Personal Development: Why You Should Learn To Model Others

Ah, OPE! “Other people’s experience” – a term popularized by plenty of wealth creation gurus out there. You have to learn from their experiences, they say. The problem is (and you probably realize this) it’s not easy to really figure out another person’s experiences… and here’s why!

1. People don’t always tell you everything. Let’s be absolutely transparent here. What really makes you think that a guru really reveals to you everything he knows? I’ve had my moments teaching people, but it’s first of all impossible to teach everything I know. I loathe it when people wait for the spoon feeding because it’s a clear sign that they won’t make use of the information I give. But more importantly, experts will never be able to consciously give all the information in the correct sequence, in the appropriate context. This is the single most important reason why people who have achieved success in one area are so diverse in their areas of success between them. I’ve even been surprised before by people who have interviewed me – there are always things that I don’t say because the interview does not focus on the layers beneath the surface of what I know. Students can model the process, but without the right tools, they will still flounder about. After all, you can learn all you want about how Steve Jobs makes a presentation… you’ll never be a Steve Jobs on stage. You can learn all you want about how Tiger Woods plays golf… you’ll never be a Tiger Woods in golf. Simply because the guru can’t possibly teach you everything he’s learnt. You need to be able to extract it and test it.
2. There are more important things to model than just behavior. I know you can definitely tell the difference between a good chef and a bad chef, a good leader and a bad leader, a good investor and a bad investor. It’s idiot simple: behavioral patterns! But there’s a very big difference between people who have good investment decisions and exceptionally profitable and consistent ones. There’s a very big difference between a very good speaker and a world-class speaker. The simple fact about behavioral skills is that you can pick it up from any book. This is the same trouble with corporate training skills. Anyone can teach telephone skills because it’s fixed. But very, very few people are able to teach in a way that changes the attitude of the person on the phone. Skill and competence are very different from attitude and belief. So tell me, when someone successful tells you that his secret to success is “you have to believe in something with all your heart”, doesn’t it kind of eat you up? What the heck does that mean? So what do you “do” now? Beliefs can be operationalized (made real and usable in the world), and the only way I know how to do it effectively it through the modeling process that NLP and other advanced tools I have created for modeling. I can safely say that two experts in the same field can achieve the same results, but their inner beliefs and structure can be very, very different. Question: if you realize that one expert does it in a way that is incompatible with your personality or your values, do you still expect your skill to flourish? It’s more likely that you abandon it completely. Unfortunately, a lot of NLP at the basic Practitioner level does not show you how to model the skills effectively, but rather, requires you to ‘jump through hoops’ in order to finish a Practitioner certification before going to the Master Practitioner certification (where more of the modeling skills are).
3. Modeling successfully proves you are competent in the skill. For a lot of training providers out there, models are things that they draw upon to teach concepts and ideas. Professors create models all the time. Theoretical ones. NLP is different because you look at results. If I find a good therapist and spend time modeling his behavior, my understanding of his approach is going to be far more powerful because I have modeled it than if I just learn the theoretical basis of his approach. I formulate my concept around his demonstrations. I see the results. I form the patterns. I reorganize it into a model that is unique to me and people like me.
4. Skill Building Does NOT Stop After  College. It’s strange but you should observe the trend nowadays – do you really think that college would prepare you for everything in life? I’ve had lots of frustrations in the area of wanting to learn things that actually interested me, and until I was familiar with modeling, I felt literally helpless. Finally, I could be my own reliable teacher. Counseling and psychotherapy? Done. Public speaking? No problem. Interpersonal skills and leadership? Bring it on. Reading rapidly? Piece of cake. With modeling, information doesn’t scare me like it did in school. I welcome it with open arms and make it my slave. Most professionals feel ill equipped to handle the real world issues that happen in the office, in their relationships, in their life in general. What if you could choose to learn any skill and become an expert in it within less time than it takes traditionally? How about three to six months? And seriously, even if you could afford it, how many times do you really want to go back to school? What if you can build any skill you want using the methodologies that I share? And (ahem) quite a number of these methods are not available in stores. Modeling success in any field, it seems, has a premium!
5. Success Leaves Clues, But Modeling Leaves Blueprints. I hate the phrase “success leaves clues” because it’s like keeping someone in suspense. Hellooo… I got the clues but what the heck do they mean? In the typical NLP Practitioner training, most of the time you’ll take about 12 days to master everything that’s in there. I’ve reformulated this so that it becomes possible for someone to take the same 12 days and master NLP up to the highest possible level and focus on tracks. By being a master modeler, you stop needing to do be fed other people’s models. You become the person who constructs the blueprints through guided exercises.
6. Being more ethical with knowledge sources. In recent years, I’ve also grown tired of seeing rip-offs. I mean I’ve created so many models that people have taken and used without crediting me or my partners, it’s sickening. It actually doesn’t take much effort to do your own research and create better material. In fact, professionally, you might stand out by showing how yours is different from mine. Modeling gives a better professional image and also seeks to instill the ethics of gathering and using knowledge from your beneficiaries: you become a better creator of knowledge. When you model properly, you can be certain that you aren’t stealing. This is simply because you get to invent your own approach through the modeling process, and save yourself all the hassle of being sued in court for copyright infringement.