Fools you are...

Fools you are...Who like to learn from your own mistakes, I prefer to learn from the mistakes of others, and avoid the costs of my own.

- Otto Von Bismarck

I wish I could get my 7 year old to understand this. Everyone talks about how teenagers know everything. So does my 7 year old. I talked with his teacher the other day, and she was telling me, that he has been in trouble lately, because he wants to get the last word in, because he thinks she is not doing things right. When we confronted him, he told his teacher he only does that because he knows he is right, because that's the way his dad is. He told her he was just like his dad! He doesn't understand that his dad has quite a few years on him, and has learned from his mistakes as well from the mistakes of others.

We all like to think we are right, and barge into new territory, like we are the worlds leading expert. When we make mistakes, it hold us up or pushes us back. If we would take a little time to study or listen to our parents, our teachers or our peers, we could save ourselves a lot of heartache.

When you take a few minutes to study Otto Von Bismarck, you learn, that he was one of the most prominent European statesmen of the nineteenth century. He grew to have immense political power, because he saw the problems of other politicians and nobles, and learned from their mistakes.

Next time you are about to try something new, remember this, and seek out help from someone that has done it before, and learn from the mistakes they have made.