There are many times in life where we hear words of wisdom, life lessons, or inspiring examples that we are familiar with. These words never really leave us, at times they are out of sight, out of mind, until we hear or experience some other example that reinforces that value or lesson. Ideally, after hearing these insights for the first time, second time, or regularly for 23 years, they will be in sight and in mind.

One of the lessons that my grandfather in Nigeria passed down to my mom, who shared it with me, is whenever I interact with people, especially my elders, is to listen. Listen, because there is always some wisdom to be obtained.  Whether it’s through the direct words of wisdom, examples or habits from their life, or just hearing their perspective, I try to leave those conversations wiser than when I entered into them.

Fellows listening to a speaker at Livernois SOUP

In this first month of Challenge Detroit we met with many different people who offered tons of information, past, present, and future. As I write this, two experiences jump out the most.

The first was when Mike Brennan, CEO of United Way for Southeast Michigan, spoke with us. He covered a lot of useful topics and concepts from the political and social environment of the city of Detroit, to best practices and examples of design thinking. All of that was, for lack of a better term, insightful. Towards the end he touched on a more personal and applicable lesson that I had heard before. He said, “All great leaders have a daily practice each day, what is important is not the practice itself, but that the practice gets you back to your core why?.” His practice was the walks he takes with his wife and prayer.

Much like Mike, this takes the form of prayer for me, and thinking why I do what I do each day, how I should treat those who I come into contact with, and what is the direction and impact I want to have in my life.This needs to be top of mind because it forces you out of your daily commute, and shifts your focus on progressing forward. Whenever you hear about the “great” figures, people mention the presence, peace and resolve they have despite the difficulties they are facing. This peace is obtained through this daily practice. I relate this to my high school English teacher telling me how the best essay (life) relates every point and paragraph (actions each day) to its thesis. My life’s thesis is my core why, my Raison d’être .

The piece of wisdom came to me from a man I was talking to for about 30 minutes at the Rosa Parks Transit Center in Downtown Detroit, while working on a project for the Detroit Design Festival. Our team was tasked with trying to reimagine the bus shelter experience, and we went down to Rosa Parks to talk with people who ride the bus everyday about their experiences and what they want for their bus shelters. In explaining his perspective, the man told me,

“Look you drive a car right? People drive cars because they want to be seen, people like me who ride the bus don’t want to be seen, we just observe, so we end up seeing a lot more that goes on in the community because we watch it every day”.

My initial thought was, “My car has 170,000+ miles on it, nobody is trying to see me.” When I was driving home that day though, I decided to focus on the latter part of his statement, and really just observe things as I was driving. I noticed the blinking lights of a crosswalk, and it sparked my idea for a reimagined bus shelter. What is important isn’t the idea itself or how I disagreed with his comment about my driving, but that when I started thinking from his perspective, I was able to come up with a new solution. This is a simple example, but the lesson still holds: when meeting people, there can be wisdom in the words they say, or in this case, the perspective they share.

In a way, this is not much different from the times when you hear “broaden your perspective,” but I think the real difficulty lies in knowing how and when to put it into practice.  This is a common cliché that I’ve generally always agreed with, but even as I type it, I already feel the skepticism associated with it. But, the redundancy of the message doesn’t make it any less true. In fact, repeated messages add to my motivation to put these lessons into practice.

So, I think there were three main concepts I’ve learned, or rather got reacquainted with, during this first month. The value of having a daily practice that drives you, the importance of a complete understanding, not only of what people say, but the perspective that leads them to say it, and how thankful I am for all the repeated lessons in my life.

Here’s to a year-long fellowship and all the wisdom people in the City of Detroit have to offer me.

P.S. Happy Independence Day to Nigeria!

Nigerian Independence Day: October 1st, 1960