The BIGG Successs Show
Do You Know Too Much?
Find out if your knowledge is a blessing or a curse. Listen to the show and read the show summary here.
Welcome to our 45th Big Success Show! Today, find out if your knowledge is a blessing or a curse. The Big Success Show with George and Mary Lynn. You know Mary Lynn on this whole subject of blessing or curse and how much you know and everything, which is what we're going to talk about today. It reminds me of when I told my dad that I was going to get my master's degree. And he looked at me straight in the eyes and he said, "Son, be careful because you might get so educated that nobody can use you." That's a good point, isn't it? But you know, that is a good question though. Is it possible to know too much? Well, what we're really talking about today is it seems that as our level of knowledge and experience increase, as we become an expert in a field, a lot of times you'll see that your creativity and innovation actually decline. There's this curse of knowledge in other words. For example, why do I have to go to start on my computer to turn it off? That's a good question. I'm sure a techie could explain it to me, but obviously we learn how to operate based on what the standards they set. But to the average person, this just doesn't make sense. Well, there's a sort of group think that happens with people in an industry. And as long as you're only dealing with people who think like you, you end up with things like that. Have you ever wanted to learn something new? And you found an expert that you want to read their book or you want to go to their website and get that information. But as you're reading that information, it seems like it's a foreign language because it's got all this insider jargon. And so, yeah, you still feel like you're stuck on the outside. Well, you've been in that room full of people and everybody's speaking that jargon you're talking about. It is like a foreign language. And then finally, you pipe up because you're just completely clueless as to something. And you get these views like who in the world are you? Why are you asking that question? How can you be so dumb? Yep, see, that's one sign that you know too much. If you're one of those insiders, if you're one of those people speaking that jargon. And something that's interesting, Mary Lynn, is a lot of times when you're hanging out with just your experts, you get that novice in. You get that new person in that they actually force you to look at old problems new ways by simply asking questions that may appear to not be that bright. They kind of bring a fresh perspective and you look at things differently and suddenly you're able to solve those old problems. Everything old is new again, right? It forces you to think outside the box and not just to do it the way it's always been done. It was very comfortable and good for your ego when you get to hang out with your expert insiders and your input is valued. Well, we're not saying don't be an expert. You know, that's important. Matter of fact, we're saying seek first to be an expert so that you can have this problem because on the scale of problems, Mary Lynn, this is a pretty good, you know, knowing too much is a pretty good one to have. Right, right, then second, we are also telling you to recognize the limitations to knowing something so well that it becomes second nature. That limitation is that you're likely to lose your creativity and innovativeness. So what can you do about that? How can you make sure that you stay creative once you're an expert? And our first suggestion is this, make some new friends outside of your career. Or reconnect with some of your old friends who aren't in that inner expert circle. Right, and that's the key is make sure that you're making friends with people or maintaining friendships with people that provide a variety of experiences. Our second suggestion is get a hobby, especially a creative one. We did an article recently called does your hobby work for you and we've got a link to that on our blog today. Well, it's about a study of Nobel laureates and that's a pretty innovative group, right, Mary Lynn? And, you know, that study found that of all scientists, about 1% had a hobby, but of the Nobel Prize winners, over 50% had a hobby. So get out of your lab and get your creative juices flowing again, coming up a story that illustrates why it pays to listen to novices. Today we're talking about whether your knowledge is a blessing or a curse, and there's a story about an executive who was at Ralston Perina, and she got transferred to Everready after Ralston bought them out. This story comes from a book called innovation killer, how what we know limits what we can imagine and what smart companies are doing about it by Cynthia Barton-Rape. And this executive got transferred from Ralston to Everready and of course, you know, Everready, they were experts at flashlights. That's right. And flashlights were a very mature business, you know, it always sold their flashlights through the hardware stores and the lumber yards and that sort of thing. And the flashlights came in two colors, red and metal, you know, this is back in the mid 1980s, and so she suggested something that the experts looked down upon. She suggested new colors. That's right, light pink, light blue, light green, all of those colors that women would like. And they started distributing these flashlights through grocery stores where women shopped and guess what happened? Big sales, I mean big. Big with two G's? There might be three in that one. And the thing is, so if you're the expert, sometimes that is a curse. Be open to new ideas even from novices. You can find a written summary of today's show and you can participate in today's discussion on our blog at BigSuccess.com. And let's get our big quote for the day. Our big quote today comes from William Shakespeare who said, "To be or not to be an expert." Is that the question? He didn't say that. He said, "We know what we are, but no not what we may be." So if you know at all, you'll know that you don't know it all. And next time, Mary Lynn, we're going to climb the stairway to success. Oh, they're going to jam out to Zeppelin. Until then, here's to your big success. The Big Success Show at B-I-G-G Success.com. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]