The difference between being smart and having wisdom – an introduction to the startup-wise blog

When I was young, I used to think Smart and Wisdom is the same thing.  However, as I grew older I began to learn that they are not.  A story was told:

The Wise Woman’s Stone

A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation. The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But a few days later he came back to return the stone to the wise woman.

“I’ve been thinking,” he said, “I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me something more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone.

Author Unknown

Wisdom comes with experience

There are smart people who make the dumbest mistakes.  People who are smart tend to think on their feet and jump into the first thoughts that comes to their mind.  Wisdom on the other hand is something that takes a lot of time to accumulate.  One has to walk a lot of journeys and make a lot of mistakes to become wise.  So now I know why “wise” is often associated with the bearded fellow who sits on the mountain top.  

Having spent the past 4 decades working in business and at multiple startups all over the world, I believe I have accumulated some useful experience in the business of startups and have many “words of wisdom” that I can pass along to those who are seeking to start their own business.  I will share both the successes and failures that I have experienced and hopefully you can learn from them – good or bad. 

I welcome your comments or experiences you have personally, as I may learn from your experience as well.  Wanting to start a business is an exciting time, hopefully I can impart some words of wisdom here for you.  Please subscribe to follow me with the different articles that will help you along this exciting journey.