Dynamic change and constant adaptation are key features of an entrepreneur’s journey and our Unlearning issue invites entrepreneurs to reconsider lessons and methods that no longer serve them, transforming the old and stunted into something new that can flourish and grow.
I love applying my entrepreneurial skills outside the profit-driven business world, developing projects with people I care about. The ideation stage is for dreaming and collaboration feels like hanging out. In 2013, I co-founded a successful artist collective that exhibited in major museums worldwide. To work with friends, I had to unlearn what worked for me as a solopreneur: a singular vision with tight processes. Instead, I adopted a collaborative approach.
Everyone has different work styles (especially artists) and despite my project management experience, I had to let go of my perfectionist tendencies and control. I focused on the joy of co-creating with friends. This shift mirrors Casey Milone’s discussion in Unlearn short-term thinking and shift to an infinite mindset in business where he emphasizes adopting long-term vision, trust building and principled growth for sustainable success.
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Last year, I moved to Copenhagen and faced more unlearning. I joined a QTBIPOC (Queer Trans Black Indigenous People of Color) community working on a garden. Having co-founded one in Thailand, I was excited to contribute to something I cared about in my new home. However, this community didn’t want to prioritize specific outcomes. It didn’t matter whether we harvested a single tomato, as long as we were learning.
My first reaction was, “This is going to fail.”
Even with my art collective and our fluid processes, we had to deliver art installations with six-figure budgets on time to major museums. The community garden has no hierarchy, members pop in and out based on their capacity and interest, we don’t have a concrete plan for what to grow or when, and two of the four beds we built don’t have soil.
Our focus is on process and what interests us, not on outcomes and deliverables. To truly enjoy the work, I had to unpack my desire to focus on results and instead embrace a process I could contribute to, but not control.
I didn’t lower my expectations; I revised them.
Right now, our community garden is thriving, in its own unique way. We have plenty of Swiss chard, beets, radishes, medicinal plants and even tomatillos. More importantly, we’re sharing responsibilities, spending time in nature and learning how to sustain the garden.
This emphasis on process and relationship-building reminds me of Ingrid Polini’s Unlearning the transactional approach to networking, which explores how shifting from a transactional to a relational approach in networking can build genuine, long-lasting professional relationships.
Our Unlearning issue has several other insightful contributions. Charge for what you do, not how long it takes by Jesse Friedman highlights the benefits of value-based pricing over hourly billing for freelancers.
Meanwhile, our Editor-in-Chief interviews Christopher Pommerening, who, after founding 10 companies and investing in over 30 startups, launched LearnLife to change the way we learn.
As I edited contributions and filled garden beds, I thought of unlearning as composting: a gardener gathers organic refuse and even stuff from their kitchen like carrot tops, onion skins and vegetable scraps, to transform them into black gold—nutrient-rich soil fertile for growth.
In this issue, we’ll help you identify key areas for unlearning. Whether you’re dealing with outdated mindsets, limiting beliefs or inefficient practices, you don’t have to dispose of things that may have worked for you in the past.
Instead, think of unlearning as composting old parts to fuel fresh growth.
We’ve got two features that cover the topic of time, money and energy, and another by Mr. #BuildWealth himself, on the grind behind the glory of entrepreneurship.
Wealth without wellbeing is not the future I want for a group of people so critical to our economy: entrepreneurs. So welcome to Digital Entrepreneur, where joy is the new success.