EMBA的小眼睛

True professionals don't fear amateurs

Professional farmers don't begrudge the backyard gardener his tomato harvest. That's silly.

And talented mechanics certainly don't mind the antics of the Car Talk guys (or their listeners). Sooner or later, if you need a real mechanic, you'll find one, and if you don't, well, that's fine too.

A few years ago, typesetting, wedding photography, graphic design and other endeavors that were previously off limits to all but the most passionate amateurs started to become more common. The insecure careerists fought off the amateurs at the gate, insisting that it was both a degradation of their art as well as a waste of time for the amateurs. The professionals, though, those with real talent, used the technological shift to move up the food chain. It was easy to encourage amateurs to go ahead and explore and experiment... professionals bring more than just good tools to their work as professionals.

The best professionals love it when a passionate amateur shows up. The clarity and intelligence of a smart customer pushes both client and craftsman to do better work.

Gifted college professors don't fear online courses. Talented web designers don't fear cloud services. Bring them on! When you need something worth paying for, they say, we'll be here. And what we'll sell you will be worth more than we charge you.

If you're upset that the hoi polloi are busy doing what you used to do, get better instead of getting angry.