Mega Learning – The Joy of Lifelong Learning  

Jorge Olson

June 20, 2022

Learning is one of my favorite things to do every day. It’s one of my top priorities, and it has been since I was a child. The way I approach learning has changed over the past three decades. When before, it was a bit erratic, more about chasing the shiny object; now, I have more of a structure to learning. I sometimes go into heavy research mode because I have a curious mind. Out of nowhere, I research how much we really pay in taxes (the result will surprise you,) or I do research for a book, business, or personal project.   

  

In this episode, I want to share my formula for Mega Learning.  

If you want to grow your neurocognition fast and heavy, this is the episode for you. If you’re a casual, curious learner, you can see how others can obsess about learning.  

  

When I was a child, my Mom would give me tons of material to read. We had thousands of books in my house, and she would give me newspapers to read. I was eleven years old and had no interest in reading. I read nothing! It didn’t infuriate my Mom, but it did worry her. She was a philosophy and literature teacher and read enthusiastically every day, so you could imagine her displeasure.  

“Books open the door to another world” 

In seventh grade, we had to do a book report, and I remember clearly choosing a book from home and not from the library. It was in Spanish, as I grew up in Mexico. The translated title would be “The Life Beyond Death” by Yogi Ramacharaka. My teacher said it wasn’t age-appropriate for me, but I begged, and she finally relented. The Life Beyond Death deals with death and the afterlife according to Hinduism. The book deals with the human obsession with our expiration date and planes of existence. Yes, a bit heavy for a seventh-grader, but I was hooked on spirituality, metaphysics, and reading. I read World Mythology; my favorite was Greek and Anglo-Saxon mythology. I read books on astronomy. Oh my, I thought it was science fiction. I imagined traveling through galaxies, exploring black holes and white dwarfs. It was terrific.  

  

From High School to college. 

I was averaging one non-fiction book per day. My commute to school was a few hours, so I had plenty of time. By then, I had discovered audiobooks. They were costly, but I was lucky to get my hands on a philosophy audio encyclopedia first, then self-help, politics, religion, and others. Each one came with ten to thirty hours of knowledge. Each morning I got a few cassettes and loaded them into my walkman. I was ready for my four-hour commute to school.  It was so long because I lived in Tijuana and didn’t have a car. This meant walking a mile, taking a bus to downtown Tijuana, taking another bus to the border, waiting in line, crossing the international border, taking the trolley in San Ysidro, then another bus to school. This was plenty of time for a young adolescent mind to cram some good old-fashioned pre-Socratic philosophy!  

“Knowledge was my ticket out of poverty” 

At nineteen, I believed knowledge was my ticket out of poverty. I know I didn’t mention the part that we were poor. How poor? Well, one of my goals was to have running water—that poor. Quickly I realized that understanding and applying the information in real life was an incredible advantage. You could enter the marketplace with a new job, knowledge from one thousand books, and a bachelor’s degree. Or you could just finish your bachelor’s degree.   

  

The next step was changing my learning style, not only what I studied but the immediate application of knowledge. How can you learn and absorb the material as experience? How can you read a book and act as if you have the same experiences the author has? This is no small feat. I realized this after graduating, and everyone asked me about my previous work experience. “But I read thousands of books,” I would say. They didn’t care. They didn’t see any experience in my resume, and resumes don’t have a slot for “I read thousands of books.”    

  

To land a job. 

I was convinced I needed somebody to converse with me, get to know me, my knowledge, my drive, and my “I will do whatever it takes” conviction. It did happen thanks to a mentor, and I did go up the corporate ladder fast. I became CEO of US operations for a German software company in my twenties.  

“I will do whatever it takes” 

  

You probably have many interests. Maybe sports, business or marketing, literature or social behavior, or many other wonderful topics life offers you. I’ve had my interests in phases. When I wanted to get an executive job and make it in the corporate world, I read hundreds of books on business, marketing, communication, economics, finance, and accounting. You get my drift.  

Before that, I was interested in self-help, religion studies, and history. After that, my curiosity took me to works of fiction. The key is learning with a formula or Mega Learning. With this Mega Learning, you can apply your knowledge immediately at work, in your writings, as a speaker, leader, manager, or marketer. It’s not about remembering dates; it’s about being able to learn something that’s out of your skin, something you don’t have to experience to understand. It’s much more complicated than it sounds. Most people will not be able to learn without trying things out. They will only learn empirically by trial and error.  The way I see it, that’s a colossal waste of time. Don’t get me wrong; you must do many things—for example, most sports. You can read and learn about running five miles, but if you don’t have the lungs, it’s hard to get there if you don’t practice.  

  

How can you take your learning to the next level?  

By training your brain to learn by example and not just by doing. Let me give you an example. If I write a book about the ten mistakes entrepreneurs make when starting a business, and you read it cover to cover and then try to see if you make those mistakes, you’re not using the book to learn. You’re using it as a model to experience life and make the ten mistakes. Why not avoid those mistakes and look for other books that list other errors? Why not look for books, courses, meetings, and mentors that can tell you the ten things you should do. This will save you time, money, and, most importantly, a heavy emotional toll.  

  

I do just that in my book, Build Your Beverage Empire. I list mistakes beverage entrepreneurs make when starting a beverage company. I detail how they spend between $200,000 and $300,000 making such mistakes. They waste money and time, sometimes two years, making mistakes. Many of these entrepreneurs call me for advice. ”I’m losing money,” they say. Or “It’s been two years, and I can’t take the company off the ground.” I always ask them, “Did you read my Beverage book?”    

  

“Imagine that one book can save you money, time, and mistakes’  

“I didn’t take the time to read it,” they tell me.  Wow!  The book is less than three hundred pages. You can read it in a week. It’s only three dollars on Kindle. This is not what I consider Mega Learning. This is learning by doing. In other words, let me spend two years and $200K learning what to do or, in this case, what not to do. This is one of the reasons I write books so that you and others can learn from my learning, mistakes, and research. It’s one of the reasons I read so much, take courses, and constantly search for mentors so I can mentor others in return.   

  

Where can you find Mega Learning resources? Here are ten of my favorite Mega Learning resources:  

  

  1. YouTube Videos  
  1. Magazine Articles  
  1. Podcasts  
  1. Books  
  1. Tutorials  
  1. The Great Courses – The Joy of Lifelong Learning  
  1. MasterClass Online Courses  
  1. Live Courses, Seminars, and Webinars   
  1. Mastermind Groups  
  1. Mentoring and Coaching 

Jorge Olson 

Mega Learning – The Joy of Lifelong Learning  

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Let’s get in touch! If you want to get all the hacks to get a successful business, reach me at: mastermindgroup.us or jorgeolson.com 

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