I am one of those people who really loves words. I like to know that I’m using them correctly. And I really, really hate it when someone uses words that I don’t understand. So you’re probably not going to be too shocked to find out that I keep a notebook filled with words that I don’t know so that I can look them up and learn them.

What you might be surprised to find out is that over the years I have come to keep a separate notebook that is specifically a dictionary for the words that apply to business. Believe it or not there are tons of business words that we use on a regular basis that we don’t actually know the meaning of. My dictionary has helped me gain a toehold on my own field just by learning the language.

Flipping back through the dictionary, I come across terms like “cost seg” and “net present value calculator“. These are things that I know like the back of my own hand know but when I first heard them had no clue what they might refer to. I could’ve just let them pass me by but I wrote them down, researched them and got better at my business because of it.

I would recommend to anyone that it’s a wise idea to keep a personal business dictionary around. Challenge yourself to listen throughout the day for the words that you don’t truly know the meaning of. Learn those meanings and you may find that your business does better as a result!

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