By Moses A. Katamani.
Many grow too wise in their own eyes; not knowing that even ‘Solomon of all wisdom’ needed advisers in his council to succeed. In making your thoughts reasonable, wise and enduring, for future generations to identify with, you need editor(s). Not only that, to achieve the best with our dreams and aspirations, we need to accept our mistakes or flaws and correct them.
Most of the time, we refuse to accept the inadequacies in our thoughts of life and wgat we do, even when they pointed out to us. We think we know so much, that is why we mostly fail or people bring our thoughts, intellectual capacities, actions and even our faith, into disrepute.
What is instructive which many people lose sight of is this: “Many think they know, but if know how much you don’t know, before you will know how ignorant you are.”
What we must adduce our minds to is that no human or human mind is sacrosanct of mistakes. So, never make yourself a god of all knowledge and wisdom; no one person knows it all; even Plato the ‘Philosopher King’ had flaws in his ideas about the polis, the state. Summit to counsel and positive criticisms and your thoughts will be refined to endure and meet human needs. This applies to your education, career and personal development going forward. You are not perfect in doing anything perfectly, which needs no corrections
Very instructive is this: the best and useful books we read are the most critiqued by editors. Thus, they come out ‘good books’ and ‘bestselling’, because the authors accepted valuable criticisms that enriched his work. I could remember vividly at the editing stage of my first book: “How To Build Attractive Personality” (2009), Honestly, I had to reorganize a whole chapter, because of the new ideas shared with me by a friend I call: “My Intellectual Friend”; a scholar in Psychology. In fact, his ideas and criticisms enriched that book, and added to my thoughts. So, in developing your career and intellectual capacity you need many sources of ideas and balance to call yourself the best in your field.
On the other hand, many dreams flourish and suddenly die out or do not see the day of light, because of the ignorance, arrogance or what I call “I know it all attitude” of some young people. I made an illustration about a young known as Jorleman (fictional name, but true story) in my book “Strategic Career Development”. Jorleman was employed as accountant by a very reputable transnational company. With his rise, he lived by an ill-conceived adage: “everybody for himself, God for as all.” He had no close friend at work, very inward and sometimes very abrasive to his colleagues, and he would not listen to advice.
Most unfortunate about him was that, he also undermined the old and very experienced folks and referred to them as ‘colo’ (people with colonial mentality), and disrespected them. He considered their counsels as unnecessary; because he thought he knew it all. Thus, due to his attitude, his colleagues only dealt with him at professional levels, whilst the old folks ignored him for his arrogance. In fact he was oblivious about the effects of his attitude on his work and progression. Fast forward, at the end he lost his job, why, because he was not ready to take counsel.
What we all have to note is that “Many people lose their dreams, great followers and opportunities to do great things, because they refuse to accept mistakes in their words and actions, when pointed out to them.” And that: “When you become so all knowing in your thoughts, don’t forget you are not an island of all knowledge and wisdom”. What is more, you must all know that “Rome was not built by one big head”, and that is to say nations, countries and cities are built with divergent thoughts and ideas which are harnessed. Thus, your own aspirations can get better, if you take counsel.
It must be noted that, no big head is better than “two diverse good heads”. The old adage says “A word to a wise is enough” and to add my thought to that I say: “A self-acclaimed wise man never knows he is ignorant, until he falls”. In conceptualizing your ideas and making them practical or in pursuing your dreams and aspiration you need counsel.
Therefore, don’t grow too wise to take advice and be like all-knowing Jorleman, the accountant. Keep working on your ideas and aspirations; open up to counsel and divergent views to enrich your thoughts about life and you will make progress. Just be wise, you don’t know it all.
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