Erik Van Alstine

Erik Van Alstine

Author. Leadership strategist. Expert in Perceptual IntelligenceTM.

“God, I promise to start smoking again.”

“Experience is the teacher of all things,” wrote the great Roman statesman, Julius Caesar. We learn extensively at the School of Hard Knocks. We go through stuff and it teaches us. The lessons of experience are sometimes the best lessons of all.

Except when they’re not.

Experience doesn’t always lead to wisdom. The world is filled with old fools, people with a lifetime of experiences, but who draw the wrong lessons from their experiences.

This is why it’s vital that we learn from wise people, not just people with experience.

Case in point, I could hardly believe this story. Back in November a television crew for the Animal Planet network found a man stranded on a deserted island near Australia’s Gulf of Carpentaria. “He had said his last prayer,” said director Stephen Shearman, “he was prepared to meet his maker. We spotted this blue Esky, or cooler box, that was just sat on the rock [when]…this guy with no clothes was running out of the cave, waving his arms.”

The stranded fisherman was a native of an Australian town called Borroloola. He had no family, so he knew that no one would be looking for him. He had lost his boat sixty hours earlier while venturing out for oysters, and was trapped in 110-degree heat. Here’s a video clip of the rescue.

He got a new lease on life, and pledged to learn from the experience. “He’s promised God he’s going to start smoking again,” said Shearman. “If he had a lighter, he’d be able to cook, and he’d have a fire.”1

Wow. To start smoking? That’s the lesson? What about the lesson, stay with your boat? Or, tell people where you’re going?

The point is, there are experiences, and there are lessons we draw from experiences. They’re not the same. If we draw the wrong lessons, experience makes us into old fools.

1Jacob Stolworthy, “TV crew finds castaway on deserted island,” USAToday, April 22, 2016.

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