ADVICE I SUGGEST YOU NOT TAKE

"Advice in old age is foolish; for what can be more absurd than to increase our provisions for the road the nearer we approach to our journey's end."

Marcus Tullius Cicero, 1st century BC Roman politician.

Were you to do as Cicero suggests you would indeed be at the end of your journey.

No animal stops doing what they do until the moment they die; why should humans?

We are put on this earth to learn and there is no legitimate reason to stop learning until, like all animals, we die.

WHY LEARN?

"Studies serve for delight, for ornaments, and for ability."

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) British statesman/philosopher.

Ability for what your knowledge will enable you to do.

Ornament for the favorable view others will have of you because of what you know.

And delight for the enjoyment you will feel resulting from the interesting things you will learn.

For all these reasons your education should never be considered complete. 

WHEN YOU CHOOSE, CHOOSE WISELY

"Predominant opinions are generally the opinions of the generation that is vanishing."

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) British politician and author.

So, assuming you're part of a generation that will be around for awhile, what do you make of this?

Good the soon to be gone generation will soon be gone, or what can you learn from those left before they are all gone?

Your answer says much about your intelligence, or lack thereof.

BECAUSE THEY DON'T AGREE . . .

"We owe almost all our knowledge not to those who have agreed but to those who have differed."

Charles Caleb Colton (1780-1832) British clergyman/sportsman/author.

Listen carefully to those whose opinions are different from yours.

They are your greatest source of knowledge.

DO YOU KNOW THIS?

"Ask the young. They know everything."

Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist.

Worse than knowing this is believing it to be true, no matter your age.

We all have much more to learn than we have to teach.

WHAT DO YOU WANT?

"Without contraries there is no progression. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate, are necessary to human existence."

William Blake (1757-1827) British poet/painter.

Opposites attempt to change each other's position and out of this either comes further separation, or new thinking that might not otherwise exist.

Which it will be depends on your goals: resistance to or acceptance of change.

The former will leave you no better than before, the latter with hope for a better future.

LEARNED FROM; NEVER (RARELY) TO BE REPEATED AGAIN

"Experience is the name we give to our mistakes."

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet/dramatist.

I'll accept that but only for those mistakes we attempt to correct.

The rest don't deserve the positive implication of being referred to as experience.

NOT WHAT YOU READ, WHAT YOU DO BASED ON WHAT YOU READ

"The best effect of any book is that it excites the reader to self-activity."

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) British historian/essayist.

The value of reading, business books in particular, is in what it teaches us followed by what we do differently as a result.

No change, no point.

KNOWING WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW

"Knowledge is proud that it knows so much. Wisdom is humble that it knows no more."

William Cowper (1731-1800) British poet.

Start by knowing you will always know much less than you need to know.

Do that and you've arrived at the first, most important level of wisdom.

GOOD ADVICE ASSUMING YOU TAKE IT

"If you wish information and improvement from the knowledge of others, and yet at the same time express yourself as firmly fix'd in your present opinions, modest, sensible men, who do not love disputation, will probably leave you undisturbed in the possession of your error."

Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States

Paraphrasing: If you wish to learn how to improve yourself but are unwilling to change your ways, those you wish to learn from will quickly give up on you.

NOT SO SURE ABOUT "LUST", HOWEVER . . .

"Curiosity is the lust of the mind."

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) British philosopher.

Lust may be going a bit too far but the underlying point is still valid.

Curiosity is generally a good thing of which you can't have too much.

IF YOU ONLY KNEW

"When any real progress is made, we unlearn and learn anew what we thought we knew before."

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American naturalist/poet/philosopher.

If we're smart we do.

However the requirement to "learn" prevents many from progressing; they are simply too comfortable "knowing" what they believe they "know".

A LITTLE HARSH BUT POINT TAKEN

"If you were graduated yesterday, and have learned nothing today, you will be uneducated tomorrow."

Unknown

Just as sure as a print version of Encyclopedia Britannica is outdated the second it rolls off the press, so too are our educations.

Assuming we stop learning when we leave school.

Don't!

SOMETHING IS TRYING TO TELL YOU SOMETHING

"Every calamity is a spur and valuable hint."

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) U.S. poet/essayist/lecturer

But only if you recognize it as such.

Many, maybe most things happen for a reason.

Do your best to learn what that is and then plan to deal with it.

I HAVE A QUESTION FOR YOU

"A prudent question is one-half of wisdom."

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) British statesman/philosopher

The most important half because if you never ask the question you'll likely never gain the wisdom.

I KNOW I MAYBE DON'T KNOW, BUT NOT MUCH ELSE

"Most ignorance is invincible ignorance. We don't know because we don't want to know."

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) British author

Interesting.

I wonder if we ever know we don't want to know?

Hmmm, I don't know.

NOW THAT YOU'RE DOWN YOU CAN BETTER APPRECIATE UP

"Who has never tasted what is bitter does not know what is sweet."

German proverb

While I'd prefer not to have to experience every failure in order to achieve success, I do get the point.

Particularly in business where learning from failure is an important, almost mandatory, component of achieving success.

PAY ATTENTION; THEY HAVE A LOT TO TEACH, YOU HAVE A LOT TO LEARN

"Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but religiously follows the new."

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American naturalist, poet/philosopher

In every aspect of life, including business.

If you are just beginning your career, do yourself a favor and pay attention to those further along in theirs.

You might be surprised concerning how much they can teach you.

HOW OLD ARE YOU?

"I am not young enough to know everything."

Oscar Wilde

19th century Irish poet/dramatist

How old do you have to be before you learn how true this is?

I CAN SEE THAT

"A blind man knows he cannot see, and is glad to be led, though it be by a dog; but he that is blind in his understanding, which is the worst blindness of all, believes he sees as the best, and scorns a guide."

Samuel Butler

17th century British poet/satirist

Can you think of anything worse than believing you know what you really don't know?