I KNOW

Do you? Does anyone else see the major challenge in using those two little words?

While having a discussion in The Action Suite, for more information on this very unique business development program go to JoedaSilva.ca and click on the link, on how to think outside the box, Sheila Sutherland, one of business leaders in this group, stated: “Stop using ‘I know.” Even I was taken aback for a time and asked her to explain further and what she shared was truly eye-opening for everyone, including myself.

‘When you utter: “I know.” you are in fact putting up walls to any further acquisition of knowledge. We have stated we know everything there is to know about what is being either presented or taught and we have no more learning to do. We shut ourselves off from any further knowledge of the subject being presented.’

This in fact, may be one of the reasons why the world today may be in a bigger mess than we realize. We seem to be in an era where everyone is an expert and that they know everything there is to know about a subject. Therefore, my question is, are you sure you do know? Myself, I have been in the business development realm and the only thing I know for sure is that I need to know even more.

With todays’ speed of change based on technological advancements, it is absolutely impossible for any of us to say that we ‘do know.’ There is always something coming down the pipeline that will turn what we thought we knew into: “What the heck just happened.”

If you, as I do, profess to the idea which goes; ‘the day you stop learning is the day you die,’ then a mind open to: “Hmmm tell me more.” will continue to develop and we as individuals will change and evolve in this hurried, complicated, unknowing world.

Now that we have accepted the fact that we thought we knew we no longer know, what do we do? Well, may I humbly suggest, we find out, or do more work in whatever it is you need to work on. Yes, increase the knowledge in order to learn. At the end of the movie, A Christmas Carol, Scrooge, played by Allister Simms, stated: “Now I know that I don’t  know anything and never knew anything.” It only took three ghosts to show him that ‘I know’ was a wrong way of thinking.

The other alternative is to subscribe to one of Benjamin Franklins quotes, which goes; ‘Some people die at 25 and aren’t buried until 75.’ Are you so set in your ways that you refuse to change in any which way or form? Are you willing to watch world flash past you, or do you want to be able to go along with it for the ride? Are you absolutely sure you have nothing more to learn in anything you do?

Sheila, made us take a good long hard look at ‘I know.’ However, if there is one thing everyone who is a member of The Action Suite does know is that they need to know more. Otherwise, why would they be there.

As a trainer as well as an instructor, basic sales fundamentals, to students from all over the world in a private college, I have come to realize, even the teacher can learn from the student. Do you truly know, or do you need more?