Have you ever had this experience? Whether in a client brief meeting or when you interact with someone at work, you feel like knowing exactly what they are going to say even before they open their mouth?
Well, I do.
And we’ve always heard something like this: “you have to know your client / business” or “previous experience in xyz industry is a plus.” Professionals with experience are always considered adding value/ credibility into the project. But I can’t help but to wonder: what if we walk into a situation like a newbie?
Newbie doesn’t have to be someone totally have no idea what the situation is. Newbie can be like your first day to work and you have all the aspiration and passion about what you want to do & are capable of. You walk into a situation with minimum assumption, minimum expectation, and maximum enthusiasm, and you listen, without any prejudice nor “professional package.” And I feel, correct me if I’m wrong, that is when you get the most knowledge about what the project really is and what your client really wants, when you put your mindset away and embrace the new challenge like a newbie.
I try to travel as much as I can just to reset my mind but apparently I don’t have much luxury to do so every weekend. I take walks, doodle, or simply crawl into bed and shut my eyes. But I find it hard from time to time to really open up my mind like a newbie. Or maybe there’s no such thing like this, as you and I have years of experience, we just leverage our experience to make decisions. So my question, to all of you, is: have you ever tried to be a newbie? And if so, how?
Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today. 