Ep 167| Why Unlearning is important for Designers 15 unlearnings in my design career

It has been a path of more than 8.5 years. Guys, lot of students really asked me, like, can you just summarize, like, how I can really become a great designer in a very short span of time and how I can really change my perspective quickly being a designer or how I really become a successful designer like you, Jyotish. Okay, first of all, let me give you guys, I'm not a big achiever, okay? I'm just in a process of learning and becoming the best version of myself. Okay? Whatever I know I teach for my students and there are people who have got results, there are people who are still working, and there are people who are really wanting to work with me in the process. So it's a different category. Okay? But let me tell you what have really made me come in this way. The very first unlearning what I have in my design career is thinking, I know everything. Okay? When you come into the design and when you see a problem in a very holistic way, you really take out the ego out of you. Okay, very first unlearning. Never ever think that you know everything. Whatever you do, don't think you can master it by studying some book or videos or whatever. That's a very big mistake. What I did, I went into libraries. I went into. You can go to library and study, but the point is design cannot be learnt in libraries or any Google article or this that. Guys, that's a very different ball game. So you need to get this understanding, okay? The reason why I'm recording this podcast in terms of unlearning is lot of people first don't know how to unlearn. If you really wanted to become a creative designer, let me give you a direct straight header, guys. You need to be definitely good in unlearning certain things. A lot of people are not wired in their brains towards this direction, right? A lot of people have not heard or maybe they. They think it's very different concept. Let me tell you guys, if you have learned something by your college or school or your parents or your friends or somebody is really guided you are instructed you so far, that's the pattern. That's the learning pattern. What you already have, right? But if you really wanted to create a new perspective or a new design or a new concept or a new product or service, you needed to rewire certain things and think from a different point of view, then and only you can bring a great creativity in your work. Do you really agree this or not? If you really agree this, this podcast is going to make A big impact in your career. It will cut short your 10 years into just a span of one year or even less than that. But if you don't agree it, pause this podcast and you can leave this. Guys, definitely it's not going to add any value in you because the moment when you understand this rewiring what happens inside your brain, you will start rewiring to create a new product, new innovative product, new creative product and service which nobody has ever thought of or people are thinking in a conventional way where you take a different stance and see this through a different lens or see this through a different perspective. And that's what, that's what is the specialty of a design where people are talking about phones and this, that, and they wanted to really bring a big technology and phones can really have a powerful wireless communication. Steve Jobs has really thought, why don't we bring a phone inside a music player? Why don't we bring the Internet computer into a mobile device? That thought is what is the generational visionary thought, Guys, the entire generation has flipped because of that thinking. So are you really understanding the way in which you are wired so far in your school? College is not going to help you anymore. You have to definitely rewire yourself. That's the very first learning. Don't think that you know everything. Be ready to openly explore certain things. Okay, so the second unlearning what I had being a designer is scoring good marks is going to help me a lot. It's absolutely BS guys. Any good design institute will never have any kind of a mark system or anything. They'll guide you, they'll grade you based on your own existing performance in your earlier semesters. You go and ask your professors, they'll tell you because it's imperatively wrong to compare anybody with anybody. You are own. You are your unique features, you are your unique brain. You are having your unique thought process. And how you evolved as a process, as a progress, as a human, as a. As a character, as a behavior, how you evolved, that's what people are going to check in you. So scoring marks is not going to have any impact how you personally transform matters. It took me a semester to really understand this, okay? Because in Design Institute there is no exam and all. They'll have a jury, they'll have you presented your works. So that's the point. The third thing I thought, I have to write an exam, I have to really do something. And then and only I learn certain concept and I can revalidate and somebody else can really validate me to get a job or to get a big career out of it. Let me tell you guys, you really don't keep yourself ready every time. It's all you learn on the go. It's like learning by doing. You will never become ready after you write an exam. That's the biggest unlearning that I got after doing my design education. Lot of people don't get it. They think I have to really study this, write this exam, then I'll pass a bar exam, or this, that, and then I become a designer. No, no, no. Design can only be learnt when you do it. Learning by doing. You make mistakes, you make iterations, you learn from seniors, you learn from your colleagues, you learn from your faculties, you learn from online, you reflect. That's how you progress your cognitive thinking. Okay, fourth, I thought I need to have a lot of experience and degree to become a great designer. It's absolutely bs. The more younger and fresher you are, the better creativity you will have because you will have a less biases. If you are too much mechanical engineer, you will be very much in line with the mechanical requirements when a product design is having and you will put a lot of hurdles to that design. You will say, this will not work, that will not work. Whereas a