When I was at Kodak, I remember my Sensei saying to me –
“Bal, you must first understand – then to be understood”.
Mark Chamberlain
Reflecting – absolutely true. How can you relay a message or work on something if you don’t fully get it. I’ve kept that close to my heart. Yes – the world is a fast moving place, but I always try to understand, break it down and then to share that in simple ways.
There’s so much I don’t know. But then on the other hand – there is so much I’m learning.
And recently – I read an article about the Google CEO Sundar Pichai, on how he was interviewed for a VP position in Google back in 2004.
Basically, Pichai said the interviewers asked him what he thought of Gmail. There was just one problem: Google had just announced the email service that very same day, on April 1st. “I thought it was an April Fool’s Day joke.”
He responded by saying he couldn’t answer the question because he hadn’t been able to use the product. “It was only in the fourth interview when someone asked, ‘Have you seen Gmail?’ I said no. So he actually showed it to me. And then the fifth interviewer asked, ‘What do you think of Gmail?’ And I was able to start answering it then,”
So why am I sharing this – well… couple of reasons,
- If you don’t know – you don’t know. Be honest. Just tell people, if you don’t know something – you don’t know it. And why you don’t know it.
- Don’t make things up -don’t try to bullsh*t your way through. You’ll eventually get caught at some point.
- Show intellectual honesty – it’s not about scoring points. It’s about being honest. And showing that you’re open to learn and make decisions.