Yesterday at work, I watched Ranajit (employee who sits across from me) work on some slides involving a training powerpoint that he was trying to standardize among all Intel employees. The powerpoint training had to do with product pricing, an area that Ranajit did not focus on in his daily work.
I asked him, “Ranajit, why are you trying to create a training powerpoint involving a field that you have no expertise in?”
To which he replied, “If I were an expert in this subject, why would I waste time creating a training around it? Sure it will be a challenge to learn something completely different from my field of work, but I chose this subject of product pricing in order to force myself to learn.”
To often we seek comfort in the subjects we already know. I know many Asians who take Chinese as a language in college even though they grew up with the language in their homes. They study abroad in Shanghai, a familiar place with familiar people. We study a major in college because our parents tell us it is safe and job guaranteed.
The burden we face by immersing ourselves in a completely new environment pays off tenfold in the long run.