On Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, Chapter 5, Specialized Knowledge and Personal Experiences
Did your specialized knowledge cost you time? Does your knowledge create riches for you? Could you create riches with everyday skills?
Recently I’ve been helping my daughter look at what all it is that she knows how to do. She would like to have a job, hasn’t had one before, and is stuck with filling out the average application. She has been believing that because she hasn’t had a JOB before that she doesn’t know how to do WORK. This is of course far from the truth; she just needs help seeing it.
Like my daughter, most people know how to do more than they give themselves credit for. Everyday living has equipped us with a set of skills that most of us don’t think twice about. Cooking, cleaning, doing laundry or taking care of a yard pets or siblings is actually sets of specialized knowledge. Like most knowledge sets, they can be further refined when one is inspired to.
The motivated individuals that are seen to succeed the most are the ones that know what to do with the knowledge they have learned and taken action upon. The ones that have learned how to conquer problems and create new better ways of doing things, in the proper mindset, almost always get ahead. They also understand that new problems may have to be solved with new knowledge and are always learning. They know that doing the same thing, trying to get a different answer, won’t work. They know who to ask questions of, where to go, and if they need to find new sources of information, they figure out how.
Self motivation to accomplish ones goals is a powerful tool to acquire all kinds of specialized knowledge. We each have a burning desire to accomplish success in network marketing or we would not be here, myself included. We are purposefully growing our specialized knowledge every day that we work to not only improve who we are, but our skills in communicating and relating with other people. When we learn what truly motivates ourselves, we begin to understand what motivates others. This gives us the ability to give.
Mr. Hill speaks that nothing in this world is free. Yes our public school systems are “free”. But when you look closer, they really aren’t. There are many people that pay for them. Not just in taxes or money, but time. The real problem is that they have lost a lot of focus and are providing a lot of general knowledge that may never really help the individual nor interest them. That is where it is truly sad. Everyone is lumped together without consideration of what kind of person they are or how they learn.
The key is to remember, that no matter how old or young you are, life is about learning all the time. When you stop learning or declare to yourself that there is nothing else in life you desire to know, that is when you start to die. Learning how to learn is a powerful skill. The world is full of more than just your back yard. Go experience some specialized knowledge and do something with it. Don’t’ forget to have fun. Me? I’m learning how to teach people how to do a new job, network marketing, and I’m loving it. A lot more fun than the restaurant business, in my opinion.
How to Use Specialized Knowledge to Skyrocket ANY Home Business Opportunity This Year
Many people think that someone who knows a lot of general knowledge or facts is smart. Like in movies where they show someone knowing all the answers while watching Jeopardy. It is a common fact that much of what we learned back in grade school is long forgotten by the time we reach adulthood. Unless general knowledge is used on a daily basis, most of what we learned was just used to shape our lives.
On the other hand, “specialized knowledge” CAN be used in many ways to make us more money. Like special knowledge about a certain type of service that can be performed to make us more money in our own Home business opportunity. When you have a definite need for specialized knowledge then you will have a way to leverage it in your favor. Henry Ford used it by employing a team of automotive engineers to build his Ford empire.
Mastermind Groups (small groups of like-minded people) use it for giving each other much needed help and support towards harnessing powerful ideas. Colleges use it by employing teachers who each have specialized knowledge for all of their courses. Information publishers make use of it by interviewing professionals in special niche markets that the publishers themselves have no experience in but their readers would.
Just as one can leverage time you can also leverage information to your advantage. A construction engineer did it during the great depression of the early 20th century. This engineer could not stay busy enough to keep his income up. So he decided to change careers. He decided to become a corporation lawyer. He was over 40 years old and had a wife. Yet he made no excuses for his age or responsibilities. Instead he found a specialized school offering specialized courses where he could squeeze FOUR years of training into just TWO quick years. Because of this he was able to take the Bar exam quickly. He soon built up a lucrative law practice and wound up even having to turn away business. He leveraged the right type of specialized knowledge to get his income back up.
So you can see that specialized knowledge can give us opportunities and make us money while general knowledge usually doesn’t. But the secret is HOW to use this special knowledge correctly. Maybe you are in a rut right now. Maybe you are looking for the right information that can increase your income as quickly as possible as well. It is good to sit down and take stock in ourselves, our talents and our abilities. By carefully or thoroughly brainstorming about what you know from our life experience or what you enjoy doing the most work-wise maybe you can figure out a way to increase your income again.
We can begin to think about how we can make the switch or a gradual change toward making better money in a more stable market or occupation during leaner times. Sometimes like in recession times, the skills that you have may not work for you anymore for making a living. You may need something new. Something that will make money for you even in hard times when another type of trade won’t or has slowed down.
This is where IDEAS and IMAGINATION come into play. You see, like general knowledge, SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE can also be found around any corner. Especially today now that we have the Internet and cell phones with us at all times. But it is all still basically useless information unless we use our brains or IMAGINATION to come up with fresh, new ideas on how to make it all work in our favor. Especially in a Home business opportunity. Joining a mastermind group of people who all have the same goals (like excelling in their own Home business opportunity) can be of tremendous help. By banding together we can use mind power to come up with unique ideas and encourage one another within the group.
This is how many successful people become successful – using the resources of like-minded others. Again, colleges do it by employing teachers. Henry Ford did it with his group of engineers. Even our Presidents of the United States have all relied on the specialized knowledge of their staff.
