Mountains of Arizona
Sunny 71 Degrees
12:45 p.m.
Most of society has been brainwashed into thinking “not knowing” a thing is bad.
When a school teacher finds out my kids are unschooled and asks them a stupid question like, “What’s the capital of Latvia?” they think it means something that my kids don’t know. They think that is a clue that verifies the validity of their own perceptual prison programming. It actually makes them feel good to try to make someone else feel bad. THAT’S what people are taught in the system. It’s very sad.
In business, however, “not knowing” is pretty much my default state.
How should we sell these things?
I don’t know.
What is the best messaging around this?
I don’t know.
What happens if we double the price of this offering?
I don’t know.
Is this display ad going to convert?
I don’t know.
Is this booklet going to make the phone ring?
I don’t know.
Should my business really look this way?
I don’t know.
I’ve found there’s a lot of power in saying, “I don’t know.”
First of all, there’s a lot of power in telling the truth. So when you don’t know and you try to make people think you do know, they can feel it. You might fool them for a day, a week, a month or even a fear years, but you won’t fool them forever. And you won’t fool yourself ever.
Second, when you give up the idea that “not knowing” is a bad thing, you can actually deal with reality from a position of strength. It allows you to direct your focus towards the creation of solutions instead of placing your awareness on the existence of the problem of “not knowing.”
Not knowing and needing or wanting to know means you walk around in a state of need that will only perpetuate that reality.
This describes the energetic state of a huge number of entrepreneurs. They don’t know what’s next and they have to figure it out.
I’ve done this and it’s draining, miserable and not productive at all. It tricks you into feeling like you’re missing something when you’re actually not missing anything.
When you can say, “I don’t know” with confidence and zero stigma about thinking you “should know,” you will develop a quiet power that others will notice.
Not knowing isn’t the problem.
Thinking it’s a problem is the problem.