How to turn ignorance into an asset for success.

There will come a time when you don’t know something. Most people are afraid of not knowing because we’ve been conditioned to know. We’ve been trained to know “the right answer”, right away. And if we don’t know “the right answer” or if we don’t know it right away, we feel bad. We feel like we failed in some way. We feel ashamed.

The truth is, it’s ok to not know the answer. It’s ok to not know right away. Being ignorant isn’t a problem. Staying ignorant is. So how can you turn ignorance into a strength? By being curious.

Curiosity is the thing that says “Oh look! There’s something here that I don’t know. I wonder what this is. I wonder what I’ll learn. I wonder what I’ll discover.” And then curiosity goes and plays with the unknown.

Curiosity doesn’t feel bad or ashamed for not knowing something. It doesn’t take it personal when confronted with something unfamiliar or unknown. Quite the opposite. Curiosity celebrates the unfamiliar and unknown. It engages with them and plays with them. Curiosity says to Ignorance: “Come on! Let’s go on an adventure and see what we discover!”

Fear will try to convince Ignorance that it’s safer in the known and familiar. But Ignorance already lives in the outer limit of what is mapped out. Curiosity invites it to go beyond the limit.

The choice is yours. Will your ignorance shrink toward fear? Or will it expand toward Curiosity?