“I would educate myself, and that I would never stop educating myself. It was my responsibility to keep learning.”

Who said that? Albert Einstein? Da Vinci? Stephen Hawking?

None of the above. That statement came from the Demon of the rock band KISS, Gene Simmons.

If a rock & roll legend knows that it’s on each of us to take responsibility to keep learning, surely we can share that knowledge and approach.

I bring this up because I’ve recently heard several people tell me something along the lines of “Well, if my company wants me to learn new technology, they’ll need to tell me what to learn, pay for it, and give me the time to learn it.”

Best of luck with that. Look, I agree, your employer should be there to help you out with education, especially if they expect you to learn a new technology or a new way of doing things. However, if you’re going to sit back, toss your hands in the air and simply wait for that to happen, for a very large percentage of you, you may be in for a long wait.

It’s absolutely on us to ensure that we educate ourselves. If that means working nights and weekends sometimes, so be it. We’re working in the knowledge space. You’re selling the fact that you have knowledge. You may want to take complete responsibility on making darn sure that you get that knowledge, whether your company is going to pay for it or not.

Let us follow in the footsteps of Gene Simmons. No, not do things with your tongue. I mean let’s never stop educating ourselves. It is our responsibility.