A young man contacted me this week about a financial conundrum he was facing.
I think he’ll do just great and will make a real success of himself. My main reason for this strong belief: he seems teachable.
As a young woman, in my early twenties, I was very ambitious and like most young people: I felt I knew a lot about a lot. And like most young people- of course I didn’t.
In my zeal and incredible energy I was revved up and raring to take charge of my life and run to the great destiny I believed awaited me.
As I was running (most times utterly blind) my pastor asked me a question that took me a long time to comprehend – but once I did, I realized, it was one of the most important questions I’d ever been asked. He asked me, “Hannah are you teachable?”
My immediate answer was “Yes! Of course I am!”
But his wisdom and observation of me told him that in fact I was not.
It took me a really long time to understand that he hadn’t asked the question to put a damper on my eagerness or ambition to succeed. He had asked it in the hope of igniting an internal conversation with myself that would stop me from self destructing.
So often I come across people self-destructing because they refuse to be taught. And in refusing to be taught they trade their destinies: gold for crap.
It takes humility and a teachable spirit to be great and to reach the destiny that will leave a valuable legacy of your life.
Who you decide to be taught by is just as important.
I’ll tell you more (he said I could) about this young man I spoke about at the beginning of this post… a little later.