Balance of Knowledge

Knowledge is a wonderful thing, but it can also trip people up. There is an endless ocean of information out there, and thanks to technology, it is ever at our fingertips. And that is a wonderful phenomenon, for which I am incredibly grateful. Never before has information been so readily and efficiently distributed.

But here’s the dark side of this equation: you can never know enough. If there is one thing I have discovered in exploring some of the immense knowledge being shared via books and internet by our world’s leading experts and innovators, there is always more I don’t know, and the more I learn, the more I realize I am ignorant.

This realization can be crippling if we aren’t careful. Learning and education must be balanced by doing. Just like nutrition, if we are only taking in food and never exercising, we get obese. If we are only doing and exercising, but not being replenished with nutritious food, we get weak and famished. Balance is vitally important. In the same manner, knowledge must be exercised to avoid becoming intellectually obese.

I see a lot of people in my field with many academic accolades and lots of letters after their name who are struggling to build a successful practice. They are too afraid of what they don’t know to employ what they do understand. And it’s not just the finance industry plagued by these fears. I think many of us are afraid to leap out to chase our passions because we don’t quite feel equipped. We see “professional students” who are always seeking the next academic rung; but have failed to execute any of that knowledge in the field. Heck, there are professors with PhDs in business who haven’t even run a lemonade stand!

All the knowledge in the world does you no good if it remains trapped inside you. You must act. Progress comes from a balance of education and execution. You can certainly learn from doing, but you can never “do” by only learning.