Being Open MindedSample

Being open minded to learn from our past experiences and from others around us.

Deut 31:13 – “Their children who do not know this law, must hear it and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land you are crossing to possess.”

In today’s world of Twitter and Facebook, many of us who are not very tech savvy find ourselves lost or out of touch many times. Sometimes we take a view that all technology is evil and shun away from anything new. Being someone from the computer industry, I realize how quickly we can be out of touch with what’s happening currently. Almost every other day I have to learn a new utility or a new app to make my life easier or access my bank account online. I am learning to ask for help.

Many of us have grown up in an environment where we were used to solving our problems ourselves and not asking for help. Asking for help was deemed as being ignorant or weak. But when we live in an age of technology and knowledge explosion we have to come to terms with our willingness to learn from others. Even as early as 1980, I had a unique experience with my professor at I.I.Sc., willing to learn all about Microprocessors from my roommate who was a project assistant in the lab. Even though he was a Ph.D, he had the open-minded humility to learn from someone who was much lower in the hierarchy and much younger too!

India as a country is at the cusp of a youth wave. The job market today is flooded with younger and younger people. Start-ups are founded by students in their 20s. Professionals who are 40 and above find themselves being less favored as compared to the generation in their early 30s. Many of them find themselves replaced by someone ten years younger. Many older professionals sometimes feel lost. The key to the solution sometimes is to re-skill ourselves when we have an opportunity. We need to look for opportunities where we can use our strengths. As older professionals, we need to be open minded enough to learn new skills and from younger people.

In Exodus 2 & 3, we have the example of Moses who had to undergo re-skilling at 40 from prince to shepherd, then again at 80 from shepherd to prophet and leader!

Prayer:

Lord give me a heart that is teachable enough to be willing to learn from my past experiences and from others even if they are younger than me.