5 Lessons I learned from a friend named Frankie

I once met a man named Frankie who believed the best way to learn something was to jump right into it. He told me hesitating to start was the fear of failure in disguise. “ If you want to learn something, just put your entire self into it. Don’t half-ass it.”
Frankie would become somewhat of a mentor of mine for a few months until we parted ways. More importantly, he didn’t hold back his thoughts and experiences which made for a trusting friendship. In the beginning we spoke about learning a second language, Portuguese in particular, but it soon opened the doors to philosophical conversations.
The conversations we shared ranged from learning a new language to the mystery of life and death. He liked talking about the corruption of modern day society and how it effected people’s values.
Frankie was opinionated, which was to be expected from a rebellious biker who felt like an outsider. I mostly listened to his stories and insights because I found them interesting. When It was my turn to share I usually asked opened-ended questions to further understand why he thought the way he did.
With every story he told there was an important lesson to be learned
Here is a list of the lessons I learned from him:
- The best way to learn something is to jump right into it.
-Don’t hesitate or poke your feet in. The longer you hesitate in starting the more likely you aren’t going to begin at all. So often we think about doing something but never fully commit ourselves. We either play around with the idea of learning or we half ass our attempt. If a subject intrigues you jump into the deep end and start swimming.
2. If you want something give it away.
-If you want love, be loving. If you want respect, give respect. Everything that you put out into the world comes back to you. That’s why we say hard work pays off.
3. Help people without a personal agenda
-So often we help people because we know we can get something out of it whether it be recognition, respect, money or any other form of reward. But when we do something because it’s simply the right thing to do there’s an internal gratification. Help people because if you were in their position, you’d want help too.
4. Depression is derived from self
-Our egos get in the way of finding true happiness. We suffer because we are attached to the past, to the unfortunate story we tell ourselves about who we are and why. The disconnect we experience happens because we’ve strayed so far from the path of love and forgiveness. Loving ourselves and others, forgiving ourselves and others will break the bonds of depression.
5. The best teacher is experience
- Experience expands our understanding of the world in ways that studying information cannot. Experience teaches us hardship and failure. It teaches time and perseverance, triumph and success. The best way to learn anything is to do it, to experience it for yourself. All of the books in the world about how to help anxiety will do no good if you never get out there and experience social interactions.
