Are You Teachable or Just Opinionated?

Fellow stewards,

I felt important right out of college.

It was a Friday night overlooking Atlanta. I was wearing my suit for the fourteenth hour straight.

I was in a high-rise working late with a managing director. Let's call him Joe.

This happened for weeks. Then months.

My fiancée was at home waiting so we could finally spend time together. I hadn't even seen the city I'd moved to.

Then I put the pieces together.

The work we were doing wasn't urgent. It wasn't a weekend rush project. It was just an excuse for Joe to avoid going home.

Joe didn't have a family waiting. He didn't have friends. All he had was work.

I was there to keep him company.

I felt lost because I could see Joe was lost.

Here was a man I'd looked up to — fancy car, unlimited suits, corner office. But Joe didn't have it together at all.

He was opinionated. Charismatic. “Smart.” But he had no idea where he was heading.

(There's a lesson there for all of us chasing something meaningful.)

Most people sleepwalk through life like Joe. Blind to their own pride. And pride, I'm convinced, is the enemy of any family business that is seeking to transcend generations.

This quarter, I'm starting my mornings in Proverbs with Timothy Keller’s commentary. One passage stopped me cold.

Keller points out the difference between humble and proud people:

Are you teachable? Or are you opinionated?

Don't answer from your perspective. Ask someone who'd give you the truth.

Joe was opinionated. He had all the answers. The problem was that he’d stopped building a posture of learning. His intellect became his prison, leading him down a lonely path with no humility. Joe was on the race to nowhere.

One of our core values at Century is HUMBLE. Because we must constantly be learning. We must constantly stay teachable.

In my experience, if we aren’t willing to get on our knees to learn, then life will bring us to our knees. 

How can you be teachable this week?

Onward,
Matt

P.S. Pride whispers that we've arrived. Humility reminds us we're still becoming.