Years of experience can be beneficial, but it often depends on what was in those years. As I shared last year, experience isn’t the same as practice. For example, most people have decades of experience typing on a computer, but only those that specifically practice at improving will get any better at it.
In his book “7 Strategies for Wealth and Happiness“, author Jim Rohn shares this same point by saying:
“The “guy” says, “I’ve got ten years’ experience. I don’t know why I’m not doing better.” What he hasn’t realized is that he doesn’t have ten years’ experience. What he has is one year’s experience repeated ten times. He hasn’t made a single improvement, a single innovation in nine years!”
That said, sometimes simple experiences can help a bit. While I try to specifically practice the skills that matter most, experience can matter in some situations. For example, while my experience in driving everyday has only made me a minimally better driver over the last 32 years, my experience in diagnosing WordPress or DNS issues is valuable simply due to the time I’ve put in. In those cases, the number of issues that can arise are almost limitless, so experiencing more of them over the years helps me to be able to more quickly diagnose new issues that clients might bring to us.
For your core work, is experience valuable or does it require specific practice to improve?
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