person who doesn't know mechanical, he will see the possibilities how this mechanism can work. This one unlearning is enough for you to really flip your career into a different level. Guys, lot of engineers are now coming into design field. Okay, my sweet engineers, let me tell you, if you don't understand this point, your career is going to be wasted. Like anything, you will have a roller coaster in your design career. Your concept will never get approved. You will not make a progress. And whatever hard work you make, it's not. It's all going into the garbage. It's all going into the dustbin. Your progress is not going to have any impact. You will be a laborer working for 20, 30,000 or 40,000 per month. But if you really wanted to make an innovative difference, you need to unlearn this thing. Throw out the degrees in you, throw out the knowledge in you. Be an open, fresh, mindset guy. Okay, that's the fourth unlearning, the fifth unlearning. What I've got is I really needed to follow some kind of a system or a process or a formula to get an answer. That's also completely wrong. Process and system could help you become a little catalyst or help you or enable you to meet your goal. You have the potential of really setting your own system or Setting your own way of getting the product design right. If you don't develop that unique note novel process in you, I mean you will not make any difference in your product design. See there is something called double diamond process, there is something called design thinking process. And industries have defined their own product design systems and thinking to make certain solution. Okay. It doesn't mean you will have to follow that you create your own. And if you realize this particular moment, your life will be in a different way. Guys, you are thinking forward in your design will be like no way matchable by anybody. Okay? So keep it in mind. The sixth unlearning what I've got is I need to really work in a big corporates or big industries to become a great designer. Let me give you the biggest unlearning. If you work for a startup, your learning will be completely in a different zone. You will tend to see the whole process from end to end. You will work with low level people, high level people. You will see the entire, what you call the process of the organization and how the money rotates and how the system rotates and how the people really make a big things out of it and where you can really contribute a huge value as a designer. And if you really understand this, you will really find a lot of startups to first start your career. I would, I would always suggest my students to make sure they start up their career with some startups or a small scale industry where they can experience everything from end to end. If you directly go into the corporate, what happens is they are like very much process defined and sorted. Your learning will be completely zero and you will be only a laborer forever. You will not experience that what you call the ups and downs of your career. Okay, so have this thing guys. I have took, it took me a lot of time to unlearn this. And the seventh biggest unlearning is I thought you have to really work hard continuously without any distraction, diversion, this, that in order to become creative. It's exactly the opposite. The more you are able to take break and relax and make the positive connections out of you out of the things which you have, out of the inspirations, what you are making, out of the people whom you are interacting, the better creative connections you will make. So you need to really loosen up guys. Don't be hard on yourself. That's a very big unlearning I got because till engineering, till my work experience I was like having so much of rigidity in me, I was not able to really loosen up myself. So think and Unlearn these things. And the eighth unlearning. What I've got is when you are really looking at something, never, never, never look at the way in which it was. Always try to be in a more open way and a more liberal way and a more critical way in order to see the upside and downside of it. Because I was just thinking I have to be just in one way. I have to just really see the things as they are, as it is, as it is, as it is. And what I want, what I really accomplished through is I developed a lot of fight with a lot of people in terms of arguments, in terms of discussions. I was not able to get the point, what they're trying to say because I was so rigid in my point, right? So the moment when you see the both the sides of this element, like let's say if somebody is really saying you wanted to design this product, okay, and what do you think about this product? If somebody is asking you, you're saying, hey, this is a product, this is a book, this is this that. Let's say a book is in front of me. I'm just giving you an example. But if you really take two sides of it and if you really think about how this particular the product, what is in front of you, like let's say a book, how you can really perceive it, you can see the other side of it, like let's say, I'll give you an example, like somebody is asking you to redesign a book, okay? Or maybe somebody is asking you to design something from showing you a book or something. If you are a rigid guy, if you are a normal thinker, you will just ask some questions, you will start redesigning book in this way, that way. But if you really think for a moment, do you think a book is really needed to give you this information? Why don't I create it in some kind of a way? Right? This question is a very thought provoking and a different angle, right? People will not expect this from you sometimes because they are used to seeing in our own normal way of just redesigning, redesigning, redesigning. Book, book, book. Let me redesign a mobile. Let me redesign a car. Have you ever asked a question, why is that book really required? Can we incorporate this into an iPad? Can we incorporate this into an E book? Yeah, people have already that. But can you think of something else? Can you the moment if you flip this thought process, you will see things in a different perspective. I really don't know, guys, to see the things in this perspective. Till I realized that there Is a different perspective for any product, any service, any