Short Speech on Experience is the Best Teacher !

Introduction – Leaves a lasting impression:

We have all heard of the proverb ‘Once bitten twice shy’. This itself exemplifies how well we learn from our experience. Personal experiences leave an indelible impression on our minds that are more lasting and invaluable. Like a good teacher, her lessons are very thorough and we can only ignore it, to our own peril.

Experiences are thorough:

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Experiences could be good, like helping a person in need, or it could be bad like losing money on a risky investment. However, what is important, is that we learn from them, so that we can profit from our good experience, while at (the same time steer clear from those which are potentially harmful to us. Ask a child not to play with a match box for it can harm him, will probably have no impact on him, but once he has scorched his hand by the match stick, he will never in his lifetime forget this lesson. Thus we learn very meticulously from personal experience, rather than by adhering to advise of others, or by reading about them from books or periodicals.

We should learn from experience or folklore

It is however a wise man who learns from the experiences of others, like his parents, teachers or those elder to him. He also profits from books that are a virtual treasure house of knowledge and experience of others, for in the words of Francis Bacon,

“some books are to be tasted others swallowed and some few to be chewed and digested”.

The biography of great statesmen, proverbs and folklore are a veritable gold mine of knowledge, with which we can enrich ourselves. It is indeed unfortunate to find people learning from bitter experiences in their practical life, such age old truths as “all that glitters is not gold,” “a bird in hand is worth two in the bush,” and ” Honesty is the best policy.” Once experienced they are unlikely to repeat it in their lives.

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Personal experience is the best, but some times comes too late.

We learn from everything we do, in fact life is one great journey of learning. We learn patience and forbearance when faced with adversity, courage in the face of danger and wisdom from our mistakes of omission and commission. It is however unfortunate, that some of us learn this lesson very late in life, when it is too late. Thus we find many people ignoring the simple dictum of ‘health is wealth’, to later regret it when their life becomes a wretch.

Conclusion:

We should learn from our, as well as experiences of others.

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“Life is brief — a little hope, a little dream and then goodnight”. In this short span of life we should therefore, not only learn from our own experience but should also profit from the experience of others. This would save us from many a pitfall and the unnecessary labour that goes with it, which is akin to ‘inventing the wheel’.