Throughout your life I will send you many teachers. The wise person learns from all of them.
Every person you encounter is a teacher who has something to teach you. Some of them will be people whom you should emulate. You should spend as much time with these teachers as possible. Others you will meet for just a few moments. In these brief encounters, they have an important message for you. Some of your teachers will not even be aware of what it is they are teaching you. But remember this rule: If I have sent this person into your life, it is for a reason.
Every person you encounter will have some wisdom from which you can learn. Every person will have a strength, a positive quality, or a good trait that can be yours too. Every person will have a perspective that can enlighten you.
People will ask you questions that challenge you and help you grow. You may well learn more from people who know less than you do than from those who know more. So treat each person who asks you a question with respect.
Let it be said of you that you never miss an opportunity to learn from others. Whenever you meet another one of My children, ask yourself, "What can I learn from this person?"
From some people you will be able to learn global principles; from others, specific pieces of information. In certain people's presence, you will realize immediately what you can learn; with others, it may take quite a while. From some people you will learn how to fulfill mitzvos with more joy; from others, how to pray with more fervor. Some people will give you new insight into Torah; some will demonstrate new ways to do kindness.
Learn from people who are healthy and from those who are ill, from those who are considered great and from those who seem plain and ordinary. Learn from people who are highly intelligent, from people who are slow, from those who seem to you to be profound and from those who seem simple.
Learn from the people whom you have already met and from the people whom you will meet in the future, from people who can do what you cannot yet do yourself, and from people who can help you improve in those areas in which you're already skilled.
Increase your wisdom with each person I send your way, for I send you the teachers whom you need the most.
Be wise, my child.
by:Rabbi Zelig Pliskin