When I was 18 years old, I was searching for meaning in life and looking for understanding and direction. I found myself at a point where I was walking around with a chip on my shoulder.
As we become teenagers, we start wondering where our lives are going to take us and this is when we start developing this type of chip on our shoulders. It goes something like this:
You don’t know me. You don’t know what I go through and you don’t have to deal with the things that I gotta deal with. You don’t walk in my shoes.
I know that within the four walls of your house there are issues. Within the four walls and everybody’s house there are issues. This is not about you. This is not about any one individual person.
You know, I like old people. Want to know why? Because they smell bad and they don’t even care. We get dressed in the morning and want to make sure we’re wearing the best clothes, the nicest sneakers. We make our hair is done right and we smell beautiful. Old people sniff themselves once and say they’re good!
But old people give us wisdom and experience that education can’t provide. Education gives us knowledge. You have skills and you have intelligence; but if you’re not using it, what does it do for you?
Think about it, you ask an 80-year-old man or woman a question and you’re going to get an answer in two minutes filled with the wisdom and experiences from everything they’ve learned. The books they’ve read, the people they’ve met, jobs they’ve had, successes and failures that they’ve encountered.
Spend time with people that have walked before you and you’re going to come to find out that what you’re dealing with between your four walls is something they’ve probably dealt with themselves.
Take the ability and intelligence that you have, combine it with great choices and a great attitude; and then back it up with the wisdom and experiences of the people who have walked before you.
The greatest thing that I’ve learned and that I can share with you is this:
Lose your ego. Stop thinking the world is against you. Open your heart and find people in your life that you trust. People whose opinions you value. People who you respect.
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