Great Leaders are Great Learners
Eartha Kitt said it best, “I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma.” Maximize your professional and personal development with the tools outlined below.
If you are reading this article, then you are ahead of most entrepreneurs when it comes to furthering your professional and personal development goals. Many businesspeople scoff at leadership advice, thinking that no book, article, or training is a good substitute for real-life experience. That may be true!
However, real-life leadership experience can be hard to come by for those who seek to advance. I believe anyone can succeed if they prepare themselves for the next level in their life and careers. To do so, you must take advantage of every opportunity to learn and grow as a leader in business and at home.
I may receive affiliate compensation for content links in this article at no cost to you. With that said, my biggest thrills in life doesn’t come from money but, rather when I’m lucky enough to meet someone new and share with them knowledge that may improve or even change their life.
So, maximize your professional and personal development with the following tools.
- MasterClass
- QuickBooks University
- Rich Dad Summit
- Metabolic Cooking
- Reading Head Start
- Secret Guitar Teacher
- Online Paint Lessons
1. MasterClass
An Online Education Platform Providing A-list Content by A-list Instructors.
Like any well-rounded nerd, I went through a phase of watching every TED Talk that was released. Not all the topics appealed to me, but I got something out of being exposed to a broad range of ideas. After a time, the 18-minute power lecture format began to wear on me, so I started to look for other platforms that provide the same value as TED. I discovered MasterClass: An online education platform providing A-list content by A-list instructors.
MasterClass is one of the highest profile education platforms online right now.
I couldn’t resist signing up and getting access to instructors who are absolutely the best in the world at what they do. The first class I took was by Martin Scorsese. I love the movies and Martin Scorsese is one of my favorite directors in Hollywood. Scorsese was articulate, provided a behind the scenes perspective about movie making I wouldn’t find on any other platform. I was amazed at the production value of the courses; it was comparable to Netflix and TED talks.
After taking a number of classes, it was clear to me that MasterClass is best suited for creative individuals looking for inspiration from the world’s most successful people.
In contrast, other online platforms focus on providing you with practical skills, such as in the areas of business or digital marketing. Don’t get me wrong, I certainly would benefit from these skills, but I didn’t find them on MasterClass.
What I found instead was an incredible amount of premium quality video content inspiring me to think differently about the creative arts. MasterClass is designed for aspiring and established creative professionals: Writers, Artists, Musicians, Photographers, Painters, Graphic Designers, and Directors.
MasterClass isn’t for those who thrive in pressurized classroom environments.
Instead, it is ideal for those who like a more hands-on approach to learning where you have the freedom to learn at your own pace. It was very rewarding to hear directly from individuals who truly are masters of their craft. I recommend everyone to explore all that MasterClass has to offer, it may be just the right fit for you.
2. QuickBooks University
5.6 million businesses trusts Quickbooks for all their accounting needs.
However, not all 5.6 million business owners are using Quickbooks to manage and grow their businesses effectively.
According to a study conducted by Bloomberg BNA, “New technology paired with human error is a leading cause of accounting mistakes, with more than a quarter (27.5%) of professionals reporting that incorrect data had been manually input into an enterprise system at their firms”.
In other word, small and large businesses are much more likely to grapple with tax, accounting personnel, hiring and retention problems than actual subject matter or rule deficiencies. More than a quarter of businesses struggle with manual, incorrect tax data entry.
Mat Hultquist the founder of Quickbooks University wants to address this problem head-on.
Realizing a need for quality tax and business planning,
Mat founded the Hultquist Firm in 2003. With a mission to go beyond the standard tax return and financial statement preparation services offered by most CPA firms. Mat’s passion and experience in the accounting arena helped numerous businesses and entrepreneurs save thousands of dollars over the years, and take their companies to new levels.
In 2010 Mat launched Quickbooks University.
QuickBooks University provides entrepreneurs like yourself with easy to understand video tutorial. Your questions are answered by QuickBooks experts – and it has never been easier, more affordable, and faster to master the Quickbooks software!
Mat and his team of CPAs guarantee you will learn QuickBooks painlessly and finally unlock your full potential to grow your business, manage your costs, and earn more return on your investment. Get access to 3 free Quickbooks tutorials here.
Here’s what you’ll get with your membership
- Your investment never expires
- Lifetime access to the Quickbooks University platform
- Access to free upgrades and new features
- Free financial planing guides and checklists
- One-on-one professional support
- Multi use licenses
This is a great tool to help you and your team master Quickbooks. Leaders who don’t find time for professional and personal development tend to stagnate. Take advantage of all that Quickbooks University has to over!
LEARN MORE ABOUT QUICKBOOKS UNIVERSITY
3. Rich Dad Summit
Having a positive approach towards professional and personal development is so important to your feature success.
