertising and marketing executives for projects where we felt deficient in knowledge or just thought we would need some grey hair on the presentation team for credibility (I hate to say it, but in our youthful arrogance, it was usually more for the latter purpose). We didn’t know what we didn’t know when we started our company, so we just moved confidently forward on instinct and, often, bravado. Lucky for us, and with hindsight I emphasize luck, our determination and enthusiasm won the day enough for us to succeed in business.
That was thirty years ago when my career was just beginning its long and winding road. Today I know what I know and what I don’t. I’ve seen countless marketing problems and developed hundred of effective solutions. I’ve made mistakes and learned how to correct them quickly, before the impact felt was too great. I’ve learned to see the chain of events that can be created, good or bad, by a single decision. I’ve learned to identify the important issues and ignore the ones that don’t matter. My judgement has been forged through decades of being in the fire and taking responsibility for my successes and failures. By all description, I am now truly experienced and able to help clients with the confidence and ease that only comes after decades of practice.
As I think back on the beginnings of my career, and even some of the early middle stages, I would have benefited greatly by seeking experienced counsel more often. I usually arrived at effective solutions to problems or capitalized effectively on opportunities, but the path would have been less much rocky and the timeframe shortened had I gotten an experienced viewpoint a few more times than I did. Now that I am that experienced person, how easy it is for me to recognize the value that my experience brings to the table day after day.
So for all my young colleagues and friends, or anyone starting something new that they have little experience doing, here’s some advice – get someone who has been there to offer their perspective, expertise and contacts. Things will happen smoother and faster, and more by intention than by chance. You’ll need some luck, but stack the deck in your favor with experience. And don’t be scared off by the cost of an experienced voice. You know what they say. If you think a professional is expensive, try hiring an amateur.
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