In order to be ready to make the best of difficult times, it is important that you let education be a continuing part of your life, friend. A strong mind and will are needed to carry a person through confusing times. The wise remember that experience, especially difficult experience, is a great teacher. But we cannot be forced to learn. A good student is one who delights in learning; and who gradually nourishes his or her mind so that knowledge is assimilated. Like a steady rain which first fills in low spots and eventually covers even the higher ground, continuous education has a way of changing the entire landscape of life.
Examine your attitude, friend, for possible factors which might inhibit your openness. Observe how you deal with stupid mistakes or a simple lack of knowledge in others. In general, we must let people live their own lives and learn their own lessons and give up trying to convince them that we are right. That is only exhausting and usually counter-productive. If people are not receptive, we must let them go on -- even if they move into difficulty or dangerous circumstances. It is the only way they can learn, and without the ability to learn no one can achieve success. This does not mean that you should not care; just that caring or loving too much can be harmful. Each of us ultimately sits alone in the barber chair of infinity, and the only road to truth is the one which enables us to separate what is real from all the smoke and mirrors.
