A growing trend that I have seen lately is that most people are simply just not open to learning more. They think they know everything.  This mix of arrogance and complacency is a terrible one that you want to steer clear of, no matter how tempting. One thing that I have learned over the past few years is that the most successful people in the world are open to learning. As vigorous learners, they will keep learning. They just happen to be programmed that way.

Whenever you brain tells you, “I already know that.  Time to tune out,” ignore the inner chatter and stay tuned in.There is always someone out there than can do something better, faster, more efficiently than you can, so don’t let the “I-am-the-best mentality” damage your learning curve. Knowledge is a powerful tool, so keep learning and you will get ahead.  Knowledge is only useful when used.

When you are in business, and you believe yourself to be the best at what you do, this can prove nearly fatal for your business if you don’t keep your eyes, mind, and doors wide open to innovation and performance optimization. For instance, Salesforce.com believed themselves to be the best at eCRM tools, but when Zoho came into the picture, tying in a wide variety of products into one suite, Salesforce was forced to optimize their product and push for more features. Although Zoho’s market share is still considerably small compared to Salesforce.com’s, its still posed new threats as a competitor.