Albert Einstein ranks top on my list of men who represent the virtue of excellence. He is inarguably one of the smartest men to walk on this earth, an average at best in school but a man of uncanny wisdom.

Below are a couple of lessons we can learn from him:

“A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labours of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and I am still receiving” – Albert Einstein

Just as a son looks up to his father so should we look up to financially successful people, learning from them and shaping our financial life as they did. Instead of shunning those who failed, we should instead identify their weaknesses and also learn from them.

“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” – Albert Einstein

History has shown that those who contributed the most to mankind were those who defined the knowledge of masses; they dared to imagine what was considered impossible at the time. A Ugandan entrepreneur did what others thought was crazy. She started making sausage from fish and she’s now scoring big in the sale of her fish sausages.

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” – Albert Einstein

Don’t invest in what you don’t understand, take time to learn and understand it first. Warren Buffet, a genius investor, when asked why he is not investing in Microsoft despite being close friend of Bill Gates, he answered that, "I don’t invest if I don’t understand the underlying business." He said the same thing about Facebook. Why should anyone put his money in that which he does not understand?

“Its not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” - Albert Einstein

Our education system rewards those who succeed in exhibiting their knowledge of books. Students with power of memory rather than creativity are rewarded for their stupendous bookish knowledge. Reality is, success comes to those who dare to imagine and solve the mysteries of the nature to benefit mankind. It’s the street smarts who score it big in real life, take Bob CollyMore for example, the man has no degree but he heads a multinational business empire.

There's so much we can learn from this great man, he's taught us to work selflessly for others, to never stop growing our mind, to love our imagination, to make our thoughts simple enough for others to understand, to live life of simplicity, to never quit no matter what it takes to succeed and above all, live life of highest values and character. Are you a graduate of Einstein’s school of hard knocks? I’d love to know…