Are you experienced?

As a young man, I was always seeking experienced people, typically older than me, to learn from, absorb their insight, observe their approach and acquire their skills. Especially in early youth, learning by watching and asking questions was the “fast track” to gathering skill sets and gaining knowledge and I learned to admire and respect older experienced individuals. At some point, there became this automatic association between experience and wisdom. Therefore, I listened intently to their views. For the most part, this became an advantage; to leverage from their knowledge and share their views.

As I grew older, I began to wonder if some of those views and methods were necessarily the best way. That was about the time, in my life, where young men begin to question whether some of the older folks around them have outlived their usefulness and need to move over. I also noticed that to some degree I began to see the ideas of those younger than me as possibly good, but the implications of those ideas would only become clear to them as they gained experience. I had become, to varying degrees, defiant to authority and intolerant to incompetence. I noticed that my peers, that is, those similar in age and exposure to life, began to reach some common conclusions. I was still young enough to relate to youth and seasoned enough to understand the need for respect.

I began to wonder about the relationship between experience, wisdom and continued growth as an individual. Around this time I was reading an inspirational book written by Og Mandino named “The Greatest Salesman in the World.” One passage stuck with me, and I quote:

That statement helped trigger the organization of several thoughts that had been floating unconnected in my subconscious and came forward as a set of affirmations: