All The Answers
Socrates once said, “Smart people learn from everything and everyone, average people from their experiences, stupid people already have all the answers.”
One of the things Socrates was well known for was asking questions. He had such a reputation for asking question after question that he often frustrated or even angered the people he was interacting with. I imagine him to have the curiosity of a child, walking around in wonder and amazement at the world he was experiencing. Since I can’t actually know him today, I can simply imagine what he was like.
One thing is clear, however. He was always learning. He was learning what other people thought. He was observing how the world worked. He was hungry for knowledge. That is the kind of hungry and driven I want to be. I want to be hungry every day to learn something new, to discover something previously undiscovered, and soak up as much knowledge as possible.
I began my journey of reading in 1999. I have read as little as 12 new books in a year and as many as 60+ books, depending on the depth of knowledge I wanted to soak up on a given subject. One lesson that has stood the test of time in my life is this… With every book I read, I learn something new and recognize how much is still to learn.
I challenge you to devote yourself to discovering the rest of what is unknown in a subject you are passionate about. There are likely thousands of books on whatever subject you love. Read them. Learn from them. Open your mind to the ideas and soak up the knowledge that comes from being one of the smart ones.
Jody Holland
www.jodyholland.com
