Why do we have to learn all these stuff?

One day a professor in Medical School was discussing a particularly complicated concept in Physics class.

A student rudely interrupted to ask, “Why do we have to learn this stuff?”

“To save lives.” The professor responded quickly and continued the lecture.

A few minutes later, the same student spoke up again.

“So how does physics save lives?” he persisted.

“It usually keeps the idiots like you out of medical school,” replied the professor.

I have had people say, “What’s the use of learning all these leadership stuff? We’re leaders already aren’t we?” I actually overheard these words from a high-ranking superstar executive attending a leadership seminar. He was required to attend by the chairman of his company and felt bad being there.

He complained, moaned and groaned and cussed and cursed feeling that the entire seminar was a waste of his precious time. Guess what? That same executive was booted out of the company a few years later because he could not lead his people very well and his career spiraled downwards from that time on.

People are born with God-given talents. The problem though is that most of them operate on their talents alone and one day outgrow them. Others work on their talents. They learn and train and work hard on excelling in it and discipline themselves to become better at what they do. Now they are reaping the fruit of their efforts.

Training and learning is a discipline and discipline is a necessary component for sustainable success.

Why do we have to learn this stuff?

Learning things is a discipline that is important in what we do. And when we come across the word discipline, it conjures a negative image and impression more than a positive one.

Why is this so?  Because the word discipline is closely associated to the word “punishment.” Yet Olympian athletes, soldiers and LeBron James appreciate the benefits of discipline. They know they would not reach their level of success or even survival without it.

Discipline is important because it enables us to do things that are good for us. Discipline enables us to go through a process by which the results provide us the strength and reward that could not and would not have happened had we not gone through it.

I guested in an extremely early TV show on a Sunday morning entitled “Chink Positive” hosted by popular money and wealth speaker Chinkee Tan.

The program started at 6 on a Sunday morning and it took a tremendous amount of discipline for me to make it there and guest in the program.

We talked about the importance of training. We discussed the differences between talents and skills and I emphasized the importance of being outstanding by standing out of a crowd, and in a little while, the text messages and the calls came in.

I promoted a whole day learning event I will be doing on the 9th of September, and I was so surprised to see that our phones rang with hundreds of text inquiries, reservations and actual ticket sales just a few hours after the conclusion of the show.

It is amazing what television can do and this on a Sunday morning! But what is more amazing is that people are willing to invest in learning. They want to be trained to be successful.

People inherently want to improve but need to be challenged to do so. As I said in the program, “You need to stop saying,” I am trying to be successful and start saying I am training to be successful.”

But that short, early Sunday morning interview must have made sense in the minds of the early risers that moved them to take the effort of calling up the office and ordering tickets and wanting to learn more.

Why do we have to learn all these stuff? 

Because the world continues to change and the years pass us by, and not doing so will bring you nowhere near your dreams. Then you are left with a job you don’t like to work in, an old car you do not like to drive in (or the lack of it), live in a place you do not like, and experience a life full of remorse and regrets. And all because at some point in our lives we reasoned, “we do not have to learn all these stuff...”

Don’t let this happen to you. Cultivate a hunger for learning and oh yes….just one more thing…rise and shine early!

(Only a few tickets left for “Stand Out for Outstanding Performance” that will be held on Sept. 9, 2015 at the Metro Tent inside Metro Walk along Ortigas Blvd. Be inspired and learn from speakers Chinkee Tan, Francis Kong, Bryan Kong and Karen Davila as they share principles on how to become great achievers. For further inquiries contact Inspire at 09158055910 or call 632-6310912 or 6310660 for details)