Choose Your Fellow: Allan Batalla
Meet Allan Batalla, 2022 VFC and RBC Fellow. He is currently working as a Business Development Representative at Contact Monkey, an internal communications company that helps businesses boost growth and productivity via their internal communications.
What does being a life-long learner mean to you?
To me, it’s all about understanding and challenging what the limits of your understanding are.
It’s about understanding what is needed in the world and trying to close the gap. You monitor new trends or patterns and things that are changing.
Having the mentality and mindset of a life-long learner, is all about trying to keep the gap as close as possible. For example, a company may have a lot of money and not invest in Research and Development, even though they are an important factor in keeping the growth and improvement of a business.
Investing in R&D yourself means being a lifelong learner. You’re learning and trying to upgrade yourself as much as possible.
As a lifelong learner, what do you engage with that keeps you inspired and motivated?
When it gets to more of the granular things I’m reading blogs like farm street, their content focuses on learning how to make better decisions, and general timeless knowledge.
Being a lifelong learner who is always curious about all sorts of information is great. However, as you learn there can be a point where there might be an overwhelming amount of information to digest. Some of these might not be of good quality or factual content either, so it’s important to be able to decipher between the resources you choose. That’s why I like to focus on more general blogs or podcasts.
What’s one piece of advice you would leave for someone trying to step into becoming a lifelong learner?
In the simplest way, I would advise someone to just read. Read what you love and so you learn to love reading. This will teach the discipline in reading, where you can then move on to novels, comics, or anything else that grasps your interest. It will then become second nature, and you’ll become hungrier for new perspectives and insights.
How do lifelong learners thrive in entrepreneurship?
Lifelong learners thrive in entrepreneurship because they’re constantly seeking and armed with
a desire to learn. They’re not afraid to jump into new opportunities or go into areas that they aren’t experts in. They may find themselves in positions that are uncomfortable, but they can rely on themselves to learn the ins and out of it. In order to thrive as an entrepreneur, you have to learn and be ok with not feeling or be prepared 100% before entering it.
You have to trust that you’ll figure things out along the way. You’ll be able to learn the tricks of the trade as you’re in there. Identifying yourself as a lifelong learner, will help with developing the skills associated with that, and can help you move into those opportunities when you’re not feeling ready or prepared.
