The light from my grandfather’s Zippo lighter danced on his face as he slowly drew in the sweet-smelling smoke from his pipe and said, “Knowing a tomato is a fruit is knowledge.” I had no idea what he was talking about until, after slowly exhaling wisps of smoke, he wryly continued “Knowing not to put it in a fruit salad, now, that’s wisdom.” It was 1983, I was 13, my hair was long, and my thoughts were short. I had no idea as to the implications of the wisdom my grandfather had conveyed to me that night until years later.
You see, experience and expertise are different things entirely. You want to experience expertise to become an expert. Like your clients, you want wisdom more than information; you want insights. Your clients want to know more than “what” to do, they want to know “why” they should do it. As a business owner, you should too. The method, the reasoning, behind an action or decision is far more important than any information as they will lead to better and better outcomes. You need to know “why.” You want to know the “method behind the madness,” and, more importantly, why it works so you can replicate it and improve on it. You want to think like a scientist. Why?
Contrary to popular belief, scientists want repeatable results far more than they want to be “right.” Seriously? Yep.
You see, scientist use the scientific method (yeah, that one you learned in high school) to create experiments to test their ideas. Then, they publish their results for peer review and criticism. For you, that means taking the resources available to you, either on your own or through a host, “publishing” your results by taking them to market and observing your results. Then, and this is critical, you make one change at a time, repeatedly, to your method until you get results that make sense. Results that make sense, now that’s wisdom. Applying this wisdom will improve your results over time, and you will make more money.
Let’s look at some examples:
