“The person who graduates today and stops learning tomorrow is uneducated the day after.”
Newton Baker
The kids are finally back at school; it’s the beginning of another exciting year of learning. Our teachers have a big responsibility on their hands in preparing our children for their future. Talking to kids today, I sometimes get the sense that they are often too shy to ask a question that may seem silly because they’re afraid of making a mistake. To them, it’s better to just “fit in and follow the rules.” It seems that many kids today will do anything to blend in and not stand out.
Our teachers have this seemingly endless challenge of constantly getting our kids to think outside the box, to use initiative and logic instead of following a set of instructions with hard and fast rules. Keeping up with our rapidly changing world will require a generation of fast, intuitive thinkers who will be able to solve challenges long before they threaten our lifestyle, or even our very existence.
Harvard University recently did a study to find out what skills were used by the top 5% of business people in the U.S. that enabled them to be the best in their field and achieve their goals. In fact, the top 5% collectively make more money than the other 95%. That’s quite a staggering statistic! It turns out that the top 5% do three things religiously:
1. They PLAN their day the night before.
2. They SOLVE their client’s pain.
3. They READ two books a month.
Sounds simple enough, right?
Every month I have a company meeting to motivate and hopefully inspire my team. Over the past five years, I have encouraged my team to read just one book a month. I want them to get excited about the value of learning a new skill and how it will change their lives. Guess what happens? Only 5% of them will read the book. The rest will give me the “I don’t have time” excuse.
“The more you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.” — Dr. Seuss
Let’s go back in time a bit. My wife and I had our own businesses in South Africa. We were established and very comfortable. We lived in a big home, drove luxury cars, and enjoyed a great lifestyle. The only issue was, things in our country were changing at an alarming rate, and not for the better. An opportunity arose for us to charter a yacht in the British Virgin Islands. It seemed like a dream come true, right? But everything comes with a catch. To live in paradise, all I had to do was give up everything I had worked so hard for in South Africa, totally taking myself out of my comfort zone and my area of expertise.
My wife and I made the choice to become ”yachties.“ We would have two to six guests spend 7-14 days on our luxury yacht, paying $15,000 to $20,000 a week for the experience of sailing around the Caribbean. The water is so crystal blue that you can see the fish swimming around the boat and the beautiful white sandy beaches. For fun, we would sail to a different island or cove, anchor, water ski, snorkel, enjoy a fantastic lunch, then scuba dive to explore a wreck or an underwater cave. Sunset came with mandatory cocktails followed by a five-course Cordon Bleu dinner, bar hopping and dancing under the stars. It was a very pleasant existence!
Our only challenges were that I had never sailed and Debbie could not cook. We left everything behind, sold our businesses, our home, our cars, and moved to a new country to live on a boat. I wonder what most people would have advised us to do? “Follow the rules or be different and take a risk!”
Learning our new skills was so exciting, and many times terrifying, especially being at sea with 30-foot waves crashing down on the yacht.
We spent six fantastic years exploring the Caribbean. One of our guests was Robert De Niro. He spent 10 days with us and we had a blast with him. Sir Richard Branson called and invited “Bob” and us to his island…Necker Island. We met his wife, Jan, and the six of us spent the whole day, drinking, sailing, and having fun. Looking back, now I only wish I had asked Sir Richard more questions!
Giving up everything and taking that risk was a huge step for us. We left South Africa with one suitcase each, but that move led to incredible friendships and endless opportunities. I believe we should never be afraid to learn, take risks and fail, if we have to. I believe every new skill we learn and even every failure brings us a step closer to our next success.
Kids need to learn that they can fail and it’s not the end of the world. They should be rewarded for trying something new, thinking outside the box, doing something outside their comfort zone, or figuring stuff out on their own. I believe a big part of learning is making mistakes until we learn how to get it right. Learning is fun no matter how old you are. Never stop learning! Be inquisitive, be excited by knowledge and take it from me, never be scared to ask questions!
Ralph
