I don’t care much for fancy watches. (I don’t care for any watches, really. I don’t like jewellery at all. But that’s besides the point.)
I don’t drool over the latest Hublots, the brand name Cartier does nothing for me and while they look pretty damn cool, I can’t see myself ever sporting a gold Casio.
But I do know that “a real Rollie don’t tick tock”.
Thanks to Stevie J.
If I’m really honest, I didn’t think that I could ever learn anything from Stevie J.
As rachet as they come, the ‘Love and Hip-Hop Atlanta’ star was genuinely someone I thought could never add value of any kind to my life.
Now that might be rude or sh*tty or privileged or just downright f*cked up, but it’s honest.
But now, thanks to Stevie J, I know that real Rolexes don’t tick, should I ever have to tell a real from a fake.
I’ll probably never need this nugget of information, but at least now I know it.
There are people out there I just didn’t think could teach me anything.
In one of his comedy shows, Katt Williams said the same thing about Flava Flav.
“Certain n*gguhs you don’t expect to learn nothin’ from. You know what the f*ck I’m sayin’! I’m sayin’ if a n*gguh standin’ in front of you in a Viking helmet, gold teeth and a purple suit and a big *ss clock with the wrong goddamn time on it, you’ll be like ‘I can’t learn nothin’ from this n*gguh right here’.”
And it’s true.
There are some people you look at and think that they can’t teach you anything, so for the most part, you disregard what they say.
This, I’ve learnt, is a mistake.
Just like Katt learnt “I don’t give a f*ck what they think, they got to pay me, boy!” from Flava Flav, we can all learn something from someone else.
Most of the time, when we pay attention, we can learn something from just about anyone.
But what I’ve learnt recently is that I can learn something from even people I can’t stand. People I never want to be like.
Yes, sometimes we look at people and we want to emulate their lives and the moves they’ve made and the success they’ve achieved, but sometimes all you need to do is look at someone and try your best to be nothing like them.
Sometimes that’s the lesson.
Sometimes we have to look at other people’s mistakes and learn the lessons they’re learning too.
Or learn the lessons they fail to learn.
Life is short. We can’t make every single mistake ourselves. And we don’t have to.
Keep your eyes and ears open, your heart humble and most importantly… keep learning.
From everyone.
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