Learning is joy. I am sure all of us have experienced a sense of joy and happiness in learning what we are curious about, many times outside our education system.
Such incidental learning, or learning out of passion, contributes to the making of our persona. Learning also gives us confidence in life, a balanced emotional behavior, a perfect blend of humility, and self-confidence.
How many times have we seen great scientists and the young talented individuals and appreciated their humility and confidence in wonder? Familial upbringing, school education, and peer group behavior contribute to these personality traits.
How many times have we seen such greatly talented Individuals with whom we interact and come away feeling that the person was overconfident, and maybe even arrogant?
There is a thin line between being ‘confident’ and ‘arrogant’.
The deeper understanding in an individual that there will be almost infinitely more to learn despite however much one has learned, gives a graceful self-confidence with the right mix of humility. Many great people we have known, including many geniuses, have demonstrated that when such personalities cross the line between being ‘supremely confident’ and the arena of being ‘arrogant’, learning stops!
The early childhood, family culture, school, higher education, the inspirers — in most cases the parents, and a few chosen individuals and at a later stage in life — all help in the making of the persona.
Courage, grit, never-ending curiosity, the urge to keep learning continuously, and feeling the need to add value to whatever one is doing should be a continuum. Once an Individual stops learning, it means that arrogance and complacency has set in; otherwise, learning goes on lifelong, and a person never stops learning until he/she stops breathing.
