Many consider Obama to be an intelligent person and are willing to listen to him. However, even a great leader like Obama paid attention to an older and experienced person: his father. Obama’s father was a political extremist, which ultimately led to his assassination. By paying attention to his more experienced father, Obama was able to learn that extremity is destroying. Obama was able to learn from his father’s mistake and rectify it by realizing that compromise is the best way to go about things. Even today in his presidency, Obama employs compromise when dealing with foreign policy or the passage of certain laws. So, by paying attention to people older and more experienced than us we will be able to learn from their good deeds or mistakes.
While Obama paid attention to his father’s experience to become a successful politician, Wilhelm II, Kaiser of Germany in the late 1800’s, failed to listen to his wiser chancellor, thereby leading to Germany’s fall and World War I. Bismarck, Wilhelm II’s chancellor, had more political experience and diplomacy than the amateur Wilhelm II, who was very impulsive and unintelligent. However, Wilhelm did not pay much attention to Bismarck’s advice on how to run the country. Wilhelm ignored Bismarck and acted according to his own rules, ultimately leading to the frustrated Bismarck’s resignation. Ever since then, Wilhelm’s unwise moves led Germany to its downfall and set up the stage for the first World War. This example clearly shows how ignoring experienced people had been harmful in the past and serves as a lesson for us so that we do not repeat history.
While there are many people who are not worthy of listening to, there is no harm in paying attention to their experiences. It could help us learn from their mistakes and fix our lifestyle, as well as prevent future destruction. Ultimately, it is our choice whether to listen to these people or not. Therefore, we can make the decision of listening to the wise people and not listening to the unwise people.
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