Published on 2025-03-09 by Teagan Pacheco
Hello, fellow Toastmasters, and good morning. We are all born rather dull and unknowing, naive and senseless. You can be ignorant, but only for so long, and ideally, just before your foolishness hurts you or others. As we know all too well, this is hardly the reality we observe. We must humble ourselves when approaching any subject and becoming willing to believe we could be wrong. The 19th-century French physiologist Claude Bernard said, "It is what we know already that often prevents us from learning." It isn’t easy to accept that my views could be limited or my understanding incomplete, but arrogantly ascertaining that there is nothing else I need to know is saddeningly obtuse.
Education is a requisite for survival. In the infancy of developing civilization, should you fail to learn about your environment, you often succumb to it. Ignorance was an encumbrance and a liability to your fellow tribesman. Is it at all different today? While I don’t believe the stakes are as high for those living in suburbia with our store-bought produce, antibacterial soap, and air conditioning, I think it still is dangerous to lack knowledge and wisdom. The earliest formal education system came from Egypt’s Middle Kingdom around 2061 BC. Here and in Mesopotamia, it is believed to be where the logographic system originated. Maintaining the integrity of this agreeable structure was done through the scribes and their training in reading and writing. The scribe's duty was routinely permitted to the royal and the rich. An old Sumerian proverb says, "he who would excel in the school of the scribes must rise with the dawn.” Interestingly, learning is not inherently effortless despite our unquestionable dependence on it. The quote rightly suggests that we must find extra hours to accomplish all we can for measurable gains.
The likelihood a society prospers closely depends on the education its citizens receive. Part of a quality education is getting you to understand just how important learning is - both in and out of the classroom. Sadly, meager pupils, upon graduation, rejoice, supposing they have fulfilled their scholarly requirements, but how naive we are. The age-old adage, “knowledge is power,” doesn’t solely apply to authority as the noun’s usage could suggest, but instead an individual’s ability, competence, and function. Speaking for myself for a moment, I don’t feel valuable when I’m nescient despite the melancholy this exudes. I feel valuable if I can produce, solve, inspire, or deliver. I believe we all feel a sense of alacrity when we prepare ourselves through purposeful development and growth. The harsh truth is you’re useless to yourself or others when you are dumb.
Elementary, middle, and high school are incredibly important but highly unutilized, often due to the discordant array of emotions, sensations, and quarrels within yourself and your cohorts. Consequently, you are encouraged to continue your education through an apprenticeship, such as trade skills in welding, carpentry, electrical, masonry, and auto machinery. Equally, you can pursue classroom academics toward a degree (preferably while working, as this builds immense character and resiliency) to attain a viable degree. Both ventures are acceptable approaches to your continued education, ideally concluding with national or international recognition such as a diploma or certification. While this is a pivotal and celebratory milestone in the competitive job market, you are not done yet. If you wish to go beyond the nominal pay, you must exceed the trifle performance with demonstrable skills and cognitive abilities gained through added exposure and industry.
Professional development is the next step to whet your level of expertise. There is a combination of hard and soft skills that a serious professional should have to be a danger to those listlessly phoning their services. Such skills include your profession of choice, be it musical theory, architecture, information technology, geriatrics, or fire life safety, and the confidence to talk the talk in front of the experts. Here is the time to use the technical jargon and the niche terminology to implicitly convey that you have been in a few dumpster fires. Perhaps, when and if appropriate, share a story of despair and misery that your colleagues can relate to, like mismanagement, deficient new hires, irresolute clients, and maddening sales representatives who don’t know what they are selling. Now, using your soft social skills, you should be able to tell if your story has run too long or is anti-climatic. In the same breath, don’t one-up your peers with trauma comparison even if you have been through worse. This further demonstrates your maturity and development as a professional, knowing when to pull the reins.
We came from different starting points in this great game of life. Therefore, judging how we have progressed against our former selves is only fair. My particular journey has allowed me to face numerous challenges that, in hindsight, were paramount to my understanding of the world and its complexities. My initiation into the world of accountability started as most with household chores like dishes, picking up after the dog, and the kitchen trash. However, I didn’t understand integrity or vigilance until I started mowing laws. I learned about communication, expectations, revenue versus profit, and operational dependencies. Through each job I have accepted, there are new facets to observe and learn from. The fourth dharma of the Eight Verses of Training the Mind, written by Geshe Langri Tangpa, says,
Whenever I see ill-natured people,
Or those overwhelmed by heavy misdeeds or suffering,
I will cherish them as something rare,
As though I’d found a priceless treasure.
This is our opportunity to hone a virtue or craft. Whether it’s an unsatisfactory manager, a fatalistic coworker, or a disgruntled customer, you are the one who will decide to reap the benefits of having faced the struggle or neglect the chance to deepen your experiences by exuding scorn and disdain. Don’t allow yourself to waste these truly favorable circumstances by refusing to look at how much further ahead you will be by successfully enduring and navigating the strife.
None of us will live happily without adaptation stemming from continued proper education. We are permitted to believe whatever we like, but before attempting to persuade or convert someone onto your side of the fence, swallow your pride and admit the other person may know something you don’t. Pursuing higher education through university degrees is not the end-all-be-all for calculating how judicious you are. Professional development is not solely comprised of business seminars and conferences. The barrier to entry is not as high as you might think, so don’t pedestalize the quest for enlightenment. Learn both sides of a given topic before demonizing the opposing view. Instead, I recommend focusing on how much we have in common before disproportionately magnifying the paltry differences we brood over.
Many of us have established careers with perhaps even sumptuous track records, but that does not mean we are done making improvements. Charles Darwin, the 19th-century biologist, said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” - Charles Darwin. Continue to learn and deepen your understanding of the world around you and beyond. Be cognizant of your limited subject experiences and the biases we’re all liable to see through subconsciously. Know where you’re going, and have fun getting there.