Do you have the bad habit of trying to be the smartest in school vs. the smartest in the real world

Hitting the road is a time to meet new people and run into old friends.  I left SEA to SJC to go to GigaOm and start the networking.  And, as usual the networking starts as soon as I get to the airport.  I run into one of my old bosses, John Frederiksen who left Microsoft a year ago and is now VP of product management at NetApp. We chat about cloud and data centers.  I had an interest in chatting about NetApp since I am moderating a panel with NetApp's CIO Cyndi Stoddard in 8 hrs.  

Going to a hosted reception last night I chatted with some good friends and met new people.

One characteristic I find most interesting is people who are in a learning mode.  I enjoy the smart people who realize they need to try new things to learn.  Here is a post on Facebook page that is popular.


 
Robert Kiyosaki · 863,574 like this
November 4, 2011 at 7:00pm · 
  • In the real world, the smartest people are people who make mistakes and learn. In school, the smartest people don’t make mistakes.

Do you find you are surrounded by smart people who have the bad habits from school of showing how good their grades are and how they make no mistakes.  Everybody makes mistakes.  To err is human.  I've been paying more attention to the mistakes I make.  Do you? Do your friends?

The more you trust someone it is easier to admit your mistakes.  If you don't trust someone, why would discuss your mistakes.  If you don't trust someone, why are spending time with them?  Life is too short to spend with people who you don't trust.

Some of the best data center discussions I've ever had are when we discuss mistakes made.