Become an autodidact.
Almost all biographers use the word “autodidact” to describe Abraham Lincoln.
Sadly I had to look the word up. To be an ‘autodidact’ is to be self-taught.
Lincoln never had the advantages of a thorough public education or the opportunity to learn from private tutors. From an early age, he took responsibility for his own learning.
Perhaps motivated by the memorized lines of Thomas Gray’s Elegy of a Country Churchyard, Lincoln refused to let his rural disadvantages “suppress his noble rage,” believing that even “in his neglected spot” he might have a “heart pregnant with celestial fire.”
To be an autodidact, we must assume responsibility for our own development.
Typically, our organization (business, church, or parachurch) requires or provides the training needed for a job they narrowly define for us. Unfortunately, job-specific training rarely ignites the “noble rage and celestial fire in the hands and hearts” (and minds) of employees or volunteers.
And ultimately, what the organization needs most in its staff is not “generic job training” but the rage and fire that occurs only in “autodidacts.” Often the uniqueness and passion of our own commitment to the learning of subjects–often perceived by our organizations as irrelevant–actually ends up contributing more to the organization.
Become an autodidact.