“It is the province of knowledge
to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.”—Oliver Wendell Holmes
Sr.
The precedence that listening has over
talking has been made clear by God. He created us with one mouth and two ears. Therefore,
He expects us to listen first and well before we choose to open our mouths to
talk.
However, it can be very tempting for
most people to place speaking ahead of listening. Everyone wants to prove his
or her smarts by being the one who takes the lead in the talks. Truthfully, we
all like to feel we know better than the other guys, so we tend to talk more
than we listen.
But if you pause to think about it,
men of wisdom are the ones who understand that two ears mean listening twice
for every utterance they intend to make. And the same goes for women.
Definitely, this is the behaviour of enlightened individuals, and it is the
behaviour for knightly living as the former President of USA, Calvin Coolidge
did attest. He said, “It takes a great man to be a good listener.”
Henry John Kaiser was such a man!
He was born in New York by humble
immigrant family of German origin. Henry started working in his teen years,
with limited formal education. Yet, he eventually grew to become one of the
pioneers of shipbuilding industry in the twentieth century.
He became the father of modern
shipbuilding in the United States of America. Kaiser rose from humility to abundance
and influence with one simple secret; he learned to be a good listener. Now he
disclosed how he benefitted immensely from the expansive world of real
education: the University of Life. He said:
“I
make progress by having people around me who are smarter than I am and
listening to them. And I assume that everyone is smarter about something than I
am.”
Do you get the gist of that sensible
statement?
Are you humble enough to listen and
learn from everyone you come in contact with?
Or
Are you the snobbish type who unduly thinks
he/she is better than everyone else?
To answer for myself, I certainly
refuse the latter; I am always willing to learn from anyone. Are you?
Be Humble and Choose to Listen Well
If you can imbibe Henry’s message, then
rejoice, for you have the potential to become greater than he was. You can
become a good leader in this age and time, in your own industry and
country.
But if you have too much pride to
apply that judicious lesson, then now is the time for you to consider a new
attitude about life. A newspaper editor, Doug Larson counsels you on this. He
says, “Wisdom is the reward you get from a lifetime of listening when you would
have preferred to talk.”
Meanwhile, bear in mind that good listening
isn’t passive at all. Good listening is an active mental state of paying rapt
attention not only to what is being said, but to everything that is not
expressed in words: the feelings, the wishes, and the body languages. It is
those who can do this that can make the most of any experience. They are the
ones who listen not just with their ears but even with their hearts. They are
the knights of this world.
I dare you to join their ranks by
habitually talking less and listening more. It will benefit you a whole lot.
And it is the hallmark of true greatness.
