Value

There’s an old saying: when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. Think about what it implies. The teacher has been standing there the whole time. Nothing about the teacher changed. The student did.

Value works the same way. Things may each have an inherent value, but that value isn’t always obvious. Resources are in abundance. Examples are in abundance. What varies is our capacity to see. The most disarming quality of inherent value is that it hides in plain sight, waiting for us to arrive, and we are the only converging element it needs.

There are so many things in life that can’t simply be given. The most meaningful gems are the ones whose value we discover for ourselves.

Why the master’s habits don’t transfer

There is beauty in watching a master at work in their domain. What the average onlooker can’t see are the layers and layers of problem-solving behind what stands before us. Even for the master, much of that work has been compartmentalized into conclusions, into direction, into a particular set of traits they’ve opted into.

As onlookers, we assign importance to the specific things they do. We read their books and try to adopt their habits. It’s foolish, but only because we don’t understand the depth of the problems that called those solutions into place. The challenge in the moment is what inspires the solution. A habit you read about is an answer to a question you haven’t been asked yet.

What was never written down

Old societies understood this. In ancient Egypt, as in many secret societies and fraternal orders, the secrets were never written down. Egypt left no record of how the pyramids were made or how its civilization lasted more than 3,000 years. Some will call that foolish, and we know their libraries burned. But the magic of how and why they did what made them great was probably never in those books.

The meaning we search for in life can’t be found as ink on paper. That truth has to be discovered through experience.

Some things cannot be taught. They must be discovered.

The teacher who lights the fire

Trying to share something unshareable is foolish. The magic happens when life experience brings that relevance to a head. So instead of being a teacher who hands out techniques, tips, and methods, I would rather be a teacher who lights the fire. The fire of curiosity. The fire of inspiration. The fire of passion. The fire that gives each student a way to go about their own discovery, with the tools to take any road and make it fruitful and adventurous. I want to be the teacher of thinkers, explorers, and leaders.

The clues to the questions you’re asking are in the successes and failures of your own life. Will you be curious enough to look around for the wisdom that has already been revealed to you?

The house you grew up in

As children, we grow up in households with views on life already established. We don’t see or understand the wisdom behind the choices our parents made, or the habits they carried without a second thought. In our teens we rebel. We’re sure there’s another way. In early adulthood we go out into the world and test our own hypotheses. Many times, the failure of those experiments leads us back to what we had all along: the way of life of the people who raised us.

Now picture inheriting an amazing mansion, passed down from generation to generation until it reaches you. Being the maverick you are, you want to remodel. Your vision for what’s possible far outweighs your knowledge of design or construction. But the house already holds intention about function and form. There are pillars in place and systems in place that keep it running smoothly.

So I have one question. What would happen if you mistakenly removed one of those load-bearing pillars? It wouldn’t take long to discover the error. A crisis would follow, and a response would be necessary.

The house you inherited: pick a column

From the street, all four look the same. Columns 2 and 4 carry the roof.

The next great adventure

No matter where you are in life or what age this finds you, I’m happy to announce that you’re at the beginning of the next great adventure of your life.

You have a chance to be massively intentional.

Like the caterpillar that has reached its cocoon, ready to transform through metamorphosis into a butterfly, we are primed for our becoming. Go into the world and discover the pillars that hold you in place. Find the supports holding up the ecosystem of your life.

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Only from that point of view can you improve upon and refine what already exists.