SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE

Good day I hope you're having a fantastic week. Today's post is about the difference between school education and specialized knowledge. If you have read the book Think and grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, you should realize that specialized knowledge is one of the 13 principles of success. 

Recently I have been working a lot on Internet marketing. And what I have learned is that even in my MBA courses I have not learned the skills and knowledge that is required to launch a successful Internet business. 

Very rarely specialized knowledge is acquired through the educational system. In fact the main purpose of this post is  to point out the fact that school does not give you specialized knowledge. The purpose of school is to teach you how to go about searching and acquiring specialized knowledge in the real world. That is an important skill set so do not short change your traditional schooling. Brian Tracy states that "as much as 50%-60% of your time in business and in life is spent in problem solving" (www.briantracy.com/blog). You will learn how to solve problems in school. Be as it is not the end of the journey.    

The best way to learn specialized knowledge is through working with a mentor or someone that has achieved what you want to achieve in the real world and can help you not make the same mistakes and guide you through to success. Another way to acquire specialized knowledge is through workshops and courses provided by real successful business people. You have to be careful and do your due diligence as there are a lot of dishonest characters out there. At times these 

courses can range anywhere from $500 to over $20,000 each. The core of the matter is that most people I have talked to say that the price of those courses at 

the time may have seemed expensive, but they pay for themselves in a short time. 

Specialized knowledge is practical skill set that cuts down the amount of time you will spend learning through trial and error or worse through making big mistake. Sometimes specialized knowledge needs to be hired. You are not expected to know everything about your business. If you don't know a skill you either learn it or you hire someone else to do it for you. You have to balance the return on investment. What is your time worth. The good thing is that specialized knowledge is also one of the cheapest forms of knowledge to purchase.

Remember knowledge is not necessarily power. Specialized knowledge and action taken on that knowledge is power.  Fortunately today specialized knowledge is easily found through the Internet the World Wide Web even libraries. Just beware of procrastination. Many times people go to workshops and buy courses, and the information just sits on their bookshelf without any action taken. I have fallen into this trap more than once.

I have been through 23 year of schooling when you consider High School, University, Medical School, MBA program. I have also attempted many so called "get rich quick" businesses. I have joined multilevel marketing programs, I have gone and continue to invest in courses and seminars from real estate to Internet marketing. Through it all one thing is obvious. I learned the most from my education in the real world either by making mistakes or following a mentor. If it had not been for my classroom education however, I would not have been able to find many of the educational opportunities that I experienced in the real world. I also would not have been able to learn from my mistakes as easily.

Moral of the story is that you need both classroom and school of hard knocks. Take them both seriously. Your success depends on it. 

If you make a mistake don't be too hard on yourself.  This mistake will prevent you from a greater loss later if you learn from it. 

I hope this post is helpful to you and as  always please comment and share this with anyone who may benefit from it.