Are you ready to be a beginner again?
Hello again!
I sit down at the pottery wheel planning to make a tall vase, the elegant kind with a long, narrow neck.
Twenty minutes later the walls have started to wobble, the clay has slumped outward, and what is spinning in front of me is, unmistakably, a bowl.
The recovering perfectionist in me used to fight this. I would push the clay back up, try to force the vase I had planned, and usually end up with nothing at all. These days I let it be a bowl, and I am happy with it. When I started this pottery journey five years ago, a lightweight bowl with a beautifully trimmed foot was exactly what I wished I could make, and my attempts came out as tiny, heavy cups. Now I can make that bowl. My hope has moved on to the tall vase with the long, narrow neck, and my hands do not know how to make that yet.
Getting there will not come from simply going back to the same studio, with the same people, and repeating what I already know. It will come from new teachers, new classes, and fresh perspectives from people who see the clay and my hands differently than I do.
Knowledge as identity
Most of us were not raised to be comfortable as beginners.
We were taught that what we know is who we are. School and university rewarded the right answer, often the one we could repeat back most accurately, and our careers kept score in a similar way: the degrees on the CV, the expertise in the job title, being the person in the room who knows. Being right was rewarded far more than being curious, challenging an old idea, or daring to propose a new one.
I recognize myself in that, and I suspect many of you will, too. It turns being a beginner into a threat. If what I know is who I am, then NOT knowing something feels like a small crack in my identity rather than a gap I can fill. So we stay away from the pottery wheel altogether, or we keep forcing the vase, only to end up with a lump of clay that has fallen over, with neither the tall elegant vase nor a similarly beautiful bowl to show for our efforts.
Last month I wrote about curiosity as the way to see what is really going on around you. Knowledge as identity is what quietly gets in its way: it is hard to ask the question when you, and everyone around you, expect you to already know the answer.
From knowledge to wisdom
Knowledge is no longer scarce. Anyone can get a solid answer to almost any question in seconds, which means knowing things is losing its power to set anyone apart.
Intelligence can now be artificially manufactured, but wisdom is still uniquely human and has to be earned.
Wisdom is what you know, combined with experience, the connections you make between ideas, the questions you ask, and the judgment to see what matters in this particular situation. It lives in the nuance and in what goes unsaid, which is exactly why it cannot be written down and downloaded.
Knowledge also tends to be about the self: I know, I am right. Wisdom is offered to others, in a question that reframes a problem or an experience shared at the right moment, and it grows each time it is shared.
And it only keeps growing if you stay a learner, especially in the places where you are expected to already know.
Are you ready to not know?
When we talk about being ready for the future of work, the conversation usually turns to what knowledge we should acquire next. The harder question may be whether we are willing to be beginners again: to make a few bowls (or even tiny heavy cups), to ask the question that shows we do not know, and to go looking for new teachers, mentors, and fresh perspectives.
That willingness is a capability in its own right, and it matters more the faster things change. The people who adapt best tend to be those who stay curious, keep an open mind, and know how to learn something new.
Try This: From knowing to growing
Four steps for this week
Read your own introduction. Write down how you would introduce yourself professionally, in three or four sentences. Underline everything that describes what you know: titles, degrees, areas of expertise. Circle anything that describes how you learn, what you are curious about, or what you bring to other people. Look at the balance.
Find your vase. Name one area of your work where you are a beginner right now, or where you should be and have been avoiding it. Be honest about where you are only getting by on what you already know, because asking for help would reveal a gap.
Find your teacher or mentor. Think of one person outside your usual circle who can do what you cannot yet do, whatever their title or seniority. Ask them the question you have been reluctant to ask, and follow their answer with why.
Give something away. Take one insight, lesson, or experience from an area where you are no longer a beginner, and share it with someone earlier in their journey. Pay attention to their questions, because the good ones will show you what you had stopped noticing.
At the end of the week, go back to your introduction. Would you write it differently?
A quick look at where you stand
Being ready is less about knowing everything and more about seeing clearly where you are growing and where you might be holding on to what you already know. Our short readiness check gives you a snapshot across the six capability areas we think matter most as the future of work evolves.
Once you have completed it, you will also receive our free Micro-Skills email series.
What's Next?
Curious what is coming up at the Novaspex Academy? Check out everything we have planned for the months ahead.
I am still learning to create that elegant, wheel-thrown vase. Where are you a beginner right now? Hit reply, I'd love to hear.
All the best,
Amanda
on behalf of The Novaspex Academy Team