25 Years in Marketing Taught Me This: Never Stop Being Curious

What’s the one thing I would never give up in life?

25 years in this marketing game, nearly all of it in a director role or higher, eleven years and counting as an entrepreneur, 9.5 years of that in an agency model with consistent margins over 40%, and the last couple of years back to a solo consultant. Three college degrees, numerous entrepreneur programs, continuing education, and uncredited classes.

So what has given me an incredibly exciting and fulfilling journey over all these years?

Childlike wonder, curiosity, and awe.

If you have or spend any time with kids, you observe this behavior constantly. It’s how kids figure stuff out. It’s how they learn and grow at exceptional rates. Then, over time, we tell them to knock it off and act like a grown-up, as if play is a bad thing. As if curiosity is dangerous. Or, lifelong learning isn’t fun and essential.

Balderdash!

Curiosity and life-long learning, I preach, are the secret to a happy life. It’s like the Japanese word, kaizen. Which means constant improvement, and has been commandeered by the software industry, but we modern philosophers get to use it if we want. Kaizen is wonderful.

Here’s some examples:

Reading books you’ve never read before. Listening to new music, whether it’s old or brand new. Watching films in languages you don’t know, by directors you’ve never heard of. Traveling. Having deep conversations with people you don’t know. Walking around.

These things don’t just make you the most interesting person at the bar. While true, they make you rounded and deep. And curiosity begets more curiosity. But never look at it as work, because once you do, the magic is gone.

Meanwhile, responses like “I don’t know” with the insinuation that you will never know, and learning is something bad. Or, fronting that you do know, because our ego won’t let us tell the truth. I don’t know which is worse; both are dangerous, and the norm.

However, my not knowing something gives us a chance to learn new things. I get super excited about that prospect, and it has served me very well over the years.

I didn’t have to be taught this. In fact, my early education tried to break me of it. They failed. I want to know “why” to the point of being annoying. Unlike your toddler, the constant refrain of “why?” never stopped with me, but I didn’t rely on someone else to give me the answer. I went and searched for it myself, developing strong skills in problem solving, research, interviewing, and exploration. The scientific method is ingrained in my thinking.

I get stoked by the prospect of a new challenge, a brand new book, traveling somewhere foreign, finding a new band, and working on a problem that has yet to be solved. Learning a new technology, or helping explain complex things developed by brilliant people, to us regular folks.

I get goose bumps (which are a legacy of our more furry former iteration).

What brand new experiences or challenges are getting you excited?