Mistake, experience: greatest teacher, greatest reward

At 16 we finally cut our long hair. Because everybody keep telling us how ridiculous we look.

At 18 we go to party with our friends every Friday. Because everybody keep telling us how weird we are if we stay at home and read a book.

At 19 or 20 we head to universities or try to get a job. Because otherwise we are considered lazy and worthless.

At 21 we track political affairs, convinced we need to keep a certain level of general knowledge. Because everybody around us do the same.

If you’re lucky enough, at 22 you realise it was ALL WRONG.

You start looking back to the turning point in your life. And you ask yourself:

“What would it be like if I decided not to obey people around me? If I let my hair grow even further?”

This point of realisation may be a great pain in the arse. Because once it comes, the only thing you can do about your happiness is to start your life all over again. From scratch.

So you quit your job, leave university and say goodbye to a three year relationship. It brings much pain and inferiority in your life. Throwing away your phone is almost nescesarry. Someone wants to become your personal advisor, someone want to tell you he / she doesn’t want to have anything in common with you. Ever.

These are the thoughest times for you. But the first benefits will come in a few months. You’re meeting new people, a wonderful girl comes to your life and so does new energy to make things finally happen. The future suddenly becomes clearer, clouds slowly move above your past.

Maybe after a year you meet an old friend of yours. The longer you chat the more you realise the differences.

He complains about his job, you’re happy about yours.

He hates his personal life. You’re happy about yours.

He drinks expensive rum, you drink cheap beer. He looks disgusted, you enjoy it.

Not very long ago I realised the key point of any improvement in life lies in the ability of making mistakes. The strangest think is how fiercefully we’re discouraged from making mistakes, from stepping on a ground we never stepped before.

Teachers interupt us when speaking in front of a classroom because we forgot conjugate a verb.

Parents put helmet on their children’s heads because they might stumble and hit a sharp corner of a desk.

Two people stay together because they’re affraid of staying alone.

Where’s the purpose? Where’s the ability to stay on top of things and simply learn from what we did wrong and start all over again?

If there is anything I took from the moment I cut my hair to the moment a pushed the restart button in my carrer and personal life, it’s definitely this:

Mistake is the greatest teacher.

Not money but the experience is the greatest reward.