Life Lessons

Good judgement comes from life experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgement. ~ Will Rogers

This brings to mind a conversation I had the other day with a former student. This young woman graduated a couple of years ago and is shocked and dismayed to find that after two whole years in the job market, she isn’t the manager of her department yet. When I asked her why she thought she hadn’t moved up the ladder as fast as she expected, she said: “My manager says that I don’t have the life experience I need yet. She says I need to make a lot more mistakes and learn from them before I can manage others who make mistakes.” 

I asked her whether she believed her manager had a valid point, and she begrudgingly allowed that the woman might be right.  The idea that we gain good judgement through life experience isn’t a new idea at all. However, our current attitude of instant gratification often causes us to forget that some things cannot be hurried. 

We have become so accustomed to the idea that if we want something, we can simply go out and get it. After all, we have credit cards. Why should we wait? Unfortunately, good judgment can’t be bought on credit. It comes from trying things until you figure out what works and what doesn’t. Sometimes we have to work our way past a lot of bad judgment before we learn to have good judgment.