The importance of experience in our lives is invaluable. Education that we receive in schools, colleges and universities help us in gaining knowledge . But gaining knowledge itself hardly helps one in tackling the myriad of problems that we encounter in our day-to-day lives. It is one's ability to combine knowledge with experience that set him or her apart from the crowd. The persons with the same set of academic qualifications perform differently when put to the same work. And it owes to the basic fact that by virtue of superior experience gained through the power keen observation and perception , they score better. The lessons learned in books are not just crammed to come off with flying colours in examinations . These are imbibed properly to apply the knowledge in real life situations.

Some people stress other qualities such as passion, commitment, personality, perseverance, positive energy etc. as the principal ingredients for success. The importance of these traits are doubtless great. Without passion for something one can never achieve the depth of knowledge which is necessary to understand and interpret the experience that he or she goes through in life. Similarly the importance of perseverance , commitment to one's goals, personality and positive energy could hardly be overemphasized. But nothing can substitute experience.

The broad spectrum of experiences starting from our birth to the very end of our life are great teachers in a sense. A particular experience may produce different reactions and responses in individuals with diverse social, psychological, moral and educational backgrounds and each of them gains or loses in their way. And the one who gains by it makes further gains by repeating his action in the light of his previous experience while the loser also gains by not repeating the same action which his previous experience.

Unfortunately we have a class of people who never learn through experiences and tend to be very rigid in their views and attitudes. And the experiences pass them by and they continue to repeat the same mistakes over and again.