My Way of Learning: Stay Humble, Stay Hungry

It is easy to be the top, but never easy to stay up there.

I have been living by this quote for many years. I have never seen anyone who can stay top for long, not to say forever. In sports, we have Barcelona which used to be unbeatable in the football world just a few years back. In business, we have Apple which stocks only rose, also just some time back. In studies, do we always see the same name occupying the top of the level position? I doubt so.

Humility has long been a virtue, a trait that we should have. To me, this is a very important must-have in learning. Without humility, we will only go downhill. When we are near the top, we continue to work hard to climb up higher. When we are at the top, all the more we must work harder to stay there. Shame on me, I was complacent at the start of secondary 4. Being the level top for Physics in secondary 3, I thought it was needless for me to study so much for it. I paid for it. On the same day I received a book prize for my achievement in secondary 3, I received my common test result for Physics and guess what, I merely passed it. I did worse for Additional Mathematics, from A1 to fail. All because I was complacent and thought it was easy. Looking back, I've failed at least once in most of the subjects I took in school.

I always bear this in mind: We can always learn from one another. I have heard of the saying "only make friends with people smarter than you". I humbly disagree. No one is better than anyone else. Even if you are the top student and you have a friend who is the last, I am sure he knows something which you don't. I am sure that through a conversation with him, you will learn something new, something you have never even thought of before. Personally I have "stunned" people who scored better than me with my questions, teachers included. I was "stunned" many times by people who scored lower than me, and there were times which they scored higher than me. So, who is better? Who is smarter? No one.

Steve Blank once said during a lesson in Stanford, 2009, quoting Steve Jobs, "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish". I totally agree. Let us be hungry for new knowledge. Let us be hungry to improve our existing knowledge. Looking back in my own life, I have been asking many questions since young. I remember that I kept asking a staff at a chinese medical hall how to use the weighing scale, till the point that I was sure of its operation. I even tried to take it over from her to try it. I was about 8 years old then and of course, I was stopped by my parents, who asked me not disturb the auntie's work.

Summary
No matter what we have achieved so far, we achieved them yesterday, the past, and they are history. We have to look at the present and to the future. Getting arrogant because of past achievement will only send us on the way down. Staying status quo is equivalent to going downhill too. This should be enough for us to stay hungry for knowledge. Only when we are humble do we seek to improve ourselves. So, stay humble, stay hungry. Be confident, not arrogant.