My parents left a legacy, unintentionally as all such legacies are, of low self-esteem and worry. My three brothers and I all coped differently. I went into business management and was drilled on sounding self-assured. It’s a mask. I’ve recently seen studies revealing how my father approached ordering me to get better grades at school actually achieved the opposite result.
Despite all that, I was, and remain to this day, insatiably curious. The trouble with curiosity appears when you learn something new that contradicts long-held beliefs. That does not boost self-esteem.
Psychiatrist Thomas Szasz noted, “Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one’s self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily; and why older persons, especially if vain or important, cannot learn at all.”
It’s why the ability to say, “I don’t know” remains one of the most powerful tools to growth. These days I’m often consulting claude.ai or Google when I run into something I don’t know. The more I learn, the older I get, the less I know.
Faith Venture 
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