If You Fail to Learn, You Risk Becoming Irrelevant

These days, doing a good job — and advancing in your career — isn’t about mastering a predetermined set of skills and knowledge. Why? Because by the time you’ve checked that box, the necessary skills will have changed and the required knowledge has evolved in ways you couldn’t have imagined.

Simply put, you can no longer assume you know everything you need to perform well in today’s fluid economy. Everything is changing: the job, the industry, the economy itself. If you want to keep up and get ahead, you have to embrace change as well — building new skills, letting go of old assumptions and mastering the art of lifelong learning.

In his book Never Stop Learning: Stay Relevant, Reinvent Yourself, and Thrive, Brad Staats, professor of operations at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School, explains the mindset this is essential for surviving in today’s business environment. He also provides practical tools for reframing priorities and recognizing what’s truly important.