Last week, a punchy puzzling bullet-point caught my eye while I was surfing the web… “Remain a Child”
To me, it seems counterintuitive at first.
Don’t we need to grow up to understand the complexities of our fast-changing and intricately-connected world?
Shouldn’t we become more mature, responsible and adult-like as we grow older?
Well, as I think about these questions, my own instincts tell me – yes and no.
Yes – we need to grow up and own up to more responsibilities for our words, our actions, our choices and their effects on our friends and family, our co-workers, our neighbors, our society and so on.
But no – there are often adult-like unbridled and unexamined skepticism, cynicism, pragmatism, preconceived notions about rules and norms borne out of scarred life experiences and misfortunes that could stifle child-like wonder, experiment, openness to and acceptance of new and different possibilities. Intrigued by the context for this remark, I clicked on a link that led me to this Bloomberg TV interview As it turns out – “Remain a Child” is a key advice offered by the affable and admired billionaire investor Warren Buffett during his lunch with a younger Oxford and Harvard educated banker Guy Spier. Spier said the 84 year-old venerable financial guru dished out life lessons in the most simple, straightforward, no-nonsense manner that children can understand.
Why remain a child?
Let’s think back on those years when we were children.
What did we rely on before our parents or schools taught us anything?
For many of us – we followed our instincts.
Our instincts led us to observe others to learn norms and stay alive.
Norms that grow out of our embedded community, our cultural upbringing and our social interaction with others become the basis of our behavior and belief, unless and until they are punished or curtailed because our words and actions are outlawed or overruled by another set of social norms or legal regulations.
As we grow out of our childhood surroundings and grow into a highly competitive global environment, especially those of us who aspire to compete for a place in a good university or for a good job, we’re likely expected to try and work harder to win a spot in these highly coveted slots. If we end up in elite universities, prestigious companies, or established organizations with undue emphasis on impressing people by sounding profound and complex, acting formal and important, we run the risk of losing touch with our innate ability to apply common sense in every day life. We run the risk of overthinking and sounding pompous. We run the risk of losing friends and allies. We also run the risk of not taking risks for fear of falling down flat on our faces.
Children on the other hand, stumble and fall all the time. They may cry or get hurt a little, but they get back up and running again.
Ultimately, Buffett’s advice to “Remain a Child” is a really caution against the traps of academic training and thinking, and a case for authenticity, simplicity, imagination and instincts as one searches for innovative solutions, interpersonal connections, as well as a lasting state of wonder and meaning.
For me – “Remain a child” essentially means 3 basic principles –
1) Keep it simple
2) Keep noticing – “what’s new and different?”
3) Keep wondering – “how come?”, “what’s possible? “what’s next?”