Ernest, 4 years old, was about to put his finger on a candle flame. His mother warned him that he would get burned. He was curious and wanted to know what it felt like. So, when his mother left, he put his finger on the candle flame, and immediately jerked it away. Theoretical wisdom is ignored. Experiential wisdom is never forgotten.
eastwind journals
February 26, 2025, Archives tr572A/B
By Bernie V. Lopez, eastwindreplyctr@gmail.com / www.eastwindjournals.com
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The mother’s warning is theoretical wisdom. Ernest burning his finger is experiential wisdom. Ernest learned the hard way, but the lesson is deep and permanent. He will never do it again. He will never forget. Theoretical wisdom is easily forgotten. Experiential wisdom is mostly permanent.
Ernest saw his uncle sitting by a fence, warning him that the barbed wire of the fence was electrified to keep wolves from preying on their sheep. Ernest was once more curious. He wondered what it felt like to be electrocuted. So, he urinated on the wire and got the shock of his life. As his uncle laughed, Ernest thanked him for the lesson he learned.
Joanna lived in the Bay Area. She is the no. 1 in her class, and was proud of it. Whenever her alcoholic father would come home dead drunk, he would maul Joanna and her mother. So, Joanna told her mom she had enough and would run away. The mother loved Joanna, so she let her go to look out for herself.
Joanna ended up in Morocco. There, she wandered around and met a Bedouin boy in the market in Marrakesh. The boy told her that Bedouins were desert nomads full of wanderlust. They roamed the vast desert and would go crazy if they settled down in one place. Joanna was fascinated. The boy introduced her to his family, selling giant black desert scorpions for a living. The family got to like Joanna and invited her to join them in the desert treks.
Joanna stayed with the Bedouin family for three months. They got to love her because she taught the boy how to read and learn mathematics. After her wonderful desert experience, Joanna returned home. She embraced her mom and dad. When she told them about her desert experience, her dad was so fascinated that he decided to look for a job. He found a job as a cook for a soup kitchen for alcoholics. He never drank a single drop again. And he never mauled them again.
She applied as a teacher at her former school.
DEAN – I understand you were no. 1 in class in this school. But you have left for a long time. What makes you think you will remember all that you learned to become a good teacher?
JOANNA – I lived with the Bedouins in the Sahara desert. What I learned from them in three months is much much more than what I learned in this school for eight years of high school and college. Theoretical wisdom is nothing. Experiential wisdom is everything. The wisdom I learned from nomads with no schooling is so awesome, it is mind-boggling and heart-rending. I want to teach the students about life not found in books, but real life.
Joanna was hired on the spot to begin an experimental class in experiential wisdom. She immersed her students in the real world, telling them to write compositions about the poor and the old folks that she told them to meet. Students flocked to her class, until she had to break them up into four classes of 40 each. She taught other teachers her approach to learning.
One day, a bunch of journalism students approached Joanna, asking for help. They had this arm-chair professor who taught journalism from an American book not applicable to Filipino culture. Joanna talked to the arm-chair professor and convinced him to divide his class into teams of five and immerse them in television and radio stations, and newspapers. They interviewed radio announcers, news editors, television directors of talk shows. Then each team made a presentation in class, on camera, which they showed to other journalism students.
ARM-CHAIR PROFESSOR – Joanna, I want to thank you for teaching the experiential wisdom approach. I ended up learning journalism from my students. I am compiling all their presentations into a journalism text book. JOANNA – Wow. Great.
The key to experiential wisdom is immersion.
Here is a story inspired by true situations and events.
Wang San is a famous ‘noodle tycoon’. He started from scratch, escaping the poverty of Shanghai by being a stow away. His uncle, who was the master chef of a ship bound for Hongkong and Manila, hid him in the ship’s pantry. When they reach Hongkong, Wang San did not want to go down. Seeing the vast jungle of cranes at the pier, he had an odd intuition that such a place meant trouble and suffering. He would be drowned in a regimented life of machines controlling him.
His uncle said, “Okay, next stop, Manila”. There, Wang San was surprised. There were less cranes and an endless sea of people. It was dirtier than Hongkong but more human, he surmised. The confusion of the crowds was an attraction for him. His intuition told him this was the place for a young boy starting small.
Li Yan, a Chinese restaurant owner saw him wandering around outside. They spoke in perfect Cantonese, and became instant friends because they grew up in the same Shanghai docks. He asked Li Yan if he could do menial work for him. It so happened that Li Yan was setting up a noodle factory. It was perfect for Wang San. To cut the story short, the noodle factory became a hit, and Wang San eventually became the chief production manager.
Li Yan adopted Wang San as his third son. He sent his two sons to Harvard Business School to learn the very best American business education. As for Wang San, he was immersed in the noodle factory.
When the two sons came back from Harvard, Li Yan gave them the reins to his business empire, including the new tuna cannery in Zamboanga City, which took him ten years to build. Sadly, the things they learned in Harvard were not applicable to the Chinese business in the Philippines. The theoretical wisdom they absorbed in the American culture of business did not fit the Chinese way in the Philippines. And so, the entire empire of Li Yan fell with a resounding crash. What Li Yan built for 20 years, the two sons destroyed in 2 years.
For example, the Chinese gave loans based on trust, not collateral. If you fail to pay, you are forever banned to borrow in the entire Chinese community. This alone was pressure to perform and achieve. The two Harvard boys learned about the American banking system based on loans with collateral. They did not know how to use the loans they incurred to make the business grow. There was no ‘pressure’ and motivation to perform. They did not know how to assess people and did not get good managers, leading to the failure of the businesses. The theoretical wisdom they learned in Harvard was of no use.
Meanwhile, Wang San was doing very well. The noodle factory grew by leaps and bounds until it was exporting to Hongkong. Li Yan talked to Wang San about the problem with his two sons.
LI YAN – I don’t know what happened. They went to the best school and failed. You, Wang San, had no education and you succeeded.
WANG SAN – It is very simple, father. You and I grew up in poverty. Hunger and pain are good teachers. They made us strong. You spoiled your two kids. They never knew the meaning of poverty that we knew. They became soft and weak from the fortunes you raised them with.
LI YAN – Harvard was a bad move. They were more alienated from business by learning the American way, not the Chinese way. That was my big mistake. So, how will you raise your only daughter, Wang San.
WANG SAN – I will dip her in mud, work with the lowest of workers at the noodle factory. Immersion is the key to wisdom. Books and classrooms are the key to failure.
Li Yan bequeathed the noodle factory to Wang Sam when he died. Wang San became a household name in Hongkong as ‘the noodle tycoon from the Philippines’. Hongkong buyers eventually called his daughter ‘the new noodle empress’.
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