Would you rather be an “A student” or a “C student?” I think it’s fair to say that most of us would have been happy with the higher scores in school. We were taught: work hard, study hard, get good grades, and you will succeed. But reality is a bit more complicated. In a 2014 book, Robert Kiyosaki argues that A students – the ones who follow the rules and read, write, memorize, and test well – actually end up working for C students – the innovators and creators. Getting A’s won’t necessarily get you to the top, and getting C’s is not a recipe for failure. Both have their strengths and weaknesses.
Let’s look at Abraham and Noah through this lens. Were they A students, or a C students? Last week, we saw Noah build an ark and save humanity and the animal kingdom when God brought a disastrous flood (with many casualties along the way). Noah is called “righteous, perfect in his generations” and someone who “walked with God.”
The image above is an image of the book "Why "A" Students Work for "C" Students and "B" Students Work for the Government" written by Robert T. Kiyosaki (Author) published by Plata Publishing, LLC.
Sounds like a winner to me…Yet, when he is told God is going to destroy the world because of all the corruption and immorality, all we hear from Noah is…wait for it…silence. And when he is told to make the ark to save his family at the expense of everyone else in the world, what do we hear? Silence. And does he attempt to draw up a building plan for the ark, or does he wait for God to dictate the whole thing, plank by plank? Of course, he waits for detailed instruction.
Noah is an A student – he follows directions to the letter. He does what he is told and doesn’t take much initiative. Strikingly, when he leaves the ark, this perfectly righteous man gets drunk. Why? Perhaps it’s because, with a whole world to be built from scratch and no immediate guidance, he felt no choice but to escape.
What about Abraham? He is told “Lech Lecha”:
The LORD said to Abram, “Go by yourself ("lecha lecha") from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
As it turns out, Abraham was already on a journey when God sends him this message. What characterizes this message? It’s serious, it’s personal, and it could not be more vague. But Abraham is a C student. He doesn’t walk with God; he “walks before God" (Genesis 24:40).
He charts his own journey and is willing to take big risks. He takes broad instruction and figures out what is really being asked of him. He doesn’t let anything confine him. Moreover, when God tells Abraham he is going to destroy Sodom and Gemorrah, Abraham does, indeed, protest despite whatever consequences may ensue. A solid C student, indeed.
Of course, Abraham has his flaws – some very serious (see: his marital relationship, almost killing his beloved son and exiling the other). As for Noah – even though he can get a bad wrap, he did not exactly have the most positive figures after whom to model his behavior (Adam & Eve? Cain & Abel?). For the cards he was dealt, he played them quite well.
So, do you see yourself more as an A student, or a C student? As a Noah or an Abraham? A by-the-book get-it-done work horse, or a more adventurous, ideas-driven creator?
My blessing for the Moishe House community this week is that we are able to sharpen within ourselves both of these elements – that we try to identify where we can use some more structure and what opportunities we have to follow rather than lead, and on the other hand, where we can relax, use our boundless intuition a bit more, and let ourselves drift into creative flow. When we do this work together, let us be blessed to find the land that God will show us.
The above image can be found here.