When Knowing Isn’t Enough

They say knowledge is power.  I get it now.
There is humility in knowledge.

You don’t know what you don’t know.
The more you know, the more you know that you don’t know much.
To know more, is to realize how much more you need to know.
You don’t know what you don’t know, until you know more of what you don’t know.
The more you know, the more you want to know.

Those are all different versions of the same statement and they all convey the exact same message.  That message is that we all should be seeking knowledge.  We should be seeking to know more.  The moment you think you’ve plateaued as far as knowing, is the moment you become a complete fool and actually revert back to not knowing anything.

The constant pursuit of knowledge should be something that drives all of us (OG Millennials).  That should be paramount in our day to day moves and in our everyday lives.

I used to consider myself a “consumer of information.”  Then that evolved to being a “consumer of knowledge.”  Now I think I’ve refined it even more.  I’m a “consumer of curated and useful knowledge.”

In case it wasn’t self explanatory, I’ll elaborate as best as I can:

For example, I want to be great with money, so I’m constantly trying to find out more information about finances as they correlate to where I currently am and what I need to now as far as getting to where  I want to be.  A quick scroll on any social media platform will give you a bunch of “how to’s” and “to dos.”  Some work and some don’t but all of them are never as easy and plain as they make it out to be.

The same can be said about the actual information that you find from reputable sources.

This leads me to the real point of this week's message on knowledge and that’s this:

In our never ending question for more knowledge through all the systems and resources available to us (yes ChatGPT is a resource as well), there still simply is no substitute for actual experience.  Yes read the books, yes take the courses, yes go to the seminars and conferences, yes get a mentor, and yes to everything else that’s out there that can be used to gain knowledge.  However, when you do all that, just make sure you get out there in real life and put it to the test.

There are so many nuances and contextual subtleties that we will never learn unless we do it ourselves.  So in case you needed a reminder to spring into action, this is it.  Please by all means do whatever is in your power to gain more knowledge.  Talk to people, talk to AI language models, but also talk to yourself.  You’re only ever in a position to have that conversation with yourself if you go out and have those experiences to reflect upon, refine, learn from, and optimize to fit your own unique situation in life.

At the end of the day, knowledge is only the beginning. It’s the spark, not the fire. What separates the people who talk about leveling up from the people who actually do it is simple: application. Real-world action. The willingness to step into something unfamiliar and let experience sharpen what information alone can’t.

As OG Millennials, that’s our edge. We don’t just collect concepts, we convert them. We turn ideas into execution. We let curiosity open the door, and then we let experience walk us through it.

So keep learning. Keep asking questions. Keep refining your perspective. However, most importantly… keep moving. The more you do, the more life teaches you lessons that no book, no video, and no AI can ever truly replace.