Starting From Scratch

Do we really need to start from scratch?

Many have used this cliche: If it ain't broken, why fix it? Others ask: Why reinvent the wheel? Sir Isaac Newton stated: Sitting on the shoulder of giants.

I have been advising a few friends on how to start their Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) since late last year. The reality is: you do not need to start from absolute scratch, as the marks have been made. Footprints are already there. You just need to identify them, and track their whereabouts.

If you need to learn how to do something ask. If you want to learn how to do something properly, ask the right people. These people may be smarter than you, but it may be because they have made enough mistakes, long enough to learn from their mistakes. Thus, when we seek their counsel we are, in effect, tapping on their expertise in how to bounce back from experience. There is rarely bad experience in business and career - experience is just that. What we do with our exprerience defines us; it shapes our character. Resourcefulness and resilience are by-products of that learning from experience.

When things go well as we expect it to, we call it affirmation. When people approve of what we do, we call it validation. Our self-esteem is formed from encouragement, critique, criticism, feedback, opinion and honesty.

Learning from scratch can be exciting and scary at the same time. When I first had to fix my bike up at an overseas race, my friends' critical comments of my technical inaptitude led me to save face by learning. Today, I can confidently assemble and disassemble my bike with greater confidence and sureness. Likewise, until you can change a flat tyre in actual training, can you become competent to do it during a race. Experience is reliable when you are left alone.

It can be reassuring to refer to your coach when you have doubts, or encounter a problem. I still ask my coach for guidance, although he knows how to answer me without me being dependent on him. He realised early to teach me how to fish, instead of giving me the fish. I recall my first 10km run in training; it was a real pain. Today, I can run 21km and more, without blinking and constantly churn out marathons on a regular basis.

The beginning is where we started. We can only arrive at the start-line; the rest is up to us. What happens after the start-line will depend on how well we have prepared ourselves beforehand, and how much we are willing and able to bring ourselves to the finish-line.

Sit if you must on somebody's wheel, but ask permission and ensure that it is legal. Otherwise, don't blame the Draft Police for giving you the spot in the Sin Bin. We reap what we sow.

Start from scratch; scratch yourself from the start!