Stefan R. Booy

Don't confuse knowledge for wisdom

Much of education is about learning methods for acquiring and using new information. The underestimated component of personal development is the acquisition of wisdom, namely the ability to make good decisions by discerning between bad, worse, good or better options. Some wisdom is acquired by watching others perform before us. Some of it is acquired from good parenting or coaching. 
Another great way to gain wisdom is through a mentor who has walked already walked a path and has gained the experience a younger person simply cannot have, yet.

"There is no time like the present, there is no present like time"

For a mentor is the only "cost" is time. And, as singer-songwriter David LaMotte once sang, "there is no present like time." For mentors to give up a little bit of their time to share their story and listen to a younger person's thoughts and concerns is a simple and priceless gift. In a world where the options are limitless, "there is no time like the present" to help our "younger selves" sort out through these many paths.

A community, at last

My desire as an alumnus of RSM is to be able to see more people engage with the institution in a less self-centered and transactional way, but in a more human and other-centered way. Maybe we will be able to add to the "institution of learning" a "community of learners," at last.