experience

I have eaten more salt than you have eaten rice.

Listen to seemingly-unpleasant but invaluable advice from an old person or else, you will lose out.

A loose translation of the two chinese sayings in life that I have heard many many times. As I grow older, I start to appreciate these two sayings more and more. For EXPERIENCE, a ten-letter word so loaded with significance cannot be replaced by anything else. In short, there is no substitute for experience.

I feel blessed. Blessed that at this stage in life, I have had mentors who bother to give me advice, to teach me the ropes, to point out insights that I may have missed out.