Stop Waiting for Permission: Harness Your Gifts, Find Your Purpose, and Unleash Your Personal Genius by Stephen Chandler

Author:Stephen Chandler [Chandler, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2022-09-27T00:00:00+00:00

Lessons from the Wrong Teachers

I’m what they call an avid golfer. I absolutely love it. Unfortunately, it’s a one-sided relationship; golf doesn’t love me. My average score looks more like an NBA playoff game than a round of well-played golf.

When golfers chat, they often ask each other, “How long have you been playing?” (It’s one of those sports where some people start when they’re toddlers and others when they reach retirement.) My regular response is “Too long to be this bad.” That usually garners a chuckle, but the truth is, I’ve been playing for more than seventeen years—which really is too long not to be better than I am. Out of those seventeen years, however, I’ve taken lessons from a coach for only the last two.

My first fifteen years playing golf, I was primarily self-taught with input from hundreds of other terrible golfers who happened to be at the driving range when I was practicing. “I don’t want to intrude,” some dude walking by would say, “but you wouldn’t hook if you brought your right foot back.” I’d move my foot and keep at it until another person walking by chimed in, “Friendly advice—you’re hooking because your grip is too strong.” So I’d loosen my grip and keep whacking.

With all that unsolicited advice from people who couldn’t consistently produce the results I sought, my swing became worse than if I’d never played at all. During my first lesson two years ago, the coach wired me up to all these cameras to analyze my swing. After observing and taking a few notes, my coach—who I’m pretty sure wasn’t a believing man—remarked, “It is a miracle you’ve been able to make contact with the ball at all.”

My swing was so bad, it put faith in the faithless.

Let my disastrous golf swing be an object lesson for your journey to greatness: Don’t apprentice yourself to the wrong teachers.

All around you there are people who look and talk like successes. They appear to know what they’re doing. It seems like they’re headed where you want to go. Upon closer examination, however, it becomes obvious that they’re relying on their genius and luck (and luck runs out).

Or their motives are toxic (and the wrong motives always take more than they give).

Or they don’t prioritize building balanced character (and they can’t sustain greatness over the long haul).

Who you learn from is just as important as what you learn. Apprenticing yourself to a damaged or underdeveloped teacher can set you back or even abort your potential before you get going.

WHO YOU LEARN FROM IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS WHAT YOU LEARN.

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