As many who are close to me know, Thomas Sowell is my biggest living hero. Not a day goes by without me quoting Thomas Sowell.
Honestly, it’s hard not to admire this man. When you read a book by Thomas Sowell, you think God wrote the book.
And what amazes me even more about this man is his character. He is such a humble soul who sincerely cares about the well being of other human beings.
These are the 7 life lessons I’ve learned from studying Dr. Sowell’s life and his works.
1 – It’s never too late to turn your life around
Dr. Sowell once wrote “Looking at old photographs makes it hard for me to believe that I was ever that thin physically. And remembering some of the things I did in those days makes it hard to believe that I was ever that thin mentally.”
Thomas Sowell dropped out of high school at age 17 to try out for the Brooklyn Dodgers. After failing at that, he did several menial jobs before realizing he didn’t want to stay in that position for the rest of his life.
After coming to his senses, he re-enrolled back to school and eventually got a Ph.D. in economics. He taught in big name institutions such as UCLA and Cornell during his academic career.
As you can learn from Sowell, anyone can turn their life around, no matter how far they’ve strayed from the right path.
2 – You’re Never Too Old to Do What You Could’ve Done
Thomas Sowell produced his greatest works in his 70s and 80s, long past the age of retirement for most people. And he’s still writing in his 90s!
Peter Robinson of The Hoover Institution pointed out that Sowell has produced a new book every 18 months since turning 80! Talk about being productive!
3 – Think
Thomas Sowell often advises people, especially young people, to think critically.
Here are few of his quotes regarding thinking:
“In an age of artificial intelligence, too many of our schools and colleges are producing artificial stupidity.”
“It doesn’t matter how smart you are unless you stop and think.”
“The problem isn’t that Johnny can’t read. The problem isn’t even that Johnny can’t think. The problem is that Johnny doesn’t know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling.”
“Emotions neither prove nor disprove facts. There was a time when any rational adult understood this. But years of dumbed-down education and emphasis on how people ‘feel’ have left too many people unable to see through this media gimmick.”
What sets Sowell apart from other writers and intellectuals of our time is his commitment to think things through, regardless of where the conclusion leads.
Sowell was a Marxist in his early years. But his willingness to look into the facts and stress-test his ideas eventually led him away from Marxism.
4 – Being Unpopular is Often a Good Thing
Thomas Sowell has experienced unpopularity several times during his academic career.
That was because he had strict yet reasonable grading standards. He wouldn’t curve students’ grades unlike other teachers and many students who were used to lenient standards didn’t like that.
But the students who were fine with his standards would usually end up performing better in his classes.
And these students were later thankful for his approach. In fact, they started asking why other teachers wouldn’t hold them to the same standards.
And once he transitioned from teaching to writing, Sowell started facing opposition from the media because he wrote about controversial issues, often taking the unpopular position.
The demonization and harassment from the media got so bad and he started getting death threats. And this led him to live in seclusion and even hide his office address.
When conservative radio personality Larry Elder went to visit him, Sowell wouldn’t tell elder his address. Sowell picked him up from the airport and took him home himself.
The lesson here is it’s OK to be unpopular and to even be hated. That doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong.
In fact, you often get more hate for what you’re doing right than for what you’re doing wrong, as can be seen from Thomas Sowell.
5 – You Attract Success by Not Caring About It
The great psychiatrist Viktor Frankl wrote in his book ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ the following:
“Don’t aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself.”
Thomas Sowell’s life perfectly illustrates this.
Sowell is known for his loathing of self-promotion. And yet he’s achieved a level of influence and prominence that many in his field envy.
When most people speak of Thomas Sowell, including those who disagree with him, they speak with great respect and reverence.
Sowell didn’t achieve these things by pursuing them. Many who know him personally mention how much he hates attention-seeking and self-aggrandizement.
He has attracted the things by being a quiet servant and not pursuing the vanities that many pursue. Truly, success comes to those who don’t care about it.
6 – Things Happen for You, Not To You
Sowell’s life wasn’t easy, especially in his early years after he dropped out of school and started living by himself. But he credits those challenging years as indispensable to the person he is today.
“With all that I went through, it now seems in retrospect almost as if someone had decided that there should be a man with all the outward indications of disadvantage, who nevertheless had the key inner advantages needed to advance.” Sowell wrote in his memoir.
7 – The Importance of Good Mentors
Thomas Sowell had many great mentors throughout his life who have influenced his thinking and shaped his values.
He didn’t always have the right mentors. Early on in his life, he was heavily influenced by Karl Marx.
Eventually, Sowell’s willingness to challenge his beliefs and his respect for facts led him away from Marxism.
One early mentor that Sowell remembers very fondly is professor Sterling Allen Brown.
Sowell wrote in his memoir, “At Howard, I took a course in writing from Sterling Brown, a man whose name meant nothing to me initially, and whom I came to appreciate and respect for his own qualities, long before I ever came across any of his writings or learned of the reputation he had made.”
Another big mentor in Sowell’s life is Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman.
Sowell said of Friedman, “If you ask me to name someone who had both genius and common sense, I would say Milton Friedman. And then I would have to struggle to find another example.”
Brown and Friedman are just a few of the great men and women who’ve mentored Thomas Sowell. You can clearly see the imprint Sowell’s mentors have not just in his works, but in his character.
These are some of the life lessons I’ve learned from this great man. Check out his latest book ‘Social Justice Fallacies.‘
