I have been struggling lately to find my reason for being in the golden years of my life. Sure, I want to continue to be a good husband, father, and grandfather, but I am referring to my raison d’être, the reason/justification for my existence in society from now till the end of my days. I am a little crazy so I will admit that I routinely talk to my mother (who passed in 2015), seeking her advice. Sometimes she answers, sometimes she doesn’t. This time she just said, share what you’ve learned, so I shall.
I’m not the smartest guy, nor the most physically talented. But people, young people, in particular, seem to listen to my insights gained from years of successes and mistakes. So, if I can help, I should try.
So here are some nuggets of wisdom I’ve gathered over the years and this represents the inaugural Wisdom Nuggets Post. I hope there will be many more. Probably there will be other posts in between, but I expect Wisdom Nuggets to be a recurring feature. If, eventually, I conjure enough of them, perhaps I will compile them into a book. We’ll see.
Wisdom Nuggets:
- People will respect your knowledge and insight, but only if you’re not a jerk.
- So don’t be a jerk
- If you discover you are a jerk. Stop being a jerk. Like right now. You can if you want to. If you don’t want to, then, well, you ARE a jerk and deserve all the bad things that come with that.
- And yes, what people think of you DOES matter. Worry about it to the extent it affects your ability and that of your family to survive and thrive in society, and build your personal brand accordingly. But don’t worry about it more than that. So, you do want to give a f*ck to a certain extent.
- People don’t spend much time thinking about you.
- Help people because it is what we do living in a society that we have chosen to live in.
- We live in a civilized society and as such we need government. So accept it and help it work well.
- Democracy is the best way to govern for all concerned.
- Profit isn’t evil. Excessive greed is.
- Never think you’ve learned and know all you’ll ever learn and know. You’ll put up walls and it will be obvious to everyone. See Nugget #2
- Life goes by incredibly fast, WAY too fast, but not in the moment, when it goes by incredibly slow.
- People, unless born psychopaths, are not inherently bad. They learn to be bad. Something in their environment reinforces bad behavior, and then they are not held accountable early enough in life. That is, they are not taught the proper lessons as children.