DGS49
Diamond Member
I saw this on another website, but I think it is an interesting question.
Can you remember a bit of wisdom that you got from an "elder" that changed your life?
The first answer was great, I thought. The responder was an entrepreneurial fellow who was recently out of college and was looking for an idea for a business that he could start. An old uncle said to him, Think of something that you don't like doing, but you have to do, and get people to pay you for doing it.
Think about that. Look at so many small businesses that are nothing more than people following that advice. Cleaning gout gutters and downspouts. Car detailing. House painting. Landscaping. I had a friend who built a business just adding chemicals to people's property...weed killers, fertilizers, bug killers, deer repellant, and so on. It was successful, and he had no more knowledge or skill than any random guy. But it was something that people didn't like doing for themselves.
My answer to the question was this: There was a time when I was in the Army, and I got an invitation to go to West Point (after some academic prep), and after I got to the prep school I decided that I didn't want to go to West Point. The process of "resigning" from the prep school finished with an interview with a full-bird Colonel. He told me that if I didn't go to West Point, I "would never amount to anything."
That statement was the motivation that got me through law school, 12 years later.
Anyone else have a similar experience with a wise older person?
Can you remember a bit of wisdom that you got from an "elder" that changed your life?
The first answer was great, I thought. The responder was an entrepreneurial fellow who was recently out of college and was looking for an idea for a business that he could start. An old uncle said to him, Think of something that you don't like doing, but you have to do, and get people to pay you for doing it.
Think about that. Look at so many small businesses that are nothing more than people following that advice. Cleaning gout gutters and downspouts. Car detailing. House painting. Landscaping. I had a friend who built a business just adding chemicals to people's property...weed killers, fertilizers, bug killers, deer repellant, and so on. It was successful, and he had no more knowledge or skill than any random guy. But it was something that people didn't like doing for themselves.
My answer to the question was this: There was a time when I was in the Army, and I got an invitation to go to West Point (after some academic prep), and after I got to the prep school I decided that I didn't want to go to West Point. The process of "resigning" from the prep school finished with an interview with a full-bird Colonel. He told me that if I didn't go to West Point, I "would never amount to anything."
That statement was the motivation that got me through law school, 12 years later.
Anyone else have a similar experience with a wise older person?
