Learning things the second time around

Like most people who work together but don't share an office, Ilise and Peleg and I share a lot of stuff via phone and email. (Peleg and Ilise are down with the IM as well, but I hate it—too much pressure!)

Recently, Ilise shared an email with me she'd gotten from Pamela Joy Trow-Johnson of Art Passions Design, who addresses the need to keep learning—even (or especially) things we think we already know.

I've been in the design/marketing industry for 20 years as well as taught at one of the top design schools in the industry. So, one may ask, why did I buy The Nuts and Bolts of Running a Design Firm. Or, why would I purchase your Pricing and Marketing Secrets?  when I've been independent for a greater part of those years?

Well, you're correct in saying there are no secrets. I believe, if I can come away from what you have to share with only one new pearl of wisdom, it's well worth the time and dollars. We're in a business that requires understanding how people receive and act on information. How many times have we all encountered an answer or new direction to problem resolution in one form, such as, a seminar, then realize a colleague had shared that approach with you sometime ago? Or, the answer was in that book you bought last year but never got to it because the cover design was poor? Also, whenever we
have concrete expectations, we only look for information that vibrates to those expectations, therefore, overlooking other great information.

Exactly the point, Pamela! As Ilise pointed out in her last newsletter, there really aren't any "secrets" per se; all the stuff that's out there is—well, out there!

But it's important to keep our eyes and ears open for those same lessons in a different form. Sometimes it's a matter of hearing things again, only under different circumstances. Sometimes, you learn the lesson the second—or third, or fourteenth—time around.

Although I swear, I will never learn the lesson of IM...