Secretly Brilliant

Apart from historical accounts of events, wisdom is the most written about subject by men through the ages. Over the thousands of years, the wisdom of men and women all around the world strive to accomplish three things - the search and understanding of the purpose (meaning) of life, the desire to live prosperously and wisely on earth, and to attain everlasting joy, peace and love.

Why is wisdom so important?

In my work, I get to meet a lot of people, from wealthy business owners of some of the largest businesses around to the many capable, creative, hardworking people. And regardless of their cultural background, language, education and social status, I have not come across a single person who would turn down words of wisdom.

It is like by nature, people know that wise words can have a positive (favorable, encouraging) impact on their lives. This is why people make an effort to read, hear, and meet accomplished and successful people talk about their experiences, ideas and words of wisdom.

Generally, people only like to learn the wise words of achievers, successful and reputable people, from inventors to scientists, doctors, entrepreneurs, athletes, actors, musicians, artists, authors, humanitarians and historic figures. Even in a remote village in Asia that I have visited, the villagers would learn the wise words of their well-respected elders, so as to be inspired to live more prosperously than the generation before them. Their interpretation of prosperity is to have better harvests, productive animals and peace among the tribes.

Possessing good wisdom and living prosperously is knotted tightly together.

This I am certain - every human soul desires to live well and possess good wisdom. This is ingrained within us. When we have good wisdom, we live prosperously, but without good wisdom, we go through many unnecessary hardships. Without good wisdom, people even perish too soon. I can conclude that the plight of mankind is primarily due to the lack of good wisdom. But why is there such a great lack of good wisdom with people?

The pursuit of good wisdom

My interest in the subject of wisdom started when I was eight years old. I received my first set of books, a series of Chinese illustrated books called “The Little Genius” – about a little boy with creative ideas and ways to solving problems. The little boy character inspired me. Since then, I have read up a lot on the wisdom of men, from ancient Chinese wisdom books to well-known Western philosophies, from modern political and social thinkers to some of the world’s most innovative inventors, scientists, entrepreneurs and writers. Yet many of the great men and women acknowledged that what they know is indeed limited.

The subject of wisdom is intriguing because insights, knowledge and experiences of people are put together in words to inspire and advise others to live better by living wisely. But after years of studying on this subject, I also realized that men’s wisdom is limited in understanding life’s many important questions.

Men’s wisdom in understanding the purpose of life

There were many valid observations raised by the great thinkers of past generations about the meaning of life, yet they could not arrive to a firm conclusion. Socrates said, “I know one thing, that I know nothing”, and Aristotle’s “The more you know, the more you know you don’t know”. Great achievers and thinkers of modern times remain perplexed over this subject. Albert Einstein said, “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know”.

Our deep desire to understand the purpose of life can also be seen in men’s relentless pursuit to understand the origin of time and space, the vastness of our universe, the origin of the millions of unique things in our world, the unexplained energy source that powers life (our consciousness) and all the unseen forces that put all things in their rightful places and order. How do we fit into this whole big picture?

Men’s wisdom to live prosperously on earth

Living prosperously is very important to mankind, and poverty is like a disease (the same aim as all diseases) that is destructive to mankind. Here, men’s wisdom emphasizes greatly on self-reliance. But when self is not able or struggling (under stressed), then relying on self produces an adverse effect on the person – “I was not meant to be”, or “I was destined not to succeed”. Self-condemnation follows closely when self-reliance is not working out. I have seen this often in many peoples’ lives.

In the end, the focus of men’s wisdom to succeed and prosper in life is about “never giving up” (perseverance), “plenty of hard work” (diligence), “think out of the box” (creativity) and “not fearful of failing” (courage). Perseverance, diligence, courage and being creative are all very important and great to have in life, yet Wisdom-from-Above is able to provide us more

We can spot out the above themes commonly in men’s writing on “wisdom for life” or self-help books. The common frustration with self-help wisdom is that readers often find it hard to replicate what had worked for the authors. Over time, people end up reading more self-help to satisfy their needs for the knowledge, yet unable to see the knowledge work well for their lives.

Men’s wisdom can inspire, encourage us, but it lacks the power to transform us from the inside out. Why do we need wisdom to change us from the inside out?

Men’s wisdom in pursuing everlasting joy, peace and love

Men’s wisdom since the beginning of time has been trying to get answers about attaining everlasting joy, peace and love. Ultimately, men’s wisdom arrive to notions like “work hard, play hard” (i.e. live life to its fullest), “that’s life” (i.e. accept the reality), “whatever will be, will be” (i.e. know that it is not a perfect world). Men’s wisdom acknowledged that material things do not give everlasting joy. Forgiving others bring greater inner peace. Focusing on the good side of people, help us to love others more. Yet, men’s wisdom is baffled by the possibility of having everlasting joy, peace and love. Men can no doubt achieve moments of joy, peace and love, but to have everlasting joy, peace and love; it is just impossible.

Men’s wisdom has incomplete understanding about attaining everlasting joy, peace and love.