Whether you’re a CEO of a major corporation, or that security guard who sits alone at the lobby desk after everyone in the building has gone home for the day, you cannot afford to stop earning. Ever. To know is important, but to learn is even more so because the moment you stop learning, the world leaves you behind.

I’m not suggesting that you spend your life in school, or even that you accept as true the things you’re taught in school. Too many schools at all levels fail to teach students that they have the right to question what they’re taught, the right to ask “Why is it so?” or “Why must it always be so?” Learning outside of formal classrooms encourages such questions.

There are endless other ways by which you can continue to learn, often merely by observing. The only thing learning requires is that you keep open those five marvelous windows to your mind – certainly your ability to taste, smell and touch, but in particular your ability to see and hear. The latter two are definitely helpful when it comes to absorbing – and later digesting – the knowledge and experiences to which you’re exposed each day.

Certainly learning in and of itself can be exciting, but being able to connect the various things you learn can be absolutely exhilarating, the results often surprising. That’s particularly true as you continue to learn more about yourself and all the new things you’re able to accomplish – at work, at play, in your personal life – merely by continuing to learn.

Take Eric Hoffer as an example? Some reading his name here may have heard it before, others not. It wasn’t all that long ago – May of 1983, actually – that Hoffer passed away at the age of 81. He was what was known then as “an American social writer,” meaning he wrote about the social concerns of our nation. The author or some 10 books, in Feb. of ‘83 Hoffer was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Ronald Reagan.

But more than just a writer, Eric Hoffer was the consummate learner. At seven years old, following an accident, young Hoffer suddenly lost his sight. Eight years later, at age 15, for reasons no one at that time could determine, his sight just as suddenly returned. But because he feared he might again become blind, Hoffer began to read as much as he could as often as he could. As a result, much of what he learned during his life was self-taught, a product of his near-compulsion for reading.

The world of a “social writer” during Hoffer’s time wasn’t all that rewarding, certainly not financially. Hoffer wrote the kinds of books read mostly by scholars. His books never made it to any “best seller” list. In fact, Hoffer was well on in years before there was any real appreciation for his writings.

To put food on his table and a roof over his head as he continued to learn and write, Hoffer worked as a field hand in California, and, for a time, in its gold mines. He later became a longshoreman, a job from which he retired at age 65.

There’s obviously more to Eric Hoffer than this brief glimpse at his 80-plus years, but I mention him here because perhaps his most impressive contribution was his ability to put into words the importance of continued learning: “In times of change,” observed Hoffer, “it is the Learners who will inherit the earth, while the Knowers will find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”