“Life may be the most gifted teacher”

When I was young, I thought the most noble of professions might be that of “physician”. As my mother was a registered nurse and I regarded the hospital as my second home, I came to admire the kind and giving work of doctors and nurses in such places.

Later, in the spring of 1970, as I considered the selection of my college major, I decided that “pre-med” was to be my course of study. 

The first semester was challenging.  While I marveled at the somewhat divine beauty of zoology and organic chemistry, I became overcome with a foreboding of doom as I struggled to find kinship among my classmates.  No one was there to heal the sick, to comfort the diseased or to make a difference in any other’s life but their own.  My peers spoke of the cars they would drive, the well-endowed women they would marry and the lifestyle they would enjoy. At the end of that first semester, I poured down the drain the vial containing the mysterious liquid whose elements if revealed would be my lab final.  The next day I changed my major to Speech-Theater.  It was the only other course of study I was confident that I would enjoy.

I have returned to that moment countless times in my lifetime.  At the time I thought, “I must be an immature, sappy idealist. This is not the way the real world works – I am such a fool!” Life may be the most gifted teacher.  I have come to realize that no one should define us but ourselves.  It should have been enough for me that I knew why I was there and the purpose it served – disregarding the rest. I had a vision. I had passion.  What I lacked was conviction. Self-doubt is the devil within all of us.

I have enjoyed success in the theater, radio, television and film. I have managed productions, actors and stagehands. I have felt the explosion of appreciation from a theater audience that comes from connecting on an intimate level among thousands. To do this, I left college before graduating.  My professors agreed.  There would be no better training than to do what we professed – to act on the stage as a professional. Life may be the most gifted teacher.  I have learned that good intentions dim with the passage of time.  I always intended to return to college and finish what I started.  But, I was “on the road” a lot, fell in love, married, became a father to two children, need to be home more and do something more dependable. Constantin Stanislavski, in An Actor Prepares, said “Love the art in yourself, not yourself in the art.” I became a remodeler.

I have won awards, made a difference in the life of families and organizations and found that creativity is not exclusive to the theater.  I’ve “sweated the numbers,” projected the gross profit margin, laid out the perfect advertisement to define our product’s unique position in the marketplace and learned to lead high performing teams by sharing the vision, setting realistic and obtainable goals and then executing the plan.

Life may be the most gifted teacher.  I wanted to become a doctor but didn’t.  Yet, I have saved six lives.  I wanted to be an actor, but I left college.  Yet, I have performed on Broadway and filmed with Robert De Niro as well as Meryl Streep.  I wanted to be a remodeler and I have come to realize that a remodeler is nothing more than a house physician. 

Now I’m a statistic – one of the 18 million American workers unemployed due in large part to the greed of others who sought only quick profits. At age 57, I have come to understand that life is a classroom and it’s important to embrace one’s passions, especially in the autumn of one’s life. That is why I have decided to once again “reinvent” myself as a Trainer or teacher.  My volunteer work as a regional and local trainer for the Boy Scouts of America as well as my business studies that led me to discover the work of John Greenleaf, demands that I spend whatever time I have left helping others to succeed.  I am currently doing the best I can to be a corporate trainer to help make adult learners in the workforce perform better.

Life is full of surprises and lessons. Life may be the most gifted teacher and I, its most grateful student.