I have an old school friend. When we were kids nobody would trust him because he was the kind of boy who’d get into trouble.

He was not that troublesome, he was just more active and more curious than others, which led him to do some things that were borderline, but he never crossed the line of good and bad. He was 100% good and that showed every time.

Yet, many people didn’t trust him based on this prejudice.

When I was a kid I didn’t know a thing about self help, how to improve myself, heck…I didn’t even know if I wanted to improve. Now we live in a world when everyone can theoretically be an expert on some topic. Now we seek advices from the best, hoping that they will give us the secret key, the shortcut, the way to happiness.

We don’t learn only when we want to, though.
It happens that learning can be casual, it can come from things and people you wouldn’t imagine.

I went to my friend’s house few weeks ago. He has a great home, but live modesty. They had a baby last year so their finances might have taken a hit, yet they resembled an amazing couple. Happy, bonded, wonderful.

We talked about the issue with pregnancy and so forth and he then said to me “One of the key things being calm and serene in the family”.
It struck me. I’m always hyper-active, always checking things, thinking about what’s done correctly and what’s not.

He pointed out one critical aspect I was totally putting into my low priorities, and it struck a cord within me.

Today an acquaintance told this phrase (not to me) “Whenever you fail you can’t stop, because sooner or later you’ll need to face that failure. If not that you’ll face a new one”.

Today, also, a friend and colleague pointed out that I was not writing like before.

All these people, they’re reminders, they’re teachers, they’re students.
They were always there, but I didn’t see them, I didn’t hear them.

In a world of self help, of tutorials, of vlogging, trusting the people in our circle seems so old style, yet it is something that can be immensely useful.