Recently, someone asked me this on Quora, I thought I'll reproduce what I wrote to that question:
Curiosity. Being curious about the things and people around your will lead you to interesting discoveries about them, and eventually yourself. You'll read more, study more and observe more. It will help you step out of your comfort zone and teach you important life lessons. Knowledge gathered in this way, will hopefully make you an expert on some topic or the other and help you earn a livelihood. But all knowledge is limited, and almost all the decisions you make will be based on insufficient data. And you realise this is why great men like, from Socrates to Feynman, have always said ' I don't know'. Because when you say you don't know, you learn. And that teaches you:
Humility. You understand that you are not the be-all and end-all as your ego would have you believe, and that the world doesn't revolve around you or your opinions. And that just like there are people worse than you, there are people better than you. Humility teaches you that the more you know, the more there is to know, so you don't become arrogant. And that when things are not going your way, it doesn't mean that they are not happening the way they should. You learn not to rush and this brings us to:
Patience. Everything takes its own time. The emperor and the beggar will have to wait nine months for the baby. A seed will take its time to become a tree, physical or metaphorical. It will teach you to be gentle with yourself, your loved ones and the planet. It'll make you realise, as sages have said, that the universe is unfolding as it should whether you are aware of it or not. This leads us to wisdom, which will teach us that there are probably more than three qualities you should possess.
Curiosity. Being curious about the things and people around your will lead you to interesting discoveries about them, and eventually yourself. You'll read more, study more and observe more. It will help you step out of your comfort zone and teach you important life lessons. Knowledge gathered in this way, will hopefully make you an expert on some topic or the other and help you earn a livelihood. But all knowledge is limited, and almost all the decisions you make will be based on insufficient data. And you realise this is why great men like, from Socrates to Feynman, have always said ' I don't know'. Because when you say you don't know, you learn. And that teaches you:
Humility. You understand that you are not the be-all and end-all as your ego would have you believe, and that the world doesn't revolve around you or your opinions. And that just like there are people worse than you, there are people better than you. Humility teaches you that the more you know, the more there is to know, so you don't become arrogant. And that when things are not going your way, it doesn't mean that they are not happening the way they should. You learn not to rush and this brings us to:
Patience. Everything takes its own time. The emperor and the beggar will have to wait nine months for the baby. A seed will take its time to become a tree, physical or metaphorical. It will teach you to be gentle with yourself, your loved ones and the planet. It'll make you realise, as sages have said, that the universe is unfolding as it should whether you are aware of it or not. This leads us to wisdom, which will teach us that there are probably more than three qualities you should possess.
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