solution, any, any, any product, whatever you have in front of you. If you really pause for your moment, you will see the flip side of it. Like let's say one of my senior has asked me to tell what do you really feel by this glass? I was like, it's a glass used for drinking water. This, that he was like, he said jagdish, you're really rigid. You're very. What do you call rigid in your mindset? I asked him why did you say that? This glass is really telling you something. Why don't you just read that and feel it? I said no, I'm not seeing anything. He said, exactly. This glass is a material which gives you a feel. This glass has a form language which gives you a feel. This glass is a different, different. What do you call color which is reflecting you, which is talking to you something. Because of that only you started liking this glass and then you start drinking water or coffee in it. There is something called rasa. There is something called emotion associated to it. See guys, these kind of things I have never experienced before. So if you are calm enough to really receive that perspective then and only you can able to unlearn these things. If you're too rigid, sorry guys, you will be in a, what do you call, hell, a lot of trouble in your career. Okay, so the ninth important unlearning what I had in my particular design career is when I started as a fresher, when I started as a designer I thought like I have to really mingle with all the people in order to bring out the process. Okay, so mingling in the sense what I tell is like let's say going along with the progress process of the system company and all. It doesn't work in design that way. Many times you will have to take a non linear approach of a process. I'm not saying you go and raise a concern or you raise a flag against your company for their process or you go and create a rebelism out of it. I'm not saying that. Think about how the value propositions can be better through your design thinking process where the entire system, engineers and everybody in the company will be working towards a process. You as a designer can able to connect the dots through a different angle. That's what is called design thinking. That's what is called understanding the business, understanding the human, understanding the technology, understanding the emotion, understanding the situation of the environment and sustainability and how you can really leverage all these five things in your product and service when you're able to do this guys, your company will start creating a new process for this. So you can able to really create a new process. And let me tell you guys, you don't have to follow any norms. People will really create a norms to work with you don't go along, just really ask questions. So that's a very big what you call unlearning which I've got because initially I was also spending few of my career without knowing this. And I've just work, work, work, work, work. No getting this point right. So the 10th biggest unlearning what I've got is. And let me tell you this pain point is for many designers, knowing not to, knowing how to. Knowing not. How do I put it? Not knowing how to prioritize your tasks, not knowing how to exactly prioritize and sequence your works. Being a designer, it's very easy to get lost in the world of abstract and what you call clumsiness guys, if you really don't, if you really don't know what is your priority task, Ask your boss, ask your subordinates, ask your client, ask your customer, ask your what you call senior or mentor or anybody to really define that properly. Unless you reach a stage to decide that upon if you're not matured enough, please take a support of somebody to really define that. Let me tell you guys, if you don't understand this point and then if you start working in a corporate or startup or anywhere you are not leading anywhere, you'll be just doing work and you will never get the financial freedom or the time freedom or the design success freedom. Whatever you wanted in your life, be mindful of it. If you know exactly how to prioritize your design tasks and if you know exactly to sequence it out, which to come first, which comes second, third, etc. You will never be able to succeed in your career for time. Because time is the biggest resource. If you don't follow the time, if you don't follow the process and if you don't follow the priority and sequence, your time will be wasted like anything. Because time management is life management. If you don't understand this, you will be in a big hell, a lot of trouble. The 11th big unlearning what I got is designer needs to be very, very, very, very. What you call, what you call very shabby, very kind of a lot of growing beard and dressed in a very creative way. Or maybe their shelf and house should be in a very scrambled way. If you're very much neat and ordered, you're not a creative people People call this, right? Let me tell you guys, everything is bs. Whether you are a very neatly aligned and organized people or whether you are a hanky panky guy. Creativity has got nothing to do with these two categories of people. Don't think like if you really want to be creative, you need to look like a eccentric guy. A lot of people have this notion outside. I really unlearned this thing. It is not the point. Creativity is a muscle. The more you train it, the better you will become. Design thinking is a muscle. The more you train it, the better you will be able to think and connect different dots to make a very good product design. So throw all this bss because lot of people think that eccentricity will bring a different kind of creativity in your design. But that's not true. You can really redefine that in your own way. Okay, the 12th biggest unlearning what I've got is earning a lot of money will make you a great designer or a big designer. No guys, let me give you one perspective. The more value you add, the more value proposal you bring to your organization is what will make you as a great designer. Money is just a mark of a measure of your business success or your company success or whatever. But the true value, what you make, the true, what you call the idea and the innovation, what you really create, that impact with the people is really going to make you a great designer or not. How much do you think? What