When I was a fairly young in my walk with Jesus, a leader said, “Experience is the best teacher and fools will have none other.”

Well I’ve learned a few things since then and one thing I believe I’ve learned is that experience can be a teacher for me if I ask questions and think about things when they happen. Dan Rockwell shares some helpful wisdom on the role experience can play in teaching us.

Guest Post by Dan Rockwell

Experience isn’t the best teacher. My friend melted his siding by grilling close to his house. He won’t do that again. Only fools melt their siding two times.

“I won’t do that again” experiences are expensive. They reflect painful wisdom.  Wisdom gained because you disadvantaged yourself and/or harmed others.

Two people learned not to melt their siding the day my friend melted his. He called me and said, “I did a dumb thing.” Then explained the melted siding issue. I hadn’t thought about grills and siding until that day. My friend won’t melt his siding again and I’ll never melt mine either. I learned at his expense.

I know how to repair siding. I have a handy zip tool that unlocks siding so you can replace a piece or two if you happen to melt some. His melted siding was good as new in a zip or two.

Wisdom from experience:

  1. Takes time. Old people have more hard knocks than young. But there’s no guarantee they’re wise because of it. Some people ”never” learn or learn slowly.
  2. Requires emotional stamina. You feel stupid when you melt your siding. Maybe you should forgive yourself, but usually you kick yourself awhile before you do.
  3. Strains relationships. It takes people a long time to learn habitual anger only works in the short-term, if at all. The trouble with anger and aggression is they work sometimes.
  4. Costs money. Years ago, I had a well-pump issue that was more expensive than necessary because I was a novice.
  5. Provides limited perspective. Although profound, your experiences are infinitesimal compared to all available learning opportunities.

How we learn from experience:

Help novices learn from experience by asking…

  1. What did you do?
  2. What did you learn?
  3. What will you do differently next time?

What has experience taught you?

Still curious:

How Fools and Novices Gain Wisdom

Saturday Sage: Experience Can Derail Your Life