Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life: Wisdom Is a Choice
Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. When we see or hear or experience something from which we can learn, it is that example and experience that often helps us remember the lesson. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illusutrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. And so I am sharing examples of circumstances and stories that I have experienced in my everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those stories, and it teaches us that gaining wisdom is your choice.
My dad was known as someone with great wisdom. He was a very knowledgeable person, and knew a lot about many things. He was also highly intelligent, demonstrated by the fact that he was a self-taught electrical engineer. But more than those things, he had tremendous wisdom. When he passed away, a pastor that he had mentored spoke at his graveside service, and in his message he said that my dad was a man characterized by knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. He proceeded to explain the difference between those three things, and then talked about how my dad was one of the very few people he knew that had all three.
One of the ways that he expressed his wisdom was by often sharing profound and memorable statements in the appropriate situations. For example, he would say things like, “Your walk talks, and your talk talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk talks”, or’ “If you’re good, you don’t have to tell people, they’ll tell you!“ It’s because of his wisdom that people were often turning to him for counseling and advice. As the years have passed, I have found myself quoting him all the time. That’s also why one of the pages on my website, www.LeadershipEzra.com, is a page titled “Quote Your Dad,“ where I share many of his various sayings.
The Bible has a lot to say about wisdom as well. When Solomon, the son of David, was to become king, God asked him what he wanted, and Solomon asked for wisdom. Because he had the wisdom to ask for wisdom, God gave it to him in abundance. It was Solomon who wrote the book of Proverbs, which is filled with practical wisdom. In fact, wisdom is the primary focus of much of the first few chapters. The book of James, sometimes referred to as the Proverbs of the New Testament, begins by telling us that wisdom is available from God, and all we have to do is ask.
The significance of these things, – the things that the Bible has to say about wisdom, as well as all the practical sayings my dad would share that communicated wisdom for living – is that they show us that wisdom is attainable. Anyone can cultivate wisdom, but it requires a few things:
- Humility: you need to be humble enough to recognize how much you don’t know. As my dad would say, “The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.”
- Teachability: you need to be willing to hear and receive the council and correction of your teachers and experiences. As I often told my own children, “You learn most things from experience, but it’s usually less painful if it’s someone else’s experience.”
- Discernment: you need to be intentional about choosing your teachers. Some will be foolish, and some will be wise, so choose carefully. As it has been said, “If you show me your three closest friends, you show me the kind of person you are.”
That’s the lesson on leadership from this little thing in life, from the blessing of a father who was characterized by wisdom. Wisdom is something you can choose and cultivate, but it requires you to be humble, teachable, and discerning. Recognize that you don’t know everything and that others know things you don’t know, be willing to hear counsel and criticism even if you don’t like the source, and purposely choose who and what you are going to listen to and learn from. In the end, whether or not you develop wisdom is up to you.
