Specialized Knowledge

Prequote: "Every Adversity, Every Failure, and Every Heatache carries with it the seed of an equivalent or a grater benefit"

Specialized Knowledge

It is said that knowledge is power. This is not exactly correct. Knowledge is only power if it is intelligently directed through practical plans of action. In looking into the quality of knowledge, Mr. Hill determined that it could be bifurcated into general knowledge and specialized knowledge.

General knowledge is of little use unless it can not be transmuted into practical action. I have always been dumbfounded by individuals that offer up incredible volumes of information that is nice to know, but adds no value to their life. They are the Cliff Clavens of the world.

I recently read an article about a gentleman that was an MIT graduate. He was able to recite the statistics of sports teams with amazing accuracy. While this information was impressive on its own; it adds no value to life. However, that is not where this gentleman stopped. He used this information to handicap games and assisted teams in making draft selections. He has become one of the experts in this field. He was able to take general knowledge and transform it into specialized knowledge. He is now making a very handsome living doing what he enjoys

In looking at specialized knowledge, there are a couple of real fallacies. Most people believe that it necessary to go to college to become an educated person and for those that follow the path to a university, many believe the education process ends at graduation.

Unfortunately, there are a multitude of examples of the first fallacy in most institutions of higher learning. These are the professors concerned with tenure who have never been in the workforce or applied the principles they expound in the class room. Many of these are on “autopilot” and cruising to retirement. Unfortunately, they lack passion. The victims of this tragic comedy are the students that believe they are being prepared for the real world.

In another article I read about the fundamental failure of the American education system when compared to the Chinese and Indian systems. In China and India, the focus of the family is on education. The real competition is to be the best in specialized fields such as math and science. In America we focus on our children being the best in athletics. We spend a fortune on getting lessons for sports and then send our children to “free” public education. Even the amount of time our kids spend in classes is less than both India and China.

Each fall we witness the parade of kids going off to college at a cost of many thousand dollars a year and they do not have a clue of what they want to do. They have not found their passion. Why. In my case I did to little as a parent to motivate my children to this end.

Mr. Hill states “an educated man is one who has developed the facilities of his mind that he may acquire anything he wants or its equivalent without violating the rights of others.” Please note that the words college or university education are never mentioned in this definition of educated. In fact, we all know examples of people that we believe are educated that never finished college. Thomas Edison had but 3 months of organized education and Henry Ford had less than a sixth grade education. Granted, it is tougher to succeed today with this level of education, but not impossible. Mr. Gates is ample proof.

My point is not that a college education is a waste. It is that education for no other purpose but the accumulation of general knowledge is pointless. Higher education should be a tool for acquiring specialized knowledge to facilitate the transmutation of a passion into a predetermined benefit. For this to be the case, we need to focus our thoughts on determining our passions and direct our activities to complement these passions. Through these activities the necessary specialized knowledge will become apparent.

The final point with regard to higher education was very profoundly stated by Mr. Hill. He noted that “the truth is that schooling does little more than to put one in the way of learning how to acquire practical knowledge. The person that stops learning at the end of the schooling is destined to mediocrity.”

After several years in the workforce, it has been my observation that the key to success is the continued activation of the human mind. I recently listened to a class on selling by Jeffrey Gitimer. I had to laugh when he described the three levels of life. According to Mr. Gitimer, we start out with excitement and energy on our path to success we call this, “being in the groove.” We then get into a routine and minimize our quest for knowledge and end up in what we call “a rut.” Finally, we stay in that rut until our life is dull and pointless and we end up in “a grave”. All three stages are crevasses only differentiated by depth. The keys to staying "in the groove" are imagination and continuing the education process.

Mr. Hill went on to state, “Power is acquired through highly organized and intelligently directed specialized knowledge, but that knowledge does not have to be in the possession of just one man. The man who can organize & direct a mastermind group who possess knowledge useful in the specific endeavor is just as much a man of education as any man in the group.”

In most endeavors, those that are successful are able to meld mastermind groups into cohesive teams. Through the fusion of each members specialized knowledge, the creativity and overall knowledge base grows exponentially. However, working with groups brings a whole new set of difficulties. This is the reason that the successful leader must acquire specialized knowledge regarding the psychology of people in general and teams in particular.

The final thought was again the principle that we are the products of our own habits and those we decide to associate with. Mr. Hill stated, “We rise to high positions or remain at the bottom because of conditions we can control if we so desire. Both success and failure are largely the results of habits and the close association with those who refuse to compromise with circumstances they do not like is an asset that can never be measured in terms on money.




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