Try – Accept Critical Feedback – Learn – Try Again

The real world is not like the classroom. Book knowledge does not translate into application and success. If you really want to get better at your leadership, your vocation of choice, your skill sets then you are going to have to submit to practice. Don’t just sit your butt in a classroom, at a coffee shop with a book or be holed up at your apartment with your computer thinking that you are going to get better at what you do. You have to get out there and try it.

And when you do ‘try it’, don’t listen to your best friends, girlfriend, your disgruntled-going-nowhere-coworkers or your mom about whether you are on a good growth path. Ask honest people. Ask people who will tell you what you really need to hear. Ask people who don’t care about your feelings over your development but ask ones who will actually tell you the painful truths you need to hear in order to get better. Learn from what they have to say. Figure out how to apply it then go out and practice some more.

CRITICAL – don’t ever take a job or an internship where you don’t get to practice in some form the thing that you really want to be excellent at.