A “Guru” Mind

Digital, like the fertilized soil, is sprouting more “gurus," and growing more followers as well.

Guru is someone who has great knowledge and wisdom and uses it to guide others then there will always be both a want and a need for gurus. In Western usage, the meaning of "guru" has been extended to cover anyone who acquires followers. There are teachers who teach, and then there are teachers who inspire others, these are the gurus.

The true guru never stops learning: The gurus are the brilliant people, master in their craft who are creative and use their thought-processes to create more. Their minds fill with ideas and their hands continually fulfill their vision.True gurus typically never view themselves as gurus and the more expertise they develop in an area the more they realize they have to learn. It's almost as if their deep insights on a particular topic or area of expertise opens their minds to how much more there is to learn about that topic and just how far they still have to go.

Guru vs. Sage vs thought leaders: In many circumstance, these words can be used interchangeably. But the differences might exist from the opinions of some "words gurus": Gurus give you answers. Answers ends thought and perpetuate your dependence on them. A sage is a person of profound wisdom. Sages ask you questions. The true Sage frames the issues, the deepest problems.That old Socratic thing about making you unsure where previously you were so certain, and by making you think for yourself build your independence of them. And their questions (not their answers) - continue to impress and create the forms of authority with which we are familiar. "Thought leaders" also has a connotation of "guru"; someone who has enough knowledge on a given subject to talk intelligently about it and "lead" or teach others to do what they've done. Some think thought leaders more focus on substance or insight, rather than knowledge itself, and they can walk the talk because they are the leaders.

The business and management world is full of gurus (masters) and followers. Do not blindly follow, apply your own critical thinking and independent thinking. It is also true that gurus can teach good things and bad things. The followers are all personally responsible to decide which, if any, gurus you follow. And you have to apply critical thinking to make a good judgement. Critical thinking has been described as “reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do. Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. It has also been described as "thinking about thinking."

Digital, like the fertilized soil, is sprouting more “gurus," and growing more followers as well. Increasingly, as civilization evolves, we have more information and greater opportunity to think for ourselves. We have better access to information on most topics. It is also true that social media has greatly increased the capability to create and grow followers, a vital ingredient for gurus. Still, guru is a type of knowledge leader, just like any kind of leaders, you have to continue to practice by continuing to learn; and you also need to have the courage to de-learn and relearn when the knowledge you have is already out of date. Also you need to be humbled to be a follower in the other disciplines from other “gurus,” or put simply, a “guru” mind is a continuously learning & growth and continuously delivery & update mind.

Posted in: Mindshift