No longer relevant…

Knowledge is not power!

Only some know that this phrase “Knowledge is Power” was made popular by British philosopher, Sir Francis Bacon from 16th century [1. From "Scientia potentia est" (latin) - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_is_power]. And as we know, around that time, the human race still in the middle of so called “Scientific Revolution” where basically we were still confuse about a lot of thing. For example: we were not sure at that time whether earth is round or flat. Hence, just to know something at that time, someone would become considered powerful.

These days, with the current information technology, we are living in the abundance of information. If you ever want to know about virtually anything at all, just go to a library or even online, type your keyword in Google or other search engines and voila… there is your knowledge in less than a blink. Do you feel more powerful after reading it ? You should not…

There is too much information that can be seized by you on any particular topic in life. Getting the information is easy, but the more challenging task is to filter that information which one is really needed, which one is not necessary or simply just too much.

The Danger of Information Overload

As a matter a fact, we are all in the danger of “information overload” where there are too many knowledge about one particular thing, so many that some are slightly different from the other or even some are contradict each others and we are the one left in wonder – confuse and don’t know what to do. For example: you might read an article about “investing in stock market is risky” then you will also read about “investing in stock market outperform all other investment vehicle”. So, which one is true ? Both side show their evidence, you might see some real people losing money from stock market, but yet you also see some people make a handsome profit from stock market.

The real danger of “information overload” is to make us doing nothing. We will procrastinate and justify the reason because we still need more information (hence keep reading / studying / searching for the holy grail of the subject without end). Read How to Overcome Information Overload if you’re interested.

Knowledge is just Potential Power.
In-context ACTION is the POWER!

So it does not matter if you know a lot of thing, as long as you don’t make the knowledge into ACTION that knowledge will not become power. But as soon as you TAKE ACTION based on that sound knowledge, then you will immediately see the power of the knowledge being unleashed and result will come up very soon after. Buf course the knowledge itself is really crucial, without it you don’t even have the potential. But having it is not everything.

Get the result with in-context Action!

Let see an example: say you have all the knowledge about making money from stock market. But without taking the action to open an account and take that real trade, your knowledge is just simply knowledge… nothing more. But once action is taken, that knowledge become a power, you start getting real money, you start getting real experience about the market that is not mentioned or can be explained on the material that you read. The knowledge become real and via an action the knowledge then become the power that you after.

One important note here is that the action should be the one “in-context” means relevant with your goal and the context of the knowledge. For example: although you know the strategy in investing in stock market, you just simply take a gut feeling to buy or sell against your trading plan. Here, action is taken, but out of context. Even if it is successful, you will not see the realization of your knowledge into power. Simply because the action is not “in-context”.

One other simple analogy: say you have a lot of money in your hands and you are now really hungry and your goal is to have your favorite dishes for dinner. But unless you take action, you can have all the money in the world, but your goal will not be realized. Many action can be done: go to supermarket, buy all the ingredients and cook it (or have someone cook it) -or- call a restaurant to have it delivered -or- go to the restaurant and order it there, etc. All of them are what considered ‘in-context actions’ – all of them make you getting closer to your goal.

So, from now on, remember that knowledge is just potential power, in-context action is the power !

The real danger of information overload is that you become procrastinated and end up doing nothing. This is quite ironic. You want to do something new about a subject. Of course you need to have some knowledge to start your new subject. But after you have too many of that knowledge you become paralyzed and still cannot do something about your new subject.

Information Overload

For example: you want to learn “how to invest in stock market”. Then you go research on the internet or library to gain some knowledge about investing in stock market. After reading various articles , books, reviews, forums, testimonials, etc you found out there are practically hundreds and hundreds of strategies how to invest in stock market. Not only that, you also found that “investing in stock market is risky”. But additionally, you also convince that “investing in stock market outperforms all other investment vehicle”. At this point you will see yourself in “information overload” situation where you don’t know what to do next despite the abundance of the information… And the chances are that you just do nothing.

How to Overcome Information Overload

1. Know your goal or objective.
   Set a tangible goal or objective preferably writing (put it on your agenda, diary or PDA). For example: you want to know “how to invest in stock market”, then you need to set your objective such as ‘to get $200 per month extra income’
2. Only get information from reliable sources.
   You need to be sure that the information is trustworthy and relevant. For example: you cannot seek information about investing in stock market from property investor. If you don’t know whether the information is good or not, trust your gut – but stick with it. Or find something else until you feel that it’s good enough for you.
3. Gather your information only up to you are able to take action for your goal/objective.
   Do not over learning. Although you still need to consider wide aspect of your new subject, just gather the information only enough for you to take any real action. For example: just choose 1 strategy among hundreds to invest in stock market then learn what it takes to do it, e.g: what type of account at what broker, how much is the minimum capital, what the maximum risk and maximum reward, what is the cost etc.
4. Take action.
   This is the most important thing: take the real action. For example: open that account and fund it, take the paper trading to practice and then place that real ‘buy order’ to your broker.
5. Only if more information needed, go back to no (3) otherwise just keep the action until you achieve your goal.

In other words…

Use the all the information “as you go”. I call it “task oriented”. So, you just try to complete a task and along that line you find only information relevant to that task. Of course you need to see the ‘big picture’ first, i.e: to have that goal set, know the risk and reward and believe that information you use is trustworthy.

With this way, not only you learn something new, but as soon as you know that new information, you actually have done it. Of course, the result could be good or bad, and some mistakes – small or big – can be made along the way. But that’s part of the learning and you will be much better off compare to the other person who just gather the information without doing anything at all, because knowledge is NOT power, action is!