How To Benefit From Valuable Insights Of Unexpected Sources

Imagine you are researching companies before investing. Out of the blue, one of your loved ones who doesn’t invest wants to give you advice to look at a company. The reason for the advice is that the company’s store grows busier every week and is quickly expanding with more stores. You research the company and fall upon a wonderful company with a fair price. Without your loved one, you probably wouldn’t have discovered this pleasant surprise.

This exactly happened to Peter Lynch who was advised by his late wife, Carolyn, to take a look at Gap while the clothing retailer was young. A nurse who assisted him after a knee operation told him about discounter TJX, parent discounter of TJ Maxx. He knows valuable insights can come from anywhere and you only need to listen to find it.

Always keep your ears open There is a reason you can always learn something from everyone. The person next to you in the supermarket, your neighbour, the man who sells ice cream on the street and the list goes on and on. Advice can come from unexpected sources, but how you react is important. For example, if you aren’t willing to listen because you think the other person doesn’t have something valuable to say you will miss out on a lot in life.

The person across from you who doesn’t care about investing could know more about a company because they’re a frequent visitor of the company’s stores. They could know an employee who has information about the corporate culture and ambitions. Even when their advice doesn’t lead to something successful, you are more likely to know more than you did before because of your willingness to listen.

Bounce off ideas Discussing ideas with others improved my knowledge about investing in the following three ways.

• Communication: Explaining to others why I think company A would be a good investment helps me rethink my point of view. If I cannot make it clear to another person what the company does and what their competitive advantage is, I don’t know enough about the company. This is a rule of thumb I borrowed from Warren Buffett before taking the plunge. If you invest in a company you can’t explain what their purpose is, it makes it difficult to stand behind your decision.

Therefore, it’s recommended to understand what a company does and to keep track of their goals. You can change the word investing for something else and the same rule applies. For example, as an entrepreneur who wants to start a business, it’s important to get your message across towards potential investors, (potential) customers and the list goes on and on. If others don’t know what you do, they are likely to be confused and won’t invest or become your client.

• Listening: When talking with others, it’s important to maintain a balance of speaking and listening because you want to have a dialogue instead of a monologue. Otherwise, you aren’t having a conversation. Having the humility you can always learn from someone else helps me and could do the same for you.

Sometimes you will have more to say than others in a discussion because you have more ideas at that moment or vice versa, but it’s productive when the speaking time is balanced over multiple sessions. Everybody should feel that all ideas are welcome and are given the time needed to explain their ideas.

There are mainly two ways of listening; listening to understand and listening to react. I prefer the first one because it creates a safe space to speak for everyone and stimulates learning from each other. Otherwise,the loudest person in the room will have the most speaking time and interrupting others is likely to become the norm which is likely to result in less creativity and sharing of ideas.

I have been the more quiet person in the room because I prefer to observe and listen before speaking. However, I have learned from a young age to speak up when I think it’s possible to share value with others. You could also have this feeling when starting out at a company or being with unfamiliar faces. Knowing it’s normal to make mistakes and practising discussions with others could also give you the confidence to claim your part in a professional setting.

• Paying attention to non-verbal communication while speaking: Research proves non-verbal communication is as important or even more important than verbal communication. For example, if someone you are speaking to doesn’t make eye contact, you are more likely to assume they aren’t listening. If someone is frowning while speaking, you are more likely to think they aren’t happy.

If you are speaking and someone is frowning, you could think they don’t understand you. I have experienced this and breaking your message into pieces while speaking by asking if they understand you helps. Micro expressions of others give you feedback on the clarity of your message.

Takeaway Finding something great often requires a lot of work on your own. However, it’s important to keep your ears open for advice, even when it comes from an unexpected source. Practicing humility by knowing you can always learn something from everyone benefits you.

Discussing ideas with others forces you to rethink your ideas, communicate clearly with others to explain your perspective, listen to understand others’ point of view and meanwhile develop your non-verbal communication skills. It’s as important to know how others react non-verbally as when they are talking because you can prevent misunderstandings in all areas of life.

Thank you for reading and I wish you a nice day.