A smart man once told me a story. I figured I’d share it with you.

At the age of 18, this man fell in love with a girl. She loved him back, but he had to go to the army. He left her, but during his service, his girlfriend told him that she was pregnant. He did the math, found out that the baby couldn’t have been his, and left her.

Years passed, and this man went on to marry and have kids, but this woman never left his mind. She lived in a different country by now, but although the man was married with kids, he didn’t stop thinking about his unicorn.

The man lived a horrible life with the woman he married. It was a nightmare. When the two got a divorce, the man went back to the woman of his dreams. The woman he loved. The woman he had spent every day fantasizing about.

After a few calls overseas and a conversation with an international operator, he got to the woman. They started talking again and she was shocked to hear his voice. She professed her love for him (although she had betrayed him earlier, and gone on to live with the guy who’s kid she had), he decided to give her another chance.

He flew overseas and he saw that the woman of his dreams was now extremely unattractive, and not the same girl as she was when she was 18. This woman that he had been putting on the pedestal her whole life had hit the wall young. She looked like shit.

And at that moment, it all hit him. He was living life for the wrong thing.

Now, I could type up a whole paragraph as to what we can gain from this story - but it’s pretty obvious. I know there’s a lot of guys that suffer from oneitis, so this one’s for you. Understand it how you will, use it how you will, just remember this:

A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others.