Another story with a lesson today, this one about learning to work smarter and not just harder. Easy to say, harder to do! It’s one of the cases when having a great tutor/role model/coach can help you get there a lot faster than if you have to learn it all on your own (even if you’re learning by watching them do it).

Over the years I’ve found that pride is the biggest reason for this not happening more often. It can be embarrassing to realize that you’re doing something the hard way, or that a colleague (or the evil consultant) can just do it much faster than you can. I’m not above being embarrassed when that happens to me (it does), but it also generates the flash of excitement, the bit of cockiness that says ‘if you can do it, I can do it too!’.