The Most Important thing my Father taught me

I learned a lot from my father, but I thing the most important thing I learned from him was that ignorance is good.

Talk with any inspirational speaker or any very successful business person and you will find that they are ignorant too. Yep. The more you can cultivate your ignorance the better off you will be.

Ok, now, of course you know that I don't mean that the way it sounds.

Somewhere in my high school days I was in a deep conversation with some friends. I knew that the point I was trying to make was right but I couldn’t really explain why or how. I talked about it with my dad. I remember it clearly we were in the basement office of our house. He shared with me a phrase that I remember often. A phrase that propels me to success.

The phrase was, "I don't know the answer." If you can get comfortable with the idea of not knowing you will find yourself much more successful. IF... IF you follow up that phrase quickly with, "But I can find out." these two ideas, "I don't know, but I can find out." will propel you over the top. So many people think they have to know it all, so they bluff and because they bluff they don't learn.

Me, I am happy to say I don't know. I want to surround myself with people who are smarter than I am. They make me successful. My advisors and mentors help me do better than I could ever do myself.

Face it, You can't know it all. So, accept your ignorance, embrace it, revel in it and surround yourself with smarter people.

Repeat the phrase

"I don't know, but I can find out."

Lessons from Christopher Columbus

"In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue."

Have you ever thought you knew what you were doing ...only to find out that you were completely wrong? Was this a bad thing or a good thing? Is there a pattern to when it is a good thing or a bad thing? In my experience, as long as I am taking positive action toward a goal, it almost always turns out to be a good thing.

Look at Columbus. He was trying to find a new Silk Road, a new route to Asia. Well he missed it by about 15,000 miles! More than a little bit off buddy. He messed up. But he discouraged because he didn't find a new route to Asia? um. no! (fact is he didn't know he wasn't in Asia) What he found was a route to the Americas. A world whole world that Europe didn’t know existed.

I recently ran in to a roadblock with a project I was working on. I had all kinds of plans, time, and personal investment rolled up in it. But ran into an issue that made it impossible to continue. At first I was really upset about it. But then I thought, Well, What if I had run into this problem 5 minutes after deciding to pursue this project? I would have let it roll off my back and not thought further of it, knowing there are a Million good ideas out there and the fact that this one is not possible to pursue just means that there is another, better idea for me out there. Something just waiting to be discovered.

You act. and yet something goes wrong. What do you do with what is handed to you that is what determines the outcome.

So next time life throws you a curve ball, a road block, or a sharp turn. Check yourself. Your reaction is what will make the difference. (Of course I question the sanity of Chris C. If I had landed in the Bahamas with no crush of tourists around, I think I would have settled down with a palm frond umbrella and a cool drink and just kissed Europe bye bye. :-)


For more information about Christopher Columbus see http://www.columbusnavigation.com/