7th August 2023
We often hear that knowledge is power.
But this statement is only a half-truth.
Knowledge is only potential power.
Knowledge is power only when put to use—and then only when the use made of it is constructive.
The story is told that the great scientist Einstein was once asked how many feet are in a mile.
Einstein’s reply was “I don’t know. Why should I fill my brain with facts I can find in two minutes in any standard reference book?”
Einstein taught us a big lesson. He felt it was more important to use your mind to think than to use it as a warehouse for facts.
In another instance, Once Henry Ford was involved in a libel suit with the Chicago Tribune.
The Tribune had called Ford an ignoramus, and Ford said, in effect, “Prove it.”
The Tribune asked him scores of simple questions such as “Who was Benedict Arnold?”
“When was the Revolutionary War fought?” and others, most of which Ford, who had little formal education, could not answer.
Finally, he became quite exasperated and said, “I don’t know the answers to those questions, but I could find a man in five minutes who does.”
Henry Ford was never interested in miscellaneous information. He knew what every major executive knows: that the ability to know how to get information is more important than using the mind as a garage for facts.
I got a great lesson on how to assess a man worth recently when I spent a very interesting evening with a friend who is the president of a young but rapidly growing manufacturing concern.
The TV set happened to be turned to one of the most popular quiz programs. The fellow being quizzed had been on the show for many days. He could answer questions on all sorts of subjects.
After the fellow answered a particularly odd question, something about a mountain in Argentina, my host looked at me and said, “How much do you think I’d pay that guy to work for me?”
“How much?” I asked.
“Not a Paisa over ₹10000, not per week, not per month, but for life.
I’ve sized him up. That ‘expert’ can’t think.
He can only memorize.
He’s just a human encyclopaedia, and I figure for ₹10000 I can buy a pretty good set of encyclopaedias.
In fact, maybe that’s too much. Ninety percent of what that guy knows I can find in a free almanac.
“What I want around me,” he continued, “are people who can solve problems, who can think up ideas.
People who can dream and· then develop the dream into a practical application; an idea man can make money with me; a fact man can’t.
Most of us spend our lifetime accumulating knowledge, without ever using it effectively.
That is why it is said, it is not the most talented who wins, nor the one with the most IQ, or the most read.
The one who wins is the one with the right attitude, who can think on his feet, who believes in himself, he who persists despite repeated failures & he who has the courage & conviction to follow his passion & achieve his dream.
Turn your knowledge onto power, achieve & stay blessed forever.