Success Model Part 2: Knowledge

So you’ve read Part One of this series, as well as my soapbox sermon on losers. You’ve done your homework, and you’re all fired up now, right? Well if not, rewind and get it done. If so, you’re ready to continue your climb!

The Importance of Knowledge

It is better to be unborn than untaught: for ignorance is the root of misfortune. -Plato

Meet your new best friend: Amazon! The importance of knowledge to your success cant be understated. With knowledge, you can foresee problems, recognize and create opportunities, and add value to the lives of others. Without knowledge, you cannot advance. When I talk about knowledge, I mean the kinds of knowledge that are directly or indirectly applicable to your field. This includes people, places, trends, and practices along with “core knowledge” or subject-direct knowledge. From here on out, the only way that you can continue your progress is by continuously acquiring,applying, verifying, and updating your knowledge in what I call…

The Knowledge Cycle

Acquire

You must acquire the kind of knowledge that is useful and applicable to your field of endeavor. For instance, if you wish to become a lawyer, then you would need to know how to write correspondence, general knowledge of all areas of law, and specific knowledge as far as your field of practice is concerned. Generally speaking, it doesnt help an entertainer to know how to assemble an engine any more than it helps a lawyer to know how to fly a plane, but dont pass up the chance to gain familiarity with anything that has anything to do with your field of pursuit. As you dig through piles of research papers and gigs of data, you may feel overwhelmed at the amount of information at your hands; dont pressure yourself to become an overnight expert! Expertise is developed over many years. At this point in the game, you are aiming for familiarity.Remember that picture of the road to success city in Part 1 of this series? Think of every little bit of knowledge that you gain as fuel that will get you further down that road.

There’s no better source of knowledge available to you than the people that are in the position that you want to be in, so don’t limit yourself to books and text online for the bulk of your knowledge. Proverbs says “A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years study of books”, and that wisdom still holds true today.  With some maneuvering and networking, you can align yourself with people that can open doors for you faster than a college degree or an entire library worth of information can.

Apply and Verify

Its not so much what you know as what you can do with what you know that matters here. There is an old Chinese proverb that goes like this: “To know and not to do is to not yet know”

“Arthur, wtf is that supposed to mean?” Glad you asked! Simply put, it means that if you think you know something, but have never done it, you dont know shit. It is easy to go through courses or read books on a subject, but until you actually put that information into action, your knowledge is missing a critical dimension. Dont confuse studying with progress! The only thing that facilitates progress is action! You are not in the business of collecting information.

Verifying the truth of the knowledge that you have gained is easy, and necessary, since some of your sources wont be as good as others.

Update

Updating your knowledge is absolutely critical. If you are entering a field that is full of competitors, he who has the most up to date information will lead. Stay up to date on changes in your industry by reading magazines, newspapers, and trade publications, and using online tools like twitter and Google trends.

Homework

In part one of this series, you wrote down goals in specific areas of your life. Now you must acquire the knowledge that is relevant to those goals. Go to LinkedIn and participate in discussions, use Myspace to network with pros instead of hoes, and use the power of the internet to facilitate your knowledge cycle.

Your Network is your Net Worth

That is an observation that I made that literally changed my outlook on success and how I was going about attaining it. This saying is in direct relation to the old “its not what you know, its who you know”.

As a kid, my mother would tell me to watch who I hung around, because they could rub off on me. I had no idea what she was talking about at the time. I thought that I was completely in control of my thoughts, actions, and circumstances. But like all teenagers, I was naive.

Guilty by Association

People will oftentimes associate your behaviors and thoughts with the people you hang out with. If you are in a group of individuals who look like ex-convicts or drug users, people will automatically judge you to be an ex-convict or drug user. Why else would you be in such a group if you all werent like minded? Law enforcement calls guilt by association “accomplice liability”. If you are driving your car and your passenger was in illegal possession of drugs or a firearm without your knowledge, the police could nail you for their actions. For one person to “judge a book by its cover” is unfair, but to do so is built into our socio-evolutionary design. As we go through our day, we come across hundreds if not thousands of people. Our brains are hardwired to make snap judgments based on compulsive evidence (“he’s in a really nice suit and on his cell phone, must be somebody important” or, “shes wearing a really short skirt and her breasts are popping out of her top, she must be ‘easy'”). We do the same when it comes to group identity.

Group Identity

The best place to see how group identity works is a high school lunchroom. Each group or “tribe” is separated by similarities in thought, activity, and interest. All the nerds, the football, basket ball and Lacrosse players, the “preps”, the “goths”, and the “thugs” all share qualities and traits that are associated with the group as a whole. For the nerd to leave his tribe and join another, her must take on the qualities of his new tribe (assimilation), or he wouldnt be accepted. Thats why we automatically judge others based on the group they are in; because if he didnt possess qualities similar to the rest of the group, then he wouldnt be a part of that group.

Frottage

The good news about group identity is that it works both ways. In other words, by associating yourself with the rich, famous, or important, others will bestow the same admiration and access upon you.  In Gretchen Rubin’s book, Power Money Fame Sex: A User’s Guide, she uses the term “fame frottage” (to get fame, rub up against somebody famous) to illustrate this point.

But theres more to achieving success and building your net worth than just hanging around people who have done so. The value in your association with the powerful and the successful comes from your access to their formula for achievement. You are able to consult them for advice, pick their brains for knowledge, and gain access to places, events, and their network of even more influential people. How valuable would it be to be mentored by a millionaire?
Or to be able to call up Donald Trump and ask for advice on an investment real estate purchase? Or to practice with Tiger Woods? Or to shadow the CEO of a large company? You get the idea!

Just as I talked earlier about assimilation, you will have to change some of your characteristics in order to sit at the power player’s lunch table. Make a list of characteristics that people share in the field that you wish to be successful in, and align yourself with those things. For instance;

• Where do they eat lunch?
• What books do they read (hint: see Required Reading)
• What do they do in their free time?
• Where do they shop and how do they dress?
• How do they get their news and information?

If you know that golf is a favorite passtime of your desired network, learn to play the game and ask for advice from them! They will take you under their wing, since you have given them an ego boost by acknowledging their “talent”. While they are coaching you, you can bring up last night’s CNBC special on India’s emerging economy proving to your new network that either you are one of them or a qualified to be one of them. Now youre being invited to join them for drinks at their favorite watering hole and BAM!, youre in.

In a Nutshell:

• If you want to improve your chances of success, change your social circle
• To be, you must become
• You can either control your network, or it will control you image and destiny
• Remember the Law of Attraction: Like Attracts Like!

Successful people have learned to define their place in the social order. Whether you wish to become a CEO, or writer, or dancer, or entrepreneur, this formula will help you align yourself with the people who can make your desired outcome a reality.