Business Eye: We must all choose to be unreasonable

I guess it pays us all to remember that none of us is irreplaceable and there are always plenty of others ready and willing to fill our shoes given half a chance. These days there are few traditional jobs.

We all survive and thrive on our wit and skill by performing at a higher level each and every day.

Change and competition are our only certainties.

It was the pursuit of a sharper edge that took me to the States last week where I travelled to learn more about mastering the science and art of business. 
Einstein told us that as our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of the unknown darkness surrounding it, or in other words the wiser we become the less knowledgeable we come to realise we are. 
This paradox is why you are never too wise to stop learning and never too old to look into the vast unknown to add to who you can be. 
The only failure in life is to come to believe you know enough already and stop the personal growth.

Most of us suffer from this contagion now and again because it takes more energy to put yourself out there in the dark unknown than to snuggle up tight with what you already know.I learned some uncomfortable truths like the fact that we each tend to become the average of the people with whom we mix, which is why it is critically important to play with those whom you believe to be out of your league, rather than those who look up to you.

Progress requires continual effort to push through the pain and fear barriers and to resist the temptation of comfort. When learning to ski you need to dig in and curve rather than fall over in fear. 
All growth comes from pushing ahead with what you’d rather you didn’t have to do.

As well as choosing your peer group and getting with the best, we need to remember we all become the habits we tolerate in ourselves and others. To shine you have to choose to be unreasonable. 
As George Bernard Shaw put it “The reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround him... The unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself... All progress depends on the unreasonable man”