I remember when I talked to my old boss’s boss, the first job in Australia.
We were having a get-together, and they, the staff, call him the ‘God’, around the office. He was very humble, and people wanted to meet him. I did not know who he was, but I was there, learning to mingle, when he walked up to me and asked me how I was. I was being me, “I am ok, thank you, you?”
“What do you do here”? He asks.
“I am the account assistant, new here”. I replied.
Then another came up to talk to him, interrupting the conversation. Then he walks away and continues to talk to others, but the big, big boss stayed, and I continue to talk to him, “he is very knowledgeable, ya”?
He says, “An empty vessel makes the most noise”.
Then he told me, “Since you are new to accounts, bankers are not your friends; they give you an umbrella when the sun is shining, and take the umbrella back when it is raining, do not think they are your friends, be careful when you are with them.”
Ironically, I did not know this, but he must have known bankers very well. I lost a lot of money to my private banker with my money! As for “empty vessel makes the most noise”, I understood what he meant much later in life, many people who makes the most noise, talks a lot usually do not know much, the empty vessel, like you knock no the metal boat, it makes a lot of noise when it is empty like a oil container, as compare to a oil vessel filled with oil, it does not make any noise.
He is a wise man; he is still around. It was an honor, meaning someone wise in the business world, very rare.
Learn to be FULL of WISDOM by listening more than talking, because an empty vessel makes the most noise in life!