Let’s face it. None of us know a lot in the grand scheme of things. Even those of us with a lot of “formal” training, or a lot of educational degrees, or a lot of life and business experience. Even those of us at the “top of our games” or the “top of our fields.” After all, games and fields change. The bar gets raised. Customers and their expectations evolve. Competitors and their capabilities continue to move forward. Technology doesn’t stand still. What we know becomes dated shortly after we learn it. We would have to be learning new stuff all the time just to barely keep pace.
I don’t say this to be mean or to question what you know. I’m sure you are smart, and I am sure you are trying your best to remain relevant today. But will you be relevant tomorrow in a world that is changing overnight? Probably not.
It is impossible for any of us to keep up. That doesn’t mean that you wouldn’t be an awesome party guest or a brilliant panelist at a conference about the past. But it does suggest that you, and all of us, have relatively limited knowledge. Which is not, to be honest, a bad thing. Sure, we would like to be the smart or expert at the things that matter to us. But it is simply impossible to keep up with all the things we should know to connect the dots and make a difference.
As a big fan of stand-up comedy, I am super impressed with the brilliance of Alex Edelman. His one-person show on Broadway titled “Just for Us,” which is now a special on HBO Max, is insightful and hilarious. While the show has much deeper messages, I am struck by a part in which he reveals a four-word phrase that can be used to seem intelligent, knowledgeable, and engaged in any conversation. The phrase is “Can you believe it?” and it does seem rather handy when trying to seem informed, smart, and in the know. Not very smart about baseball, or the solar eclipse, or the latest trends in music? Simply say “Can you believe it?” and the conversation will go on without skipping a beat. Think about conversations you have had where you have felt a bit over your head and this phrase becomes a great equalizer.
But it also suggests the power of humility. In a world where we can’t know everything, why not acknowledge our lack of knowledge as the key to being open to learning new things? Why not say, “I don’t really know but this is interesting, and I am open to learning and thinking about it?”
Real breakthroughs are most often made by people who do not know a lot about the subject at hand. It is this lack of knowledge that gives them the ability to take a fresh look at the things that matter most and imagine a different way of solving them. But it also suggests the value of being humble. Humility, rather than in depth knowledge, should be the starting point for our own efforts to get smarter, think differently, and connect the dots in ways that people tied to their own knowledge can never see.
Humility, rather than in-depth knowledge, is your secret weapon in the world we live in.
Can you believe it?
We win in business and in life when we embrace our lack of knowledge by admitting we don’t know very much. And, when we commit to being curious and eager to quickly learn more.
