When people used to say that life is the best teacher, I always assumed that the lessons I will learn will be through my life only – I mean, that is what they call experience, and in ‘life talk’, experience plays a very highly rated role. Experience is considered to be the best teacher. My experience teaches me that that’s bullshit. And yes, it is somewhat of a paradox, experience teaching that experience can’t teach. Go figure.
People tell me that text books are for schools, and for schools only. Tell me that you have not heard this one before; text books have little to offer for practical life. Well, if the books you are reading are not teaching you about the real deal, then dude(!) you are reading the wrong books.
Such high value is placed on experience that you just can’t wait to be fifty and tell young bucks to wait till they are fifty. What the hell? Does that even make sense?
I remember while at college, I would ask businessmen if I should get a job first and then try my hand at being self-employed, and almost all of them said something in the lines of, “just jump in, get your hands dirty, lose a few nights sleep, you will learn faster”. Heck, where were you guys when the collective ‘us’ were being told that ‘whatever you are trying to do cant be done’ ? Then I realized, many years later, that not many people ask around with the intention to actually learn.
The high, very, very high horse
It is easy to be right when you won’t listen to anyone else. The high horse is very easy to get on to, oddly. It is easy to think that whatever you have achieved is the sole result of the combination of your clever intellect, your undying passion and hard/smart work. Again, real life examples teaches that the saddle on the high horse just sucks and you will fall the moment you think you got the mare running like crazy. It also has one interesting point that you won’t find in many business and success literature; the concept of luck.
Without exception, all people who are successful enough to be writing books about it, accept the role of luck in their successful endeavors. I still seek a successful person (successful in any field) to plainly claim that luck had nothing at all to do with his or her success. Of course, I think that if you are God-concious, you will find it impossible to believe in luck – you will have to equate luck with God’s Grace, and that will keep you off the high horse like my golf balls keep off the green.
Real life is the best teacher, just not neccessarily yours.
Do you want to live a wholesome life? Want to start your own business? This blog is about being creatively self employed so that you can live a wholesome life.
