We all need to level up our thinking muscle

I am going to share my motivation for completing two short courses on critical thinking and strategic thinking.

In the past three days, I have finished two short courses on LinkedIn titled "Critical Thinking for Better Judgment and Decision-Making" from Becki Saltzman and "How to Make Strategic Thinking a Habit" from Dorie Clark. These two short courses are concise, and you can complete them within an hour if you listen and watch straight. I need three days because I had other work and time going out of home for meetings. 

What motivated me taking these two courses?

It started from 3 months ago - late October 2020 to be more precisely. I jumped in a few Zoom calls with friends and acquaintance working in tech. Some of them are still struggling, and some are successful. Those people inspire me to invest time in improving my thinking. We need to level up our thinking muscle perse.

In November 2020, I invited Florian Bohnert to my house for lunch. He's a smart guy, Forbes 30 under 30 China. In the past 30 years, he spent each of his 10-year in each different continent (Europe, America, Asia). I shared what I am going to do with Hustler Talk, and he gave me feedback by asking very strategic questions. The conversation makes me think "huh, I am not that smart in thinking". That is the second source of motivation.

In December 2020, I stumbled Josh Steimle post on LinkedIn about what book people found useful to them. I was curious to learn more. I met him over dinner many years ago in Singapore when I was still doing Startup Grind. He ran an email course called 60-day LinkedIn mastery to help people level up their LinkedIn skills. I signed up his LinkedIn course. He also has another course teaching people to build a thought leadership system by writing and publishing a book. I jumped in a call with him after midnight my local time. The conversation with him inspired me to reflect on what I have not done and what I should have done differently. 

I should have published the book many years ago when I was still active in the startup community via my Startup Grind exposure. But I did not. Why? A couple of reasons - I was chasing after my career goal in the corporate world; I was bogged down with too many operations work at the back of Startup Grind; I was chasing after the short term financial result by doing a remote software outsourcing business in 2016 - 2017.

Many years ago, I had a conversation with Xin - one of the friends helping me with Startup Grind in 2013 - 2014. I asked her what I should do as a by-product of Startup Grind Singapore community. She suggested me to write a book from my interviews with the speakers. I regret that I did not follow what she said. Perhaps, I was not confident or thoughtfully matured yet at that time. 

Also in December 2020, I jumped in a call with Prashant - head of growth at Springboard. I also shared with him what I want to do with Hustler Talk. He gave me some ideas on what's going on in the world right now in the personal growth industry.

A few days ago, I caught up with my former boss at IBM Data and AI. He’s from Canada and has an education in a law. He is a smart gentleman and a fast, persistent learner. He knows how to learn to be better than average on the new concepts like Artificial Intelligent. He asked me what I wanted to do next after 2 years moving into the technical sales role. I shared what I am passionate on - creating content, interviewing people working in tech. He suggested me to package something around what I am doing and add values to people. So that I can make a living out of that.

Finally, I have a friend who is the parent of my kids' classmate in the football class every Saturday. He's a French-German, and he's leading the HR for external staff at Grab. I had many casual conversations with him while waiting for kids completing the class. I also invited him to my place for a drink and dinner. He's also a smart person.

In conclusion, by hanging around with smart people, I level up my thoughts. I need to be more strategic in managing my time and energy resources. Completing those two courses reinforced my knowledge of this space.