Do you believe a person can learn and grow as an individual?
Experience has shown me that we can’t change somebody else (in personal or business relationships), but that person can change as time goes on — whether for better or worse depends upon all the experiences that person has gone through.
I look back at myself at 20, or 25, or 30 — I was pretty clueless through all of that. And a bit of a jerk, with way too much sarcasm for my own good. Honestly, I don’t think I would’ve much liked me if I’d met me at that time. So the idea that such great folks as David Lawrence and Mort Castle and Kevin Juaire and Diana Okamoto and Kevin VanHook and so many others have been friends with me across decades says a lot about their tolerance and patience.
Over time, as I gained far more life experience, traveling the world and running my own business and meeting so many people, I think I mellowed and learned and improved myself. By age 40, I finally knew who I wanted to be. Soon after, I met Meryl and, learning from her, I eventually became the person I wanted to be. It’s been a life’s journey, and I hope that journey doesn’t stop.
What brought on this bit of self-reflection? I read about an actor being fired from The Flash TV series because of tweets that actor made a decade ago, long before the TV show was even being thought about.
Are our entire lives now meant to be judged mainly on words or thoughts dashed off in seconds before we learned better? For a TV series all about learning and growing into the role of being a hero, the mistakes learned along the way, and how those mistakes and decisions affect the lives of our families and friends, the producers don’t seem to follow their own storied thinking. If we’re not permitted to improve and learn the folly of our mistakes, I don’t think a lot of us can pass that level of litmus test for every minute and comment of our lives.
