You have to think at some points that you are better than others to be able to do things. But arrogance can make you overlook things. Arrogance is thinking you know better when really you are too young to even have the??slightest??idea of what is really going on.

At my first job I made that mistake, my best made the same mistake, iWeekend mentor made the mistake. You think your boss is stupid and dont see what you see. The truth is you dont have enough of the global vision to realize what you see on the ground, what you see being in direct contact with your customer maybe important but is not the critical thing your company should be focus on right now.

I read "Corporate Confidential – 50 secrets your company doesnt want you to know" when I was still working at NHN. The book had been??recommended??to my supervisor by our CEO. It helped me that I was probably not aware of all the most important things going on in the company.

But I still do this mistake, I just try to be aware of the risk.

The biggest mistake arrogance can make you do is driving you away from great mentors who see potential in you but think you are just not ready yet. And they are probably right. It is like becoming a jedi, being to impatient might lead you to the dark side 🙂 One iWeekend mentor worked for Jack Ma at the beginning fo his career, they were really closed, talked often about the company strategy but he didn't understand why Jack was not listening to him or giving him more responsibility. He eventually quit and lost the connection with Jack.

It is hard to be humble when you are young. I am always surprised when I meet 20-something people who doesn't admire anyone. Maybe they are not interested in becoming better? Maybe they think no-one is great enough to learn from? I think you can learn something from everyone. Everyone is better than you at something. You just have to find what it is they can teach you.

I have a difficult character to work with for my supervisors, it is something my teacher at school always complained about, that I was cheeky and always questioning them. I try to be smoother -at some extend- but I guess it is the character you have when you want to be your own boss.

However they are 2 persons that if tomorrow they call me up to be their personal assistant I will say yes without a second thought:

– Mark Zuckenberg

– Jack Ma