I’ve learned that the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am. -Andy Rooney
I ran across this quote the other day and realized how true it is. Thinking back, most of the important lessons I’ve learned are not the ones I learned in school. True, my teachers were smarter than I was and I certainly learned a lot from them. But it was those people outside of school that I learned the most from. People like my parents, my friends, co-workers and bosses, boyfriends and even people I didn’t like very much. Some of those people weren’t smarter than me, but boy oh boy did they teach me some things. Some of those lessons weren’t necessarily easy to learn, but learn them I did. However, most of the people that have really made a difference in my life were a lot smarter than me and thank goodness I had the good sense to listen and learn. I am forever grateful for all those lessons and I plan to continue to stretch and grow and surround myself with people who are smarter than me. After all, you can teach an old dog new tricks, but only if the dog is willing to shut up and pay attention.