How smart are you? How do you rack up compared to your peers; your competitors; your parallel people?
There’s all sorts of smart, but only one that counts. It’s not high school diploma. It’s not college degree. It’s not university PhD.
It’s experiential smart. Your experience. Your knowledge. Your ability to act. Your ability to react. Your ability to pro-act. It’s your fluidity. Your flexibility. Your awareness that smart is not not being dumb; it’s not being the dumbest.
Smart marketers see an opportunity before the opportunity presents itself. Smart sales close the deal before the meeting. Smart customer service prevents the issue before it leaves the manufacturing plant. Smart human resources see through cubicle walls. Smart public relations knows it’s not the story.
Smart comes in many guises, but the real smart? That’s what the smart folks have already figured out. Have used. Have profited from. And have moved on.
Smart is not last year’s model. Smart is not yesterday’s news. Smart isn’t even tomorrow’s headlines.
Smart – real smart – is all the stories you never see until they’ve happened. But you made them. And now you’re telling new ones as everyone else regurgitates yours.
How smart are you?
photo credit: (from a second story)Mike Bailey-Gates
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Twitter: johnhaydon
That's why I love that Silicon Valley saying, “Fail fast and fail often”. Taking action, experimenting, and putting yourself out there nurtures and manifests your smarts.
Theory alone (in my experience) is severely limited simply because it hasn't been tested.
Couldn't agree more, John. Theory just says what you think you know; experience and experiment is showing what you actually know. And that's the nub.
Twitter: johnhaydon
And this is one reason I'm excited about Tweetsgiving. We've taken specific and massive action – and Radian6 will help us measure the results. It will be one of the biggest social media fundraising experiments so far.
I'd add that smarts = the ability to learn from what you do. Many of us can execute and continue to act, but it can be tough to reflect objectively and make your next move better with the lessons from your last experience in your pocket. Nice post, Danny.