Stay Humble and Keep Learning | Ryan Holiday on Always Staying a STUDENT

Always stay a student. The legend of Genghis Khan has echoed through history. A barbarian conqueror fueled by bloodlust terrorizing a civilized world. Like all reactionary emotional assessments, this could not be more wrong. For not only was Genghis Khan one of the greatest military minds who ever lived, he was a perpetual student. Whose stunning victories were often a result of his ability to absorb the best technologies, practices, and innovations of each new culture his empire touched. Genghis Khan was not born a genius. He was the greatest conqueror the world ever knew because he was more open to learning than any other conqueror has ever been. Khan's first powerful victories came from the reorganization of his military units. Splitting his soldiers into groups of 10. This he stole from neighboring tribes and unknowingly converted the Mongols to the decimal system. Soon enough, their expanding empire brought them into contact with another technology they'd never experienced before: walled cities. In the Tangut raids, Khan first learned the ins and outs of war against fortified cities and the strategies critical to laying siege and quickly became an expert. Later, with the help from Chinese engineers, he taught his soldiers how to build siege machines that could knock down city walls. In his campaigns, Khan learned the importance of winning hearts and minds. By working with the scholars and royal family of the lands he conquered, Khan was able to hold on to and manage these territories in ways that most empires could not. Afterward, in every country or city he held, Khan would call for the smartest astrologers, scribes, doctors, thinkers, and advisors—anyone who could aid his troops in their efforts. His troops traveled with interrogators and translators for precisely this purpose. It was a habit that would survive his death, with the Mongols themselves seemed dedicated almost solely to the art of war, they put to good use every craftsman, merchant, scholar, entertainment, cook, and skilled worker they came in contact with. The Mongol Empire was remarkable for its religious freedoms and most of all for its love of ideas and convergence of cultures. It brought lemons to China for the first time and Chinese noodles to the West. It spread Persian carpets German mining technology, French metalworking, and Islam. The cannon, which revolutionized warfare, was said to be the resulting fusion of Chinese gunpowder, Muslim flamethrowers, and European metalwork. It was Mongol openness to learning and new ideas that brought them together. As we first succeed, we find ourselves in new situations, facing new problems. The freshly promoted soldier must learn the art of politics. The salesman, how to manage. The founder, how to delegate. The writer, how to edit others. The comedian, how to act. The chef-turned-restaurateur, how to run the other side of the house. With too much ego, we instinctively think, "Oh sure, I know how to do that. It will all come naturally to me, as everything else has." Each victory and advancement that made Genghis Khan smarter also bumped him against new situations he'd never encountered before. With accomplishment comes a growing pressure to pretend that we know more than we do, to pretend we already know everything. That's the worry and the risk— thinking that we're set and secure when in reality understanding and mastery is a fluid, continual process. No matter what you've done up to this point, you better still be a student. If you're not still learning, you're already dying. Learn from everyone and everything. From the people you beat, from the people you dislike, even from your supposed inferiors. At every step and every juncture in life, there is the opportunity to learn, and even if the lesson is purely remedial, we must not let our ego block us from hearing it again. The solution is as straightforward as it is initially uncomfortable. Pick up a book on a topic you know next to nothing about. Put yourself in rooms where you're the least knowledgeable person. That uncomfortable feeling, That defensiveness that you feel when your most deeply held assumptions are challenged. What about subjugating yourself to it deliberately? Change your mind. Change your surroundings. Change your perspective. The professional finds learning, and even occasionally being shown up, to be enjoyable. They like being challenged and humbled, and engage in education as an ongoing and endless process. As they say, enlightenment is not permanent. It's something we continue to strive for. Always stay a student.