Learn more to achieve more

You have probably heard of some people who worked very hard and set up a business but later, they failed to manage the enterprise because it outgrew their ability. Similarly, some people excel at work and get promotions and keep climbing corporate ladders but later, they fail to match their ability with the bigger jobs. Today, we want to discuss how you can avoid being outgrown by the achievements of your efforts. We want to look at how you can leverage continuous learning to constantly match your ability with ever increasing responsibilities or ever increasing success thereby achieving more as you learn more.

We will start with the case of Shaquille O’Neal who was a player with the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the USA. The NBA has the highest average pay for their players of all known professional sport disciplines in the world. When O’Neal got his pay, he spent his first million within 30 minutes and this prompted his bank to call him. The bank advised him against becoming one of the many rich sports personalities who squandered all their money and ended up in financial troubles despite earning big millions. 

Little did the bank know that O’Neal was different from the extravagant players. He had invested his first million into his further education. He enrolled for a Bachelor’s degree programme and later he also completed his Master of Business Administration (MBA). O’Neal went all the way to PhD in Human Resource Development, with a thesis on “The Duality of Humor and Aggression in Leadership Styles”. He was very hungry for knowledge. It was his philosophy that he needed a lot of knowledge in order to manage his big money. And he was happy to invest in this concept.

Later, O’Neal invested his money in businesses. He has greatly grown his business empire. He now co-owns 155 burger restaurants and 17 other restaurants. He also has 150 car washes, a shopping centre, a movie theatre and several night clubs in Las Vegas as well as 40 fitness centres that open 24 hours every day. In addition to this lucrative chain of businesses, O’Neal still earns some $22 million (or approximately K9 billion) per year from endorsement deals for his sporting exploits. O’Neal believes that those who make big money must also increase their technical ability to keep the big money and that comes with continuous learning, continuous professional development and never ending reading.

It must be appreciated that O’Neal’s path was not without big sweat. For him to combine a professional basketball career and continued formal education, he had to sacrifice a lot. It means that for some years, he had little time outside of playing basketball and education. He must have had immense focus and a great deal of discipline, which are mandatory ingredients for outstanding achievement. You cannot stand out by investing the same amount of time, effort, discipline and focus like the average person around you. You have to do the extra things that others fail to do or avoid doing.

Hopefully, inspired by the amazing story of O’Neal, you too will embark on continuous or life-long learning so that as your achievements and successes increase, you also increase in your abilities to handle bigger responsibilities and bigger roles at work and in business. Good luck as you rise and shine like O’Neal!