What you don’t know won’t kill you – what a lie! At this age and time, you will agree with me that we die daily more from things we are totally unaware of than from the many vices so to say that we can easily identify…. Talk of little foxes that spoil the vine eh?
The truth is each and every day, something we do not know ‘kills’ us in so many ways we do not know. The mistake often times is that we concentrate on and are more bothered by the losses we can perceive while we forget to pay attention to those ‘insensible’ losses… the potential gains we could have accrued if and only if we had known a little bit more, better. The price we pay to our ignorance every single day is practically inestimable, and like the age-long maxim, ‘if education is expensive, they say try ignorance’… good enough, or unfortunately so, you may say, a majority of us on a daily basis patronize ignorance on a large scale. Ask yourself a simple question; how much do I really know? Do I have an adequate and appropriate understanding of whatever it is I am engaged in? More often than not, the answer would be a NO! Except of course you are that recalcitrant, egotistic, ignorant peacock that would never agree he knows but nothing… Oops! Hope that doesn’t describe you tho!
There is this popular story of a guy that was contracted to help fix a faulty machine, so he billed his contractors $100 and they were very willing to pay. However, to their utmost surprise, all he did was hit the faulty machine with a swing of a hammer, and bingo, machine started working perfectly fine. As such, they had to ask him why he would bill such a ridiculous amount for a job as menial as the swing of a hammer. Good question you would say, and it got an interesting and quite inspiring response: ‘$99 for knowing what to do, and $1 for doing it’ he said. That is to say, $99 for knowing that all he had to do to get the machine working was to hit it with a hammer in the appropriate place, and $1 for swinging the hammer. I would say that was fair enough… talk about KNOWLEDGE! Of course, the owners of the faulty machine do know how to swing a hammer, but what they did not know is that all they had to do was to swing the hammer… and save a hundred dollars!!! So you see, what you don’t know is killing you day after day, whether you know it or not!
Reminds me of one of the many times I have had to pay my fair share for being so ignorant. So it happened that on this fateful day, or perhaps sometime during the week, my printer started acting up – as usual. Being very familiar with this particular brand and model of printer, I safely assumed I got it covered and know exactly what was wrong. Of course, the printer has three indicator lights and I perfectly understand the significance of each one when it blinks… or so I thought. So it happened that the middle indicator light came on, and that should suggest a problem with the ink… therefore, I refilled the black ink – since it appeared emptier and older than the colored ink cartridge. As this did not solve my problem, I decided to buy a new black cartridge altogether… But alas, the indictor wouldn’t stop blinking so I had to take it to a repairer who complicated everything by toiling something else inside the printer… I eventually had to travel across town to a more trusted repairer. At the end of the day, the problem with my printer was not a shortage of ink in my black cartridge as supposed, but rather a bad, though new and filled color cartridge… if only I had known! All I needed was another color cartridge that was sensitive – howbeit new or old, filled or empty. I need not remind you that all these came at its own cost – in cash! All I thought I knew about the printer was questioned and changed in all but one week. Little did I know that the only indication of an empty cartridge is a fading print, and not the indicator light as I supposed… well, that’s all history now as it’s been bliss working with the printer from that time onward…
Knowledge is power… right, but much more, knowledge brings bliss. In fact, knowledge is everything.
Consider the stock market for example, the credit crunch, bull market, bear market, et cetera… if only investors had known better…
In health care for instance it is common place to hear the popular mantra “prevention is better than cure”. However, it will shock you to discover how much is spent on curative and rehabilitative medicine every year, treating and managing diseases and conditions that could ordinarily be prevented by such simple measures as change of lifestyle, diet modifications, exercise and the likes… Oh! How much we pay for our ignorance!
As I draw the curtains, I charge you in the words of Steve Jobs, stay foolish and stay hungry for knowledge – make yourself a better person. What you do not know is actually killing you each and every day; your ignorance is costing you some dollars, take it or leave it. Be it in how to manage finances, personal hygiene, health, anything at all, never hesitate to ask if and when you need to. Never be too proud to ask; ask the necessary questions and get optimal results out of life.
Remember, wisdom is the principal thing… and in all thy gettings, get understanding. Go for knowledge today, for knowledge is indeed everything…