The Classroom I Couldn't See

At the start of my teaching career, I would spend my summers up on roofs cleaning air conditioning coils. It was a very repetitive job that practically required me to listen to something so I didn’t lose my sanity. For a long time, I listened to music, but that became just as repetitive as washing coils.

Eventually, I switched to audiobooks, turning rooftops into classrooms. Washing coils became the backdrop for adventures and lessons that became ingrained in me. One of the best books I listened to during those summers was How to Win Friends & Influence People, with its simple lessons and profound impact.

Learning From Carnegie

How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie was a book I was skeptical of. It consistently appears on lists of must-read books, but there are plenty of books on those lists that offer little real value. I was worried this would be another pointless self-help book.

However, when I started listening, I quickly saw the difference. This book had been used in classrooms and tested in real life. It wasn't a purely theoretical book presenting pie-in-the-sky ideas with little grounding. It was built from the ground up, beginning with what worked with real people and distilling those experiences into repeatable lessons.

Some of these principles have actually already made their way into previous letters.

In A Better Question, I wrote about how quickly we tend to judge people. The solution I presented was to ask a question and become genuinely curious about the other person. That solution was something I picked up on those rooftops.

Carnegie teaches us to become genuinely interested in other people, to honestly see things from another person's point of view, and to be sympathetic toward their ideas and desires. Those lessons helped shape that letter, but more importantly, they helped shape the way I view the people around me.

Borrowed Wisdom

I haven't only used this advice in my letters. I have applied it in my life as a teacher, husband, salesman, father, and coach. This book taught me lessons in a couple of hours that might have taken years to learn on my own.

I am a different man today because of the advice offered in that book.

That is one of the great gifts of reading or listening to audiobooks. We don't have enough years to learn everything through our own experiences and mistakes. A good book allows us to learn from someone else's years of experience. We can borrow their wisdom, test it in our own lives, and allow it to shape the person we are becoming.

The Classroom I Couldn't See

On those rooftops, though, I didn't know how important that part of my life would become. I couldn't see how that book, or the countless others I listened to, would change my life for the better.

Often, that is how life works.

We have experiences, sufferings, and lessons, but we don't always know how they are preparing us for the future trials and responsibilities that lie ahead. There is a temptation to become bitter and angry about the trial, but those experiences can shape us if we allow them to.

I could have sulked through those summers, complaining about the heat and my soaking-wet feet. Instead, I learned to embrace them and allow the rooftops to become my classroom.

Weekly Challenge

Find the classroom hidden in your week.

Maybe it is your commute, time at the gym, mowing the lawn, or another repetitive part of your day. Instead of simply filling that time, use some of it to grow. Pick a good book, audiobook, or podcast that can teach you something about the man you want to become.

You may not know which lesson you will need five or ten years from now.

Learn it anyway.

Forge Ahead

Anvil: the place of formation.
Arrow: the mission we’re sent on.

The world needs more men formed in virtue. Forward this to a brother who’s ready to grow.