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I spent this week conducting a boot camp. No, not a military training school. I had young trainees who were starting a career in sales. I had five days to turn them from novices to sales consultants with a level of competence that would enable them to suceed rather quickly.

They arrived here in Sydney, bright eyes and full of anticipation. Oh, quite a bit of fear too. I smiled inwardly as I introduced myself. We had a lot to do and not enough time to get them where they needed to go. To give you an idea of the task in front of them, their reference note books had ninety pages, there were fourteen dvds on technical aspects of sales and a number of practical drills that had to be done.

It looked like mission impossible, but that’s the fun of the challenge. I opened the boot camp by demonstrating to them how difficult learning can be. Then we covered my favourite topic, the philospohy of learning. Now, when you mention philosophy most people think of sage old people speaking about abstract ideas that few understand.

Well, nothing could be further from the truth. The philosophy of learning I, along with a close collegue, developed some years ago, is an interactive, practical application of Soctraic thinking applied to the Twenty First Century. We focus on not only giving effective learning strategies, but imparting understanding about what happens as we are exposed to new information. This brings about a rapid escalation of the learning rate, but more importantly, the learner really begins to understand what he has to do to effectively master any subject.

We spent the first morning teaching them how to learn. When you stop and think about it, it is the one subject that is not formally taught at school, yet it is the single most vital skill necessary for personal development.

We finished up late today. Everyone was exhausted, but exhilarated at the same time. I get a real buzz seeing ‘the lights go on’ when students really understand the concepts presented.

Everyone passed the course. I am confident they will all be successful in their new careers. They haven’t reached their destination of becoming professional sales consultants yet. They have all made a solid start and know what they know.

More importantly, they understand that every day of their professional lives must be a learning experience and, now that they know how to learn, they are certain that the future will be bright.

I am sitting here, thinking about these young people and the exciting future they have in front of them. I am happy to have made a contribution to their future. It reminds me constantly why I set up this website and the purpose of howcani.

The single most important fundamental skill anyone can possess is the skill to learn. The learning philosophy works because it allows people to understand not only the correct strategies to learn, but gives an understanding of how we make sense of our environment and life in general.

I have included some quotes from the students on the “What People are Saying” heading elsewhere on the site.

Have a look at the introduction to the learning philosophy on the products page. It’s worth a look.

Live well,

Ollie Lind