Don't become the expert

Earlier somewhere on this blog (in a post that mysteriously vanished!) I asked people as part of a 8 step process for career success, to become an 'expert'.

However, the truth is expertise sits uneasily on my shoulders. I shudder when people describe me as any kind of expert. Even more than I shudder when someone (you know who you are!) describes me as a "Thought Leader".

This post is essentially a reminder to myself, as 2008 draws to a close to understand that the time of the expert is a fleeting one.

Most experts predicted the Indian Premier League to be a modest success.
Most experts probably didn't ever think in 2007 that the US could have a black president.
Most experts were betting on a burgeoning global economy and growing stock markets in India and elsewhere.
Most experts thought that a firm that is a century old won't vanish in 2008 and that Toyota would continue to make operating profits in all quarters and that an entire industry won't vanish.

Don't become an expert. Stay a student, prepared to unlearn and learn and relearn. That is the key to relevance.

P.S. Realised that my friend Gaurav had posted something similar :-)