Knowledge is not Power
The phrase ‘Knowledge is Power’ is a believed to be a truism by many. People forget to understand that Power is a derivative of knowledge, having knowledge is not power because it doesn’t guarantee success. Success is depended primarily on how you apply the knowledge that you have gained. It is known that any fool can pick up a book and regurgitate the information, what good is that? What you choose to do with the information is far more important! If being the most knowledgeable was a prerequisite for success, the old guys that lecture at Universities would inherit the Earth, clearly this is not the case.
The ones the inherit the Earth are the ones that are bold enough to do what is needed. You can only go so far with information, at some point the leap of faith needs to be taken from passive to assertive. Logic and reason are subordinate to the human emotions ( this is the nature of mankind), this makes it hard to act on raw facts and information in the real world. The ones that have emotional mastery will find it easier to take action, while the ones without emotional mastery will often choose to acquire more information.
In the share market we have a ‘Bull Market’ a prosperous time when shares rise, and everyone tries to make a quick buck by buying all the latest ‘HOT STOCKS’. The antithesis of the Bull Market is the dreaded ‘Bear Market’, when shares plummet, and everyone tries to get the hell out of the market. Warren Buffet who is widely considered the greatest investor of all time is well known for saying ‘buy when there’s blood in the streets’, but how many ‘knowledgeable’ people actually follow this advice? This is one of many examples proving my point about how raw knowledge is not enough, especially when emotions such as greed, and fear are at play.
Information Paralysis
A common activity you see in people who believe that knowledge is power, is the hoarding of information. Many people believe that by simply having all the information on a certain subject that they can gain power. Imagine reading every book there is on driving manual cars, now imagine going to the drivers test having never driven before. You probably won’t get the drivers license, you might even end up in jail after running someone over. Clearly this strategy of hoarding information is not effective, at some point you will need to get out there and do the dam thing.
Another way too much information paralyses you is through making it difficult to decide on a course of action. When you go through enough material on a subject you start to notice inconsistency in the information, making it hard for you to decide on what advice to take. Everyone has an opinion, do not waste your time entertaining all of them, spend more time figuring out what will work for you. Do what the legendary Bruce Lee did, take what is useful and disregard what is useless.
Now I don’t want you to get confused and to think I am telling you to not; read books , go to seminars , or educate yourself. I am just trying to show you that knowing and not doing is the same as not knowing. Action is the ingredient that is most important, it is what will actually get the ball rolling. Reading hundreds of books but not applying anything from them into your life is basically just wasting time. Once you can balance educating yourself with taking action you will gain the key to true POWER!
