Bad Students, Good Students and Individualists

What I'm talking about has direct relationship with personal development. Some people decide to stop developing at some point while some keep self-developing until they die. I believe that there a couple of reasons why people in the categories differ.

It all boils down to motivation or lack thereof. Some people just don't care how far they will go during their lifespans. They never even think about life in such a way. For them life is a given. They pretty much waste it on worthless stuff, on something that will not even be worth remembering. Others try to go as far as possible, they explore their limits, try to push the limits and by doing so, they actually have a life full of events, good and bad, but this is what makes one's life worth living. All of that I have already described, so I won't go into too many details now.

Let me continue with an example. Imagine a class of 3 adult students and a teacher. Even though these 3 students have the same teacher, get the same homework etc, they are different.
One of the students just doesn't care. He doesn't have any motivation to learn anything and that is why he doesn't even feel inclined to attend the classes. That's what I would call a "failure". If there is nothing in life that can motivate this student, or if he never looks for motivation, his life will be yet another life, wasted on quite primitive self-indulgence. Since this is the easiest way in life, that's the choice for most people.
The other two students are good students, they both are constantly getting good grades and they have motivation to keep learning. There is, however, a big difference in them. While during a normal course of learning the difference is hidden, it becomes quite apparent when the teacher is removed from the picture. One student loses all his motivation right after he doesn't have anybody to teach him. He then looks for another teacher and process keeps repeating forever. Student #3 becomes self-sufficient learner, who doesn't really need a teacher. Even though student #2 has always been a good student, he is not too different from student #1. Yes, he used to get good grades, but he never reached the self-sufficiency and that's what is really important. Student #2 will not be even able to form his own opinion, since he is unable to direct himself in life. His opinion will be the opinion of the teacher, who is currently teaching, or in other words, imposing his personal opinions on the student. Only student #3 will be able to actually make a difference in life. Unfortunately, since this is the hardest way of them all, not too many people are choosing it.

It is very easy to follow someone's idea, which is presented in a easily consumable way. It is too easy to consume someone's idea and decide that you will now follow it. In fact, absolute majority of people is like that. What is even worse is that a well presented idea, no matter how outrageous it might be, can gain enormous support of many followers. Religion is the best example of them all. What's easier than to read a book and decide that everything in it is true and follow it? The book has been read by many generations, it has been tested by thousands of years. It is well presented and easy to believe. What is there to think about? The ideas are there, just go ahead and make them yours. You do that, and you are student #2. You are nothing but a follower of someone's idea. You are always in need of being led. And trust me, there will always be people who will enjoy leading you. Only the ones who will actually be able to break away and become individual thinkers can achive levels, never before thought possible. It doesn't mean they will disagree with anyone and everyone, but they will actually understand why they agree and why they disagree with something. That's the feature, which is of great importance in my opinion. So ask yourself: which category do you fall into?