There are several stories that I tell, whether you want to hear it or not about learning. There are two stories that mean a lot to me that I share as often as I can. I want to share them here.

In the late 1990s, I was not working in software engineering and it was not on my radar. I was working in metrology. Yes it is a word and it has nothing to do with weather. I was sold that it was a good career and was stable. Needless to say, I was ok with that and didn’t look much past it.

One day I overhead a manager from a different group talking with one of his technicians. I heard the technician say “Why do I need to learn about combustion engines?”. At first, realizing that our field has nothing to do with those types of engines, I wanted to hear the response. The manager asked a seemingly simple question, “Do you know how they work?”.

The response seems silly since the technician had zero interests in combustion engines. I walked away not thinking much more about the exchange. It wasn’t until later that night that I replayed the comments. The message that I extracted was there was something that the technician didn’t know, so why not take the opportunity to learn about the engines.

The comment was not intended for my ears, but I have taken that lesson with me. For almost 30 years, I have taken the opportunity to learn anything and everything that presents itself to me. It was that lesson that has carried me this far in my career. I was a self-taught software engineer for almost five years before I decided that I needed to get my degree. During those early days, I read everything. A lot of my Friday nights were spent at the book store and my then girl friend loved it. Honestly, she hated it but she understood what I was trying to achieve.

He doesn’t know it, but I owe my entry into this career to you Shawn. I tell that story all the time, because it had such an impact on my life.

Fast forward to the mid 2000s and then I saw something that taught me a similar lesson. I was working on web applications and we didn’t have mainstream JavaScript libraries like jQuery, so a lot of the code we wrote was for handling the browser quirks. Most people could see the writing on the wall that JavaScript would keep spreading throughout the industry.

One day, I was walking down the cubicles and I stopped at one of my colleague’s desk. I struck up a conversation about JavaScript and sharing the resources that I was using to get up to speed. She said to me that she didn’t need to learn anything new, because she already knew enough. To be clear, she was not being a know-it-all, she was a good person and not like that.

Her response didn’t sit well then and it further cemented my commitment to life long learning. My colleague stagnated and their career didn’t progress. In fairness, not everyone is so passionate about learning or growth and that is OK. If you are content and don’t have the desire to do anything new, then I respect that.

Those two lessons have served me well for that last 24 years and has made sure that I will always seek out opportunities to grow. I share these two stories with anyone who will listen because they have been so pivotal to my journey. Keeping a growth mindset has made me hungry and keeps me going. I hope you can find these two stories as valuable as I have.