A 15-Minute Advantage

Survival mode in a bubble of privilege until called to more radical action. 15-minute advantage, active listening, sharing control, critical thinking, and music

Stories in life

When my grandson, Leon, was six, he and his dad intensely studied dinosaurs. Jokingly, I said to him, “Your aunt is an herbivore.” No, Opa, she’s an omnivore.” “But Leon, she’s a vegetarian.” “Oh, Opa, she CAN eat meat. She’s an omnivore.” Leon was the expert at that table. He had a 15-minute advantage on me. Experience, education, skills, and behavior all feed expertise. In my grandson story expertise has nothing to do with age or credentials.

My father, Ruben van Leeuwen, a Holocaust survivor, never went to college. I don’t think he graduated from high school. When he died at age 45, he was Vice President of Import Export for Hygrade, a multinational corporation. When I was 15, after his first heart attack, he and I walked together three days a week at 5 am. During one of those walks, he told me that having no credentials and asking the dumb questions was a secret to his success as an executive. He could get away with it with all the Ph.Ds. that worked for him.

When I was 16, dying to get out of high school, worried about the draft, I took a night school Civics class with Mr. Curry. Mr. Curry was an arch conservative, Korean war veteran who…