John F Kennedy's Commitment to Learning

A few years ago I had the fortunate experience of spending a few days with a large group of entrepreneurs and generally highly successful people.  This event was Dan Kennedy’s Super Conference.  During those few days I was challenged to think about my business and my personal and business plans.  I’ve now seen Dan and his group several times and each time I walk away feeling like I took a drink with a fire hose.  At the same time, I always walk away thinking huge and with more clarity as it is always good to learn certainly but as important is to learn away from our immediate work environment.

Coincidental to immersing myself in that event, I completed a book on the way back on the plane that I really enjoyed.  The book is “The Lessons and Legacy of a President:  John F. Kennedy on Leadership” by John A Barnes.  In Chapter 7 it references the importance of learning –mostly self learning and self teaching. 

The Chapter starts out with JFK’s quote:  “There’s no school for presidents either.  We’ll learn together.”  He said this to Robert McNamara, who said he didn’t feel qualified to be defense secretary.  Many times in the past it has come up in conversations that the various businesses Kim and I have participated in  have absolutely nothing to do with what I learned in college.  Although college gives the proper tools to many that that’s a fit for, you should avoid getting bogged down in the diploma and the details and, as a general rule, you can never learn too much about your line of work – which starts after college for those that choose to go.  Information and skills are only as good as the uses to which you put them.  Kennedy was not afraid of using new information to changes his mind about an issue or of learning new skills to help him do his job better.  He continuously challenged himself with never ending improvement.  Being able to learn new facts and immerse yourself with others that do the same and step back to see if your assumptions are correct is essential for success and even more essential if you’re in a leadership position. 

One of my friends and mentors, Todd Smith (www.LittleThingsMatter.com), taught me back in 2008 when I entered the network marketing profession again that our checks will always be directly related to our commitment to personal development and developing and refining the skillsets for our given profession.  I challenge myself constantly so that I can be in a better position to teach others, to coach others, to speak from the stage and to generally keep the ball moving forward relative to my learning curve.  As we teach others to do the same, we insure constant and never ending increases in peoples’ income.