Knowledge – Experience
It seems that we are a culture entranced with knowledge and politely dismissive about experience. We build altars to one and keep the other on the church steps.
People are experienced creatures but not all of us are filled with formal knowledge. Many people of my generation had parents who didn’t finish high school. That didn’t prevent many of them from using their experience to excel in their field and provide for their family.
Somewhere along the way we got to leaning too far in the direction of knowledge and its merit badges – degrees, and too far away from experience. It costs us.
Reminds me of many stories . . .
My neighbor graduated from high school and went to work as a draftsman at a company that builds submarines. Back in the 90’s he was asked to fly to DC to consult on a submarine snafu that tons of highly trained and degreed talent could not solve. He solved the problem. He didn’t own their knowledge base, but neither did they own his experience.
My wife from another life completed high school by getting her GED after we got married. She worked as a waitress. One of her customers was a manager at a bank and asked her to come work for him. She did. Only a few years later, she became a travelling manager for that bank. She then changed banks and became the vice-president of one branch and oversight manager of two other branches. She had no college degree, nor an MBA; she had experience with people that she parlayed into being a top bank executive.
My business partner and I were travelling in Michigan about 6 years ago and were having lunch at Applebee’s. I noticed the hostess was quite gregarious and seemed likable. I said to him, “She could be on our sales force and sell our seminars.” He said, “She’s only a hostess at Applebee’s.” We struck up a conversation with her and invited her to see our seminar operation that night. My business partner was quickly convinced that she had the savvy we needed in our sales department. She was a single mother of two with no degree but a boatload of transferable life experience.
I never finished college but had quite a successful broadcasting career and created a thriving seminar business with my partner, who also is a high school graduate. In the early 90’s I applied for a part time job teaching radio programming and public speaking at a local junior college. The interview couldn’t have gone better. The interviewer said he couldn’t believe how perfect a fit I was for this job. I was an experienced radio program director and was an experienced public speaker in the seminar business. Then he asked what college I graduated from. I told him I didn’t. He became ashen. He went on to explain that he couldn’t hire me because I didn’t have a degree. It was the law.
The law would allow him to hire a degreed novice with no experience who was a chapter ahead of the class, but not an experienced professional who had a celebrated record of getting the job done.
I have no bias against education. I sent my three boys off to college and they all got degrees. I have taken many courses in my field of interest. There are many fields where a completed course of study is necessary – brain surgery comes to mind. My only point is that what we have to know oftentimes gets in the way of letting our experience flow.
Many people make it their life’s mission to get to know about themselves. They want to know what makes them tick, why they do this and that, and all sorts of other knowledge based questions. They are looking for the knowledge and avoiding the direct experience that’s always available. Quoting Eckhart Tolle:
“There is nothing wrong with psychoanalysis or finding out about your past as long as you don’t confuse knowing about yourself with knowing yourself.”
“Know thyself” is the best prescription ever written. You begin that journey with the direct experience of noticing and feeling what’s going on in your body and sending your head on a sabbatical.
The resources you need for direct knowledge are already self-contained. There comes a point where you have to set aside your education and the step-by-step, mind generated plans, and do what the situation calls for by drawing on your inner experience.
There is a wealth of answers outside of education and everyone has access to them. I’m sure the Chinese person who discovered gunpowder wasn’t degreed, nor was the cave dweller who invented the wheel. There is a great story about Andrew Carnegie answering questions for a citizenship test. He told the questioner he didn’t know the answer to this one question, but could push a button in his office and have 5 people report to him with it in minutes.
“Know thyself” begins with “Trust thyself.” Trust that you have a part of you ready to provide life’s answers more efficiently than Andrew Carnegie’s assistants. If you need the answers for the Algebra test, study the book. If you’re looking for life’s answers, look inside.
Yes, consult with those knowledgeable in the field, but when push comes to shove, consult yourself and trust the answer that fills your body before your head. You’ll know your intuition is on target when you arrive at a state of presence, an inner knowing that’s not subject to debate.
There is a world full of knowledgeable people afraid to act because they have educated their mind not to trust their body.
If that list includes you, it’s time to take the home study course and discover your wealth of inner experience that doesn’t require you to fill your head up with facts.
All the best,
John
http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan
http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301
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