Hello everyone, today I want to share insights from a book I recently rediscovered called 'Mindshift'. The English title perfectly captures its essence - it's about transforming your thinking to unlock life's second journey. No one should be limited by their past environment; we need to find ways to break through, and this breakthrough process relies on mindshift - our ability to transform our thinking.
How can we achieve this mindshift? There's a crucial underlying principle: turn your useless past into an advantage. Take Tania, a Dutch woman who worked as a clerk at a university, handling emails and administrative tasks. She felt invisible, but she had one advantage - she loved gaming. When her department needed to launch online courses with forums, professors complained about managing trolls and spam. Tania casually mentioned that moderators were needed to handle these issues. When professors asked what moderators were, she realized her gaming experience was valuable. She was promoted to network manager, overseeing all students and users.
The book dedicates a chapter to Singapore, explaining why its economy is so competitive. Singapore follows a principle of creating π-shaped talents. We used to talk about T-shaped talents - people with broad knowledge and one deep expertise. But Singapore believes T-shaped talents aren't enough. You must become π-shaped talents. What does this mean? Like the Greek letter π, you need two legs - two deep skills. These are called first skill and second skill. The first skill is work-related, while the second skill is passion-related. This is what makes a π-shaped talent.
When your career stagnates, the author says you must first be vigilant about this stagnation. Many people don't react to career stagnation - your job has stopped progressing, but you think it's fine because you receive a steady monthly salary. This kind of stability can kill you. If you want stability in life, you're actually moving backward. Learning is like rowing upstream - if you don't advance, you retreat. You must maintain an aggressive attitude and continuously enrich yourself. You must be alert to stagnation.