#011 – Cultivate Those Who Can Teach You
Let friendly intercourse be a school of knowledge, and culture be taught through conversation: thus you make your friends your teachers and mingle the pleasures of conversation with the advantages of instruction. Sensible persons thus enjoy alternating pleasures: they reap applause for what they say, and gain instruction from what they hear. We are always attracted to others by our own interest, but in this case it is of a higher kind. Wise men frequent the houses of great noblemen not because they are temples of vanity, but as theatres of good breeding. There be gentlemen who have the credit of worldly wisdom because they are not only themselves oracles of all nobleness by their example and their behaviour, but those who surround them form a well-bred academy of worldly wisdom of the best and noblest kind..
One of the best keys to success is surrounding yourself with those who are successful. You need to forget the notion that doing so is out of vanity or to earn “a favor”. There is a reason why there are so many “successful” coaching trees in professional and elite-level programs. Bill Walsh, Hank Stram, and Larry Brown have produced some of the best coaches in their respective sports, from their staff members. Their assistants went on to win championships and Olympic medals, and have Hall-of-Fame careers, themselves. It was not because of favor, but because they spent every moment learning and being surrounded by the best in their sport. The bottom line is simple. If you want to become a successful coach, surround yourself with other successful coaches and staff members.
This blog series is based on the book “The Art of Worldly Wisdom” by Balthasar Gracián. This book was written for advice on how to achieve personal and professional success. The goal of this blog series is to visit the points of wisdom and put them in the spotlight of the coaching and education lens.
