Speaking is silver, listening is gold…….
Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly- Plutarch
Internet triggers companies to multiply their listening skills because otherwise the collaboration might turn to be very expensive and ineffective. Why? In the digital age it’s all about building ecosystems- to share is to gain- recognizing new paths, getting to know new people ally and to link with; new combinations and opportunities are coming, leaving, or passing by so don’t miss the chance to catch them. So, more than ever it’s all about collaboration. Life is happening to you while you are busy making other plans”, J. Lennon said once.
Creating ecosystems with the right timing increases earning power. The use of of Social Media makes these things easier and more convenient. Nowadays you don’t even have to go on the street to know what your customers think of you and your products. Collaboration is a magic word; this is not the world of disrespectful scratch card behavior, non collaborating superego’s, who believe to have learned already everything and show obviously a total disability of organizing their own criticism. This is definitely not the world of plagiarizing writers, newspapers and TV or authorities keeping problems unsolved because it sells well.
This is the world of continuous learning, good listening and absorbing skills. From survival of the fittest to the survival of the most cooperative ones. The world of a practical wisdom, from “ old rules run the new ones” towards “new rules run the old ones”: Competition 2.0. We know that already. Gandhi and Mandela have been honoured a lot because they preferred to be absolutely right instead of being quite right. And for certain reasons we keep thinking lifetime long of this one project, we took part in and which has captivated us by an unique cooperating atmosphere. Have you been listened to then?
When you are listening to someone try not only to select what has the immediate value for you at that particular moment. This selective behaviour has nothing to do with real listening. This is misusing. Be open for everything what has been said. Don’t presume anything. If you try to fit everything into your one-size-fits-all frame you don’t really listen. You don’t pay attention to your interlocutor and remain locked in your own world for new opinions and views to come and enrich you. People who know everything obviously neither listen nor learn anything.
And what do you do when you are not listened to? Do you want to feel like French frites in a huge cutter or do you choose to be the one and only, to live your own life, run your own race instead of being lived or raced?
The digital age enables you slef management and to live your own life! Internet opens us the port into the personal age with a meaningful perspective. Choosing your own position is always a personal decision. And you can take this decision today. Don’t hesitate!
But everything starts with listening, the mother of all wisdom. Wisdom is in fact knowing what to do next, skill is knowing how to do it and Virtue is doing it. So, are you wise, skilled and virtuous enough…?
I wish you lots of success !
