There is a lot of wisdom available. Imagine how much knowledge humanity has not already created over millennia of history. We can find good universal teachings in texts from the Bible, the Koran or the Talmud, as well as in Greek philosophy, but also in Roman law and the wise words of Chinese masters, such as Confucius. There are African proverbs, Brazilian popular wisdom, Russian novels, fantastic Latin American realism, American pragmatism, the German method, Japanese precision, French poetry, English rationalism, Indian meditations, Portuguese adventures, in other words, wherever and whenever we look, we will find something that teaches us. 

So open your mind, don't limit yourself to one area of knowledge. The best technicians I knew were the ones with good interpersonal skills and the best humanists were also good salesmen. Scientific genius is diminished when you don't think about the people who might be impacted by new inventions, just as philosophy is lost when you can't convey it, because what would it be to communicate a message well if not to "sell" a point of view.

In these readings, conversations and observations, you will notice that some teachings begin to repeat themselves, in different times and different words, but the essence is the same. These repeated inferences of knowledge are like tiny grains of sand that settle over time until they form a colossal mountain. This consolidated knowledge of universal nature is what I call a principle. Good principles help us to put our feet on the ground, but not in an inert way, but in the sense of having a foundation that serves as a basis to achieve our purpose. 

I do not think that principles are beautiful aphorisms to be decorated and worn as ornaments on the skin. For me they are food, which needs to be digested and transformed into energy, sustenance for life. It needs to be adapted and linked to our reality. 

Again, I will try to illustrate this better through some examples.  

I only know that I know nothing, Socrates. It is incredible how this paradox is a driving force, because it forces the human being to a continuous search for knowledge. If one day we admit that we already know everything, we stop learning and it is when we stop learning that we begin to really age and wither away. The young man who no longer wants to learn is already an old man, and a 100-year-old man who still glimpses something new will never be old. 

This thinking is so powerful that it leads us to break dogmas and preconceptions and can have gigantic influence not only on individuals, but on companies, cities, countries and even the history of humanity. Want to see? Let's remember Columbus. At some point, a Genoese navigator believed that the earth was round, so the best way to the Indies would be to sail westwards, which for the vast majority of people at that time was to head for the end of the world. This disbelief that the common knowledge of his time was sufficient led Columbus to follow his adventure and change the history of humanity forever. That impulse towards the new allowed one part of the world to find another and changed all our history. Curiously, on the other side, China, which in a similar period was in a more advanced situation than the West, decided to abort its plans of overseas exploration because it somehow believed that the world was China itself and its immediate surroundings, so there would be nothing very interesting left to explore or learn out there. Centuries later those strategies have.

There were very different consequences for the evolution of these two hemispheres of the world, where the West eventually emerged as the epicentre of major world developments. 

In conclusion, you will only find something new if you recognise that there is something you do not yet know to be found and that what you do today can always be improved. So, knowing that you don't know everything can be quite motivating and will ultimately lead you to new horizons.