Knowledge As A Personal Asset
When I was in school, there was a particular study group I belonged to. We would come and share tutorials, etc. However, at the end of the semester, when someone of us made "A," it was surprising that some people also failed their exams even as members of the study group. This is when I realised that knowledge is more of a personal responsibility and not a group effort. You can still stand beside the water and still be very thirsty until you have personally drawn the water yourself to drink. This same scenario plays out when you talk about the acquisition of knowledge. To gain knowledge, then you have to understand that the bulk of the responsibility rests almost entirely on you to put in the necessary and required actions.
You will agree with me that when you are driving at night in your own car, you will need your own personal headlamp. You will be so limited if you are depending on the headlamp of another driver's car to drive your own. Similarly, the knowledge of others may just take you to some limit, but to go far in life, then you will need your own knowledge. This is the reason I have always maintained that knowledge is a personal asset which each one has a responsibility to go for and acquire. It is the knowledge that you posses that will save you in the times of challenge, not the one that someone out there possesses.
In a exam for example; you will need to face your stript and answer from your own knowledge, and it will determine if you will pass or not. In fact, everyone will mind their exam paper and any attempt to answer from someone else's knowledge will be seen as exam malpractice. It is true that all of them were taught in the same lecture hall and attended the same classes, but when it comes to proving the knowledge, then it will be done as individual. It is what you know about life that will determine how you deal with life. So try to always grow in knowledge and value it as a valid asset.
You have to understand that the world is always on the change and new things emerge with speed. Now the question is; "is your own knowledge current enough to match the current trend?" What answered by your knowledge of the past may not answer to you in the present if you have failed to get better on your knowledge. Each day, you should improve on what you know so as to maintain your relevance and function well in this dynamic world. Nothing enhances relevance and self-worth as much as knowledge.
I have come to understand that the more knowledge you gain about a particular subject matter, the more you see even reasons to get more knowledge, because you would have discovered how ignorant you have been. It is true that gaining knowledge would definitely come at a cost, but if you compare it to the cost of remaining ignorant, you will realise that the latter carries more weight. There is nothing you invest into acquiring knowledge (in terms of time, resources, energy