"When in your 40s, do you get to actually, like, try something you've never tried and learn something new? So that's the great thing. But once you get into it, it's also the terrible thing. Because it's terrible to feel stupid again. And I felt stupid every day for the last two weeks."

So goes Ira Glass, the creator of the very popular public radio program, This American Life, commenting on how he feels about creating a TV version of his show as a pilot for Showtime.

Given the significant difference in storytelling on the radio and on television, the challenges he encountered in adapting his very successful public radio approach are not surprising.

But I'm not sure we gain much by characterizing adapting to a new job (or a new city, a new work environment, a new relationships, etc.) as feeling stupid.

I take a lot more solace, and I think most creative types do, in thinking of this new learning challenge as adopting a beginner's mind.

"In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities. In the expert's mind there are few." -- Shunryu Suzuki-Roshi, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

Much has been written about the value in unlearning what we know (our expertise) in order to look at people and situations with fresh eyes and an openness that invites new possibilities. I'd suggest that developing the discipline to do exactly that is where the potential for individual growth and greater contributions to organizational success may lay.