Most of us feel comfortable facing a new project when it’s clear what we’ll have to do to pull it off. But sometimes a new or existing project requires doing a new thing with a procedure we’re not sure how to complete at first glance. Those are the opportunities that can open the door to exceptional professional and personal growth. When I embrace learning a new skill, suddenly there are all sorts of new possibilities.
A Bridge to New Possibilities
A few years ago I read an article in Parade Magazine about the Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, a bridge spanning the Colorado River at an incredible height of over 900 feet and located one quarter of a mile downriver from the majestic Hoover Dam. It’s a beautifully simple bridge design that doesn’t overpower the scenery and offers a stunning aerial view of the dam with Lake Mead in the background. Its original purpose was to decongest traffic on the dam’s highway drive and the winding roads leading up to the dam by providing a quick bypass of the area. Once completed, it eventually became part of the new Interstate 11 which eventually is planned to connect Las Vegas to Phoenix.
While reading the article, I could relate to the idea of facing the challenge of the unknown to come up with a great solution. When it came time to acquire the contractors to do the job, the Parade article shared this story:
In 2004, busloads of the world’s top contractors and engineers were brought to the river’s edge to look at the bridge site and decide whether to bid on the project. One veteran bridge builder recalled standing there in awe when he first saw it, and saying, “This is a big hole—bigger than anything I’ve ever spanned. That’s when you have a gut-check time.”
The various contractors had to determine whether they had the know-how to pull off this incredible feat. Each had to compare what they knew from personal experience, what they knew others knew, and consider what wasn’t known.
New Skills: New Possibilities
We all find ourselves in similar situations in our professional endeavors. We know so much and yet there’s so much to learn all the time. Most of the time the learning provides not only a solution for the project we’re currently working on, but also opens the door to more potential solutions in the future. Or maybe you haven’t learned a skill that can revolutionize your business potential.
A number of years ago when I started using freelancer services, I got a project working for a book publisher doing book interiors. I had done a book interior many years ago and used the skills I knew for laying it out and formatting it. After turning in the work, my client asked me, “Don’t you use paragraph styles and character styles in your work?”. Up to that point, I never had. I had never taken the time to investigate or learn them because the bulk of my work was in smaller sized projects that didn’t require a lot of formatting large amounts information. I had known those features existed but never looked into them before.
I took the time to learn how to use them and then it dawned on me that while I was doing great work for years as a graphic designer, here was a set of tools that could revolutionize my work and open up the door to new possibilities with larger projects and better design and management skills.
So that question from my client totally changed my way of approaching projects. It was a great learning moment to pick up a skill I hadn’t considered I needed. Now it’s one of the most critical skills I use, and as a result I’ve done a lot of larger projects for many, many years, including a 11+ year stint as the graphic designer for The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine. It’s inspiring to know that greater things can be attempted and that future challenges can be looked upon as wonderful opportunities to grow and help others.
At the end of the Parade article, the writer quoted Dave Zanetell, the project manager for the O’Callaghan-Tillman Bridge after they completed the project, “Now that we’re finished, we have an obligation to take this sense of possibility and go do 10 more amazing things.”
I agree. By taking the time to learn more skills, I open the door to new possibilities.
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