Social thermometer? For the least informed and are hungry to level up

Would you rather be the smartest person in the room or the least informed?

If you’re the smartest, you can generously teach others. On the other hand, if you’re the least informed and hungry to level up, you couldn’t ask for a better place to be.

When you walk into a room, do you look around to see if you’re the best dressed, the tallest, the most powerful, the richest, the prettiest, the best connected? Or are you hoping that people with some of those attributes are there, ready to share what they know with you?

Some people walk three steps behind the group, no matter how fast the group is walking. Others will tire themselves out, throwing elbows if necessary, to be first in line. Some people interrupt a lot, others are begging to be interrupted.

This changes over time, day by day even, depending on what we’re looking for. And it happens in just about all the social settings in our lives. The challenge is finding a place that creates the change you seek. Too often, we go to conferences or parties or professional events where everyone is looking for someone other than us. Someone they can dominate or brush up against, someone they know or want to pitch…

It’s easy to decide to level up. It takes guts to put yourself into a mix where it’s actually going to happen.

Today’s the last day for early applications for the April session of the altMBA. More than 1,800 people have enrolled in sessions of our small-group workshop so far, and it might be worth considering. After Monday, applicants pay a higher tuition.

Surrounding yourself with people in a hurry to get where you’re going is a great way to get there.