The 4th Grade Expert

[Leslie Flowers]

Remember when we started school? Remember how we looked up to the older kids? I do.

I remember being ‘in awe’ of the older kids and how they seemed to navigate through school, classes, students and teachers with ease, while I never seemed to know which way to turn.

We are all experts (to a degree) … the 4^th grader is an expert in all things … to the 3^rd grader! Picture of Thomas Edison ... who didn't manage well in public school and was taught primarily by his mother!

The question is this … will YOU seek the advice of the 4^th grader, the high school grad, or the college grad? Will you do your ‘homework’ to find out who is the best?

Experts are people who have done deep study in an area over time, who have embodied that study, live it, walk it and talk it, and now teach it to people who get consistent results, measurable, over time.  Leslie Flowers

I don’t confuse having a college degree with affording someone expert status in that field. They are not necessarily synonymous.

If I need heart surgery, not only had there better be a big fat degree on the wall, but he/she also must have done hundreds (if not thousands) of these surgeries and have consistent measurable results over time.

So it’s not about degrees. Jobs that require saving lives, require degrees and certifications.

There are however many industries that do not require degrees or certifications to be an expert.

Speakers, authors, coaches, facilitators, and online product marketers do not need a degree or a certification. Some coaches as example have certifications. Some do not. The certification does not make the expert coach. It is via the application of the ‘art’ that expertise arises.

Because a coach paid and passed written work, does not mean they engage well with human beings. Or that they practice their craft. It only means they took and passed a course.

In the same light, a person can learn to coach without getting a certification and become a world class expert!

You can also look at cub reporter Napoleon Hill who was engaged by Andrew Carnegie almost 100 years ago to interview successful members of our society. The reporter became an "expert in success.' He studied it, lived it, walked it talked it, and wrote what most consider to be the greatest contribution to the 20th century Think and Grow Rich.

Don’t hold yourself back in stepping out in your field because you don’t ‘think’ you are, or could be, an expert!

You are an expert if your area of expertise is one that people gain consistent measurable results over time when learning with you! If you love the field you are in -- really LOVE it -- take the time and revel in the results of those you teach. For their results constitute your expertise. 

 

photo credit: Cea. via photopin cc

[Diogenes Ruiz]

Very true! Good points, Leslie. - We are so used to waiting for permission from outside sources so that we can do everything from drive a car, to getting married. There's some kind of outside paperwork acknowledgement involved. When it comes to matters of the heart, this is great advice.

[Leslie Flowers]

Thank you Diogenes for you insights and I appreciate your comment!

[Yoga w/ Olga]

Reaffirming!

[Leslie Flowers]

Thank you Olga! Honored to have your comment my friend.