Back in 2015, Tom Peters sat for an interview at McKinsey Quarterly – where he discussed the importance of “unscheduled time” (up to 50 percent) and the benefits it provides for entrepreneurs. Peters said, “One way to deal with the insane pace of change is by living to get smarter and to learn new things”.
In other words, make time to get inspired and explore new ideas. What are you doing to maximize your free time? Robert Kiyosaki takes full advantage of his unscheduled time and wants to help business leaders maximize their’s.
Best known as the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad. Robert Kiyosaki has challenged and changed the way tens of millions of people around the world think about maximizing their time and money. He is an entrepreneur, educator, and investor who believes the world needs more entrepreneurs who will create jobs.
With perspectives on money and investing that often contradict conventional wisdom, Robert has earned an international reputation for straight talk, irreverence, and courage and has become a passionate and outspoken advocate for financial education.
Rich Dad Summit
The Rich Dad Summit was a 2-day online event designed specifically for business leaders who want to:
- Maximize unscheduled time
- Learn best business practices
- Create new systems to scale business growth
Now anyone can get access to the Rich Dad Summit. Robert took the 2-day live event and built a digital platform around the content. In other words, if you missed it, you can now access the content online.
Robert has been heralded as a visionary,
who has a gift for simplifying complex concepts—ideas related to money, investing, finance, and economics—and has shared his personal journey to financial freedom in ways that resonate with audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
What did Robert discuss in the summit?
How to shift from employee to business owner, and business owner to entrepreneur. He addressed the common challenges entrepreneurs face, and how to overcome them.
Robert provided real examples of people who have become entrepreneurs and discovered how to get into entrepreneurship without going through the typical entrepreneurial pitfalls.
Most importantly, Robert discussed the importance of leveraging on strategic partnerships. Underscoring the fact that entrepreneurs learn from other entrepreneurs.
You’ll see why investing in the best possible teachers could be the best decision you’ll ever make in your professional life. Here is where you can access the Rich Dad Summit. For a limited time get access to the Rich Dad Summit content for only a $1.
One difference between great leaders and mediocre ones is a willingness to seek opportunities for professional and personal growth.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE RICH DAD SUMMIT
4. Metabolic Cooking
While it may sound cliché, self-awareness is critical to effective business leadership.
This means being aware of your bad habits and making sure to implement good ones.
As an entrepreneur, networking is one of the most important aspects of business growth. Your network is your net worth. So it’s important to attend as many networking events as possible. You’ll never know who you’ll brush shoulders with.
Often times, networking events take place with cocktail parties and finger foods enhancing the experience. While a little bit of liquid confidence and a couple of mini corn dogs never hurt anyone, it’s not the healthiest of options. Especially if you’re looking to cut down on calories.
Taking good care of your body and mind is important, especially with the work load you put into the success of your business.
Considering the hectic schedule that comes along with launching and managing a successful company, it’s easy to let a wholesome dietary routine fall by the wayside. However, even the busiest and most successful entrepreneurs make time to master healthy dietary habits and are aware of bad habits to avoid.
As a successful entrepreneur
Karine Losier – made it her goal to educate busy professionals about healthy dietary habits.
Losier is a chef and the co-author of Metabolic Cooking, she has a strong passion for food, fitness, and culinary adventures. She gets excited about challenging the commonly used techniques that most chefs turn to while seeking out healthier alternatives.
In here cookbooks Losier helps busy professionals understand:
- Metabolic nutrition profile. Know what is safe to eat at different times of the day.
- Metabolic adaptation phenomenon food cycling.
- Thermocharged fat burning ingredients
She holds a master’s degree in psychology so she is fully aware of all the psychological struggles that busy entrepreneurs face with regards to their eating habits and diets. Thus, she understands the importance of good nutrition that tastes great and serves to motivate business leaders to stick with healthier habits by challenging commonly held psychological believes.
LEARN MORE ABOUT METABOLIC COOKING
5. Reading Head Start
Successful leaders educate and share their knowledge with others.
Ana Maria Sencovici , the point person in leadership development at Human Capital Strategies said it best, “Teaching is one of the most underused tools in leadership development”.
I happen to agree with her statement. There is no better way to master your craft than by educating, sharing your knowledge, and skills with others. In my experience, sometimes you learn more from your “students” than they do from you.
Take advantage of opportunities to teach others something new.
According to Jeff McQuillan , senior research associate at the Center for Educational Development in Los Angeles, “The number of books in the home correlates significantly with higher reading scores for children”. Further, research states, “Children who are read to at least three times a week by a family member are almost twice as likely to score in the top 25% in reading compared to children who are read to less than 3 times a week”.
Take advantage of opportunities to teach others something new. So, why not start with the ones you love, your children! I take full advantage of every opportunity I get to sit with my three year old and read. Her favorite book is Llama Llama Red Pajamas by Anna Dewdney. I believe it’s my duty as a business leader most importantly as a parent, to empower my children with the reading tools needed to forge a successful path in education.
Reading Head Start
As a parent you already know that it’s absolutely essential to get a head start on reading fundamentals at an early age. Not only does early reading lead to reading success as your child continues to grow, but it serves as an accurate predictor of academic success across the board, at every level, and in every subject.
In short, it becomes nearly impossible for students to catch up if reading skills are not mastered at an early age. Reading Head Start founded by Sarah Shepard, was created to specifically address this incredibly critical issue. I along with other parents and educators agree that this award-winning e-book and learning program stand at the top of the heap as one of the most effective and kid-friendly early reading programs on the market today.
More than 5 million families have used this exceptional program. And 9 out of 10 of these families agree that enrolling their child in Reading Head Start is one of the smartest decisions they have made!
Successful leaders educate and share their knowledge with others. Why not start with the people closest to you. Take 6-10 minutes and watch Sarah’s video introduction of Reading Head Start here.
LEARN MORE ABOUT READING HEAD START
Successful entrepreneurs have hobbies and develop creative thinking skills.
Some people think you are either born creative or you’re not. However, creativity is a skill that you can develop if you invest the time and effort. As an entrepreneur, you need to come up with fresh ideas, and make good decisions about opportunities and potential projects.
Studies show that people who engage in hobbies, especially creative ones, perform better at work. Individuals in the study reported a sudden burst of insight about how to solve work problems while focusing on a totally unrelated activity.
Hobbies are a fun and effective way to relax your mind and carve out time to do something different than business building. Hobbies can also make you a better entrepreneur through the lessons learned while pursuing them.
Music is a unique way to express yourself,
and often relaxes your mind after a day of hard work. Warren Buffett plays the ukulele, and several of his instruments have become collector’s items. It may seem frivolous for a billionaire to tinker with a ukulele, but Buffett gets to blow off steam and recharge before taking the helm at Berkshire Hathaway.
As a business person, what can you learn from the arts?
According to Linda Naiman, founder of Creativity at Work, “The arts play a vital role in helping us find our authentic voice, and remembering who we are as human beings. People trust and respect leaders who show their humanity and I believe when we are in touch with our humanity, we envision better futures, and make wiser decisions”.
So, why not learn how to play an instrument or take up painting to get the creative juices flowing.
6. Secret Guitar Teacher
Learn to play the guitar.
Created by experienced guitarist Nick Minnion, the Secret Guitar Teacher is an online resource packed with all the tools you need to learn the guitar at your own pace in a range of popular genres.
Secret Guitar Teacher offers well-structured guitar courses to suit every level of ability. Courses are available online to subscribers or downloadable to your favorite device. The site features fantastic learning resources including hundreds of video lessons, printable tabs and audio files. Get unlimited email support from experienced teacher Nick Minnion.
Nick believes in teaching every person according to their aspirations, learning style and ability. He keeps his teaching style flexible, aiming to help students reach their own goals rather than working to a rigid framework.
That’s why he created the Secret Guitar Teacher. Packed with learning resources that Nick himself has written and produced over the years, the website can enable anyone to learn how to play guitar at their own pace, in their own way. If you are interested in developing a new skill you can start learning how to play the guitar here with a 30-day free trail.
LEARN MORE ABOUT SECRET GUITAR TEACHER
7. Online Paint Lessons
Learn how to paint.
At Paint Basket Online Painting Lessons you’ll find over 100 free online art classes and art tutorial to explore.
There are lessons in oil painting, watercolor painting, acrylic painting, pencil drawing, pastel drawing as well as pen and ink drawing. There are even classes in lesser known art forms like scratch board drawing.
It doesn’t matter if you are brand new to art or have been an artist for years, Paint Basket Online has lessons to suit your current ability. They add new content weekly, most lessons have a text tutorial and a narrated time lapse video for you to follow. All material on Paint Basket Online Lessons are free to you.
If you prefer to paint or draw along with an instructor, you can opt-in to a VIP membership that gives you access to over 400 paint along and draw along art lessons and courses.
Unplugging from the daily business grind and developing new hobbies will lead to a more productive you in the office.
In summary, don’t let the fast pace of entrepreneurship prevent you from developing as a great leader. After all, the dynamism of today’s business environment is partly why you need to keep sharpening and developing new skills.
Great leaders are great learners, invest some of your time in professional and personal development. Finally, for a full guide of entrepreneurial resources click here.