My professor told me to leave University, “Mr. Sonnon, do you want to regurgitate the words of dead men, or inspire others with your wild questions? You cannot inspire others with answers. The secret to living an uninspired life is...
My professor told me to leave University, “Mr. Sonnon, do you want to regurgitate the words of dead men, or inspire others with your wild questions? You cannot inspire others with answers. The secret to living an uninspired life is to have an answer for everything. First one LIVES and sees the folly of believing that you know the answers, then one inspires others with the humility to ask better questions. Leave here, and take the daring adventure which frightens you most. If you emerge from the other side, you’ll have your inspirational message.”
I thought to myself, “But how do I know what to do or go, when I don’t even know who I am? I feel like I don’t know anything!” Clairvoyantly reading my expression, he continued, “The fundamental function of wisdom is not to answer questions, but to question answers. Do not foolishly attempt to give people all your answers. Only by going through your own trials and tribulations will you realize that no answer will ever suffice; only asking better questions.”
As I set out on my own, leaving the shelter of the University and the warm blanket which others’ words provided, answer after answer failed to perfectly fit my problems. Each needed to be modified, adapted and revised. As a result, every person I met taught me something I didn’t know by forcing me to scrap my ill-fitting solutions, and ask better questions.
Voltaire wrote, “Judge a man not by his questions rather than by his answers.” When I was younger, I thought my goal in life was to learn all the answers, at least to my problems and issues. But as I’ve grown, I’ve learned that the goal is to ask better questions about the opportunities with which we are challenged.
Instead of asking these questions: Why do I have these problems? Why can’t I figure out the answer to this situation? Why doesn’t anyone save me from this, and stop this pain?
Ask yourself: How could this challenge secretly serve me? How could this pain or hardship silently benefit me? What advantage could it possibly bring my experience? What opportunity could gracefully enduring this create?
Very Respectfully,
Scott Sonnon
www.facebook.com/ScottSonnon
score: 1
about 11 hours ago