Wisdom Doesn't Tell Time

Wisdom is an asset, paid for with the currency of real experience spent in the arena, striving, failing, and recovering just in time to go again. 

Wisdom is scarce. Those who talk of great accomplishments to come live two lives, one in the real world as critics sitting in the stands, and the other in a dream world imagining great accomplishments permanently stuck in a future that never touches the present.  They talk of great achievements as objectives they will achieve on a special day set aside for their great accomplishments - someday.   

Wisdom is engaging. Ideas without action are worthless. And acting requires courage, as nothing is certain.  The velocity of change and seemingly ubiquitous uncertainty gives rise to a chaotic environment. 

Wisdom perseveres. Persistence, empathy, curiosity, and adaptability are traits that develop with experience and create the friction upon which the wheels of progress rely. Without that friction, the wheels spin and spin, never moving forward, stuck in place. 

At the end of the day, to create and contribute value is an active process – one that is performed in the arena not from the stands.