Does lack of confidence in your own opinion hold you back, even sometimes make you mute? 

You may know more than you think.

In the book, The Medici Effect, Frans Johansson explores the phenomenon that many breakthrough ideas and insights come from people with little or no related experience.

Charles Darwin. for instance, was a geologist when he proposed the theory of evolution. The astronomer, Walter Alvarez explained what happened to dinosaurs. Waldemar Mordecai Haffkine created the world's first vaccines for cholera and plague - and was called by Lord Lister, the great British bacteriologist and pioneer of antiseptic surgery, 'the saviour of mankind'. Haffkine was not a doctor but a zoologist.  

What makes people like this stand out is their talent for being able to apply their past experience to new situations. Johansson argues that innovative ideas are often 'intersectional' - they occur when concepts from one field are introduced into another.

Many of us have experienced the opposite - people who’ve been in a role so long, they simply stop having innovative ideas, or recognising when things need to change. How often, when a new recruit joins, does a fresh pair of eyes see what (in retrospect) should have been obvious - but wasn’t?  

Whenever you feel you’re not experienced enough or talented enough, give yourself The Medici Effect challenge.

Stop focusing on what you don’t know - and focus instead on what you do. How could you apply your knowledge and experience to your new situation? Start making connections. If you’re like most of the clients I work with, that’s somewhere you'll excel. 

Want more? Why not arrange a free and informal chat with me? Let's talk.