Experience is the Greatest Teacher of All

Experience is the greatest teacher of all.  As we grow in our marketing experience we must always keep this in mind.  Today’s marketer has to be very versatile and willing to undergo some hard knocks to be successful.  Experience will teach us in various ways but there is also a quick way to gain experience.

Whenever my dad and I would be talking, say of a financial move such as investing in the stock market, I would question his knowledge and he would reply something to the effect of “trust me, experience”.  Similarly we would be out fishing and he would be catching a few more fish than I would be and again he would say, “Experience!”

My father had quite a few years more experience than I had in all situations being that he was 50 years older than I.  Now I do not pretend to say that I always took his advice and he was never wrong, but I can tell you that most of the time he was correct and most of the time when I went against his experience I paid for it.

When I finally understood to use his experience to lesson my hard knocks I found myself in much better financially situations. Even now with our current economic problems in the United States, I can still hear him offering advice.  In fact, prior to his death he had made quite a bit of money in the stock market, but as he aged he did liquidate himself quite a bit so as not to leave my mother without financial security. 

So what I have found also in my experience is a bit of a short cut to gaining experience.  Listen to those who have succeeded in your area of concern.  Find mentors who you can relate to and incorporate their experience into your business

Now as you find mentors and start building on their experience, I can tell you from my experience, that getting out their and performing is the best way to gain experience.  Of course, you want to arm yourself the best you can, but I feel that getting out and doing it and gaining experience and at the same time learning from others experiences is the best of both worlds.

I was listening to a mentor, Jim Rohn, and he said, “If you have to wait for the product to arrive before you sell it, then you don’t understand the art of selling.”  So many people have to have everything in place before the get to working on the deal.  Especially in marketing the experience is in the numbers.  If you don’t get out there and start making some data, and mistakes and sales, you are not gaining experience

So in our marketing experience we must remember to have a long term perspective, not be afraid of failure, learn from our experience and be better tomorrow than we were today.  Those thoughts along with the continuation of assembling quality mentors and friends will go along way to making your life a wonderful experience.

Thanks for spending a little time with me today and don’t let anyone or anything stand in the way of your dreams.

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