My first introduction to myself

Who I am today is vastly different to who I was a few years ago. There have been lots of subtle, unintentional changes. There have even been rather significant changes spurred on by the encouragement of those who care for me. There is, however, one significant event that stands out in my mind as a turning-point in my life.

In May 2009, I enrolled in the MBA program at The University of Western Australia. For years I had talked about wanting to do an MBA. In my mind, it would be all about how to succeed in business. I had finished my Bachelors degree, I just needed those two years work experience before I could enrol and then I would take over the world. 7 years later, my fiancée (now my lovely wife) finally convinced me to get off my backside and enrol.

The first unit, a compulsory unit, was Organisational Behaviour and I thought to myself: "I'm a numbers guy, I don't really need to learn this stuff". As the unit progressed, we were being taught a number of interesting concepts such as the MARS model of individual behaviour, Belbin team roles (Team Roles at Work on Amazon.com) and the characteristics of high performance teams. As we organised ourselves into teams and began working on a team project I began to realise that this was the perfect opportunity to actually apply what we were learning.

For me, this was the start of my journey towards better self-awareness. Things didn't go very smoothly during that team project and I didn't handle things perfectly; but I learnt some powerful lessons from that experience. Lessons that I now apply to my studies, to my work and to my life. These lessons were important... but the biggest lesson of all was that I was not perfect. I don't mean that in a negative, judgemental way; but in a powerful, positive way. As Socrates put it: "The more I learn, the more I learn how little I know".