It’s Your Job To Learn

Both my kids are talented amateur musicians who have been learning Indian Classical Music for more than a decade now. They are blessed to be under the tutelage of 2 world-renowned and outstanding musicians.

Watching them evolve in their musical journey has taught me a valuable life lesson vicariously.

The teacher can try as hard as possible to teach. But if the student is not in a state to receive, the best of teaching becomes average. The teacher can try and teach every little nuance and insight he or she knows about the art, but the students won’t absorb those finer details unless their perception is evolved.

The more nuanced aspects of music, therefore, can’t be taught by the teacher. The student must learn them from observation, through practice, and by making mistakes. Teaching in a way is like broadcasting. The teacher can share all that is there to share, but the student has to be tuned to the right frequency to receive and imbibe.

This same principle applies to the workplace too. No one can teach you the critical aspects; you must learn them on your own. Your CEO or your supervisor could sit down with you and explain all the nuances and insights, and you may still not be able to replicate their performance. The trick is to be able to learn things that cannot be taught.

Your capacity to learn from the work you do, from observing the people around you and the mistakes you make- is entirely linked to how tuned you are to absorb the inputs.

Some things in life cannot be taught; they can only be learned.