Sensei’s Advice

Sensei, how do I get smarter?

Son, my Vietnamese student suddenly popped that question while we were having our usual evening drive around town. My quick answer was hang around people smarter than you and that requires humility that you do not know it all. Just be with smart people and suck in all that knowledge you can get from them.

He was quick to follow up, ‘what makes them smart?’ That got me thinking.

• Education. Sorry, you must earn your degree first. I know you can learn many things outside a school but first, get to basics. After earning your diploma, then it is a whole new learning cycle out there. Some students say they did not learn anything from school but there comes a time at work when you realize, wait, I took this up in college and that’s when you start missing school and your professor whose name you won’t even remember.
• Travel. You learn many things by travelling. The world is so wide, it opens your mind that your country is not the only one in such a predicament. Like traffic, when people in my country curse traffic, I am calm and just think about freeway 105 in Los Angeles, and New York times square. When people don’t clean up their mess, I am more forgiving. Yes Japanese folks are considerate and clean as they go but in Europe and America people also leave their mess in food courts. Travelling gives us a widen understanding of different strokes for different folks.
• People skills. A smart person has really good people skills, he or she is well loved by people and he radiates that positive sunshine when he/she enters a room. I remember my professor, he was a rockstar. When he spoke, he had the gift of tongue. And so I listened intently to every word he said, every repeated joke, every punchline in a witty monologue about life. Of course, we cannot please everybody. If we cannot be nice, don’t be rude. Son remarked, ‘But there are people we really don’t like.’ Yeah, it is chemical. We don’t have to like and be liked by everybody. There are just some people whose chemical makeup repel our own energies.
• Rich Experience. They say experience is the best teacher. Every heartache, work experience, hardship, struggle, failure, success, they teach us valuable lessons. People only see the destination, but they do not see your journey. People rich in experience are calm and have foresight. One thing I have learned in every problem is that this too shall pass.
• Never stop learning. And finally, I told Son, you are graduating soon. But surprise! you haven’t completed your education yet. Take up an advance degree, a professional certificate, a hobby, a diversion, and if everything fails, I will see you back here in Japan after a while for your master’s degree. The point is you never run out of options, consider coming back for higher education as your Plan E. Meanwhile, work on your many plans in life from graduation onwards.