do you call how much do you think Donald Norman is earning? How much do you think Dieter Rams is earning? How much do you think Fuku Sawa? He's a. He's a Japanese guy who designed this furniture. People are not behind money, guys. Okay? See you can earn a lot of money. That's a different thing. I mean again, I'm not against that. If you really wanted to become a great wealth creator, you can do it. But that has got nothing to correlate with being a great designer. A great designer or a big designer will really be measured in terms of the value you bring to the society. The value you bring to that company indirectly, that goes into society, right? So the value proposition, if you show automatically, money keeps coming, guys. So please understand this guys. Earning big salaries is not going to make you a great designer. Creating that value proposition is going to make a big difference in you. Okay? The 13th biggest unlearning what I've got in my career is designer needs to have a very, very hi fi sketching knowledge or hi fi tools knowledge or this that. Let me tell you guys, if you don't have a sketching knowledge also. If you don't have a tool knowledge also, you can become a great designer by going and learning there. It's not a skill which is somebody is born with, right? Design colleges don't take you based on the sketching skill you have. I'll tell you one real example. There is a guy who attended NID interview in front of me who had three big files of drawings and sketches. Okay? There is another guy who is next to me who just had only one sheet of paper. That one project he had in that sheet and then he prepared it in the file flight during his travel. You know, this one sheet guy got selected and we all studied together. Okay? So the other guy who had three bunches of files, he got rejected. I'm not. I have not seen him after that. So nid takes only 15 people for a product design or something as 15 out of thousands and thousands, close to 10,000 people are attending this whole interview. And you know, they shortlist only close to thousand students for the second round and 100 students for the third round. And finally fourth round they select only 15 people. So they have a different criteria. Guys, you don't need to be a good sketcher or Figma guy or Adobe xt. In fact, that will backfire you if you have too much of these things then they will not find a need for you to fit in the design school or to really have you. So have these things really come out of you guys? Okay, it's not a big thing. I mean, it took me some time to really unlearn this 14th. If you don't set your intention why you wanted to really become a designer, your career is going to have a big impact. I thought I can go and find it along the way. Let me tell you guys, from the day one people helped me to find that why you wanted to become designer, why you wanted to become designer, why you wanted to become designer. Hundred times my seniors have asked me for me to really reinforce. It's not like they get a pleasure out of my answer. It took me a time to really understand their grind. For me, in fact for my entire batch. So please unlearn this guys have a clear intention and a reason. Without this, never, never go forward. Okay? And the 15th unlearning and the last unlearning. What I have learnt in design is you don't need money to really afford any design education. You don't need big resources to be a great designer. You don't need a big computer knowledge to Become a designer. You don't need a big influence or somebody to really become a great designer. All you need is an intention. All you need is just a thing, clarity in why you wanted to become a designer. If you have that, let me tell you guys, Universe will bring right people in front of you. Universe will bring right information in front of you. Universe will send you people who can help you become a great designer. Can I tell you guys, during the very crucial part of my time, lot of people are guided me to choose this career decision of design. And lot of people have really, in fact, 80% more people have distracted me out of this path, but less than 20% of the people who have helped me focus there. So if you set the intention right, you will definitely find money, you will definitely find resources, you will definitely find schools and colleges. You will definitely find the right mentor, you will definitely find the right industry. Your life will definitely profound in a different way. So don't just wait for time, money, resource and everything, guys. Just start with something. Set your intention clear. And if you need my support as well in learning all these things to cut short your journey, in just less than three months, if you really wanted to get a big design job worth of 50,000 or 60,000 per month, I have an opportunity for you guys. I'm not saying this is the only opportunity in the world, but this program has a big difference. You can able to listen to my Elliot podcast. I've given you so much of details about my program, but start with something. Either you start with any program, any program is better than nothing, guys. Okay? Choose your own mentors, choose your own design college or school or whatever, but start off with something. If you do this, I'll be more happy and know that you're an action taker. Okay? And you can able to send out an email if you need my support in learning and growing as a design designer. In less than 90 days. If you don't know anything, absolutely. Or just a 12 standard passed out, or a engineer passed out, or a BE passed out, or a graduate. If you're really looking for a design career shift in less than 90 days, I'll help out to make you earn at least 50 to 60,000 per month. And if you're already a designer, if you wanted to earn 3x to 4x salary growth, let me tell you guys, in 90 days, it's 100% possible. People have got results in just one week. 10 days, 15 days of 2x salary growth or 3x salary growth and all. So write me out in the same. Email me or my team will help you out. Okay. Okay. So thank you so much, guys. We'll see you in another episode. And if you find this useful, you can write me a best star rating in Spotify and Apple. And you can write in this email for any clarity you need in my podcast. Okay. Thank you, guys. Take care. All the best. Bye.