“Put the Business Books Down, Lift Your Head Up and Get Moving.”
And why you should gain the “grounding, context or actual experience when working on tasks or projects,” as stated by Romeen Sheth.
By Tremis Skeete, for Product Coalition
Learning specialists teach us that a good education helps us to build our mental muscles, develop forms of structured and logical thinking, and help us make sense of the world by recognizing patterns.
Perhaps that’s why among other reasons, many find the act of learning about product management quite enjoyable.
In the right circumstances, getting a great business education can be fulfilling; But according to Romeen Sheth, CEO of Metasys Technologies—he wants you to understand via his LinkedIn post, that learning about product management must go beyond just reading books and study.
Romeen shares a story designed to explain that while reading and study can provide access to the experiences of others — one must take it a step further and apply the information via experimentation and practice, so that the information can be put into context.
Acquiring knowledge, wisdom, and experience is in the journey of making mistakes, learning from failures, facing challenges, and celebrating small wins. It’s about the gradual progression of gaining confidence, and having those “aha” moments where things click into place.
You’ll have to go beyond just reading business books.
You have to go from the theoretical to the practical, and uncover your strengths and find fulfillment that only you can attain.
Do you still want to be a successful product manager? Then you better let go of the predictability that reading and studying provides you. It’s time to embrace uncertainty. Product management is filled with chaos and failure, and you won’t get that authentic work experience unless you get out there, get moving, and build real products.
Read a copy of Romeen’s LinkedIn post below to learn more:
I talked to a super smart 20 year old this week.
All the potential in the world, but had a major flaw in his thinking.
This flaw is becoming the most common mistake I am seeing young people make early in their career.
Let’s break it down:
***
First, an analogy.
Imagine you want to be an awesome basketball player.
Your first thought: “I need to learn everything I can about the sport.”
Sounds logical so you run after it:
– You go online and order every basketball book you can
– You bookmark a bunch of “how to” videos on YouTube / Tiktok
– You make a list of all the great NBA Finals to watch
Fast forward 6 months and you’re a walking encyclopedia.
– You know all the advanced terms
– You know all the history
– You know all the tricks the pro players use
In Month 7, you decide to step onto the court.
You try to shoot a 3 and you fail.
It’s a weird feeling.
***
After all, you just spent a ton of time reading / watching every permutation and combination of shot.
Here’s the thing. This example is pretty obvious.
When you read it, it stands out.
“Duh. Reading and watching is obviously different from playing.”
***
In this case it’s clear.
But for most people when it comes to their career, it’s not.
Here’s a common pattern I’m seeing more and more amongst young people:
– Get on Twitter / LinkedIn and follow “the right people”
– Listen to every business podcast
– Read about all the “frameworks” and “mental models”
The end result? You can recite all the “mistakes not to make” and all the “tips and tricks”
You *feel* like you know so much about business.
But you don’t. Even worse, you *think* you do.
Here’s the hard truth: internalizing all those observations and lessons without having any grounding, context or actual experience is just like watching basketball when your goal is to learn how to play basketball.
***
No book or podcast will simulate how you actually feel when:
– A deal falls apart at the last minute
– A key employee leaves you
– A partner abuses your trust
You have to actually live through those things.
And the only way you live through those things is you have to actually do it.
***
So why do most people read/listen vs. do? I think a couple reasons:
– It feels like progress
– You can’t fail
– It’s intellectually stimulating
The reality of business is most of the work is not glamorous.
It’s a lot of nose to the grind, brute force execution.
The concepts / strategy of business isn’t what makes succeeding hard.
It’s the emotional steadiness, tenacity, persistence and focus to actually gut it out and will the universe towards an outcome you want.
***
Increasingly, my most common advice these days is — put the business books down, lift your head up and get moving.
Build something. Start a project.
No matter how small.
You’ll learn more from being in the trenches and being IN the game vs. standing on the sidelines.
Good luck!
“Put the Business Books Down, Lift Your Head Up and Get Moving.” was originally published in Product Coalition on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.