This was pre Internet, NO! ..as a matter of fact, it was even before Cassettes became a popular alternative to the 12 inch vinyl LP. I met this lady she was forty and I was fifteen, she took a liking to me and often during the evening I’d be over at her house. She enjoyed, a glass of wine or a whole bottle in the evenings. I was taken by this woman, as we’d sit on her couch with her smiling at me, sipping her wine, and telling me various interesting stories. There was a lot of laughter in the room and she’d be constantly offering me something that I’d never experience before.

One evening as I was sitting there she decided to talk in words of wisdom to me. I found this very interesting and was thinking  …ok, lets see where this goes.  Having no idea at that moment, that the words of wisdom she shared that night would stay with me for the rest of my life.  Here’s what she said as she was looking straight in my eyes, with a smile “ John, if you do this ..you’ll do alright with life..Learn to listen. “

At that moment, I must admit..I was absolutely clueless to what she had just said, however it stuck and I thank her for those words of wisdom. 

From thereafter, as I have journey through my life, I actually stopped my mind to “ listen” to what someone is telling me. Sometimes though, I’d catch myself not completely listening. When ever this happens, I ask the person to excuse me, to alert them that my mind was elsewhere and ..then ask if they would not mind if I shared with them what I’d received to make sure I am on track or to get on track with what they were saying. From there on, they would have my attention.  

Through that forty year old lady’s wisdom, I actually learned that if I listen, I could interact with people better, learn more and talk less.   

We’ll get back to the lady in a little bit, recently I made a new discovery that directly connects to listening in this new world, new establishment to share. It has to do with my being relatively new to all this social networking stuff.  I have been investing time, in to self teaching myself and researching on what makes social networking tick and then tock.  My discovery resulted in simply being a better listener (reader) makes it tick and it will actually tock back to you, by you simply understating (reading) the tick before you tock (write) back, …then it ticks again.

Years back, I had a man tell me, “ you have to be smarter than the tool you’re working with “ My point here is that I am actually getting this old grandfather clock in rhythm with today that, that forty year old lady gave me all  those years ago.

Now back to the forty year old lady, she was my first girlfriends mother, mentoring to me just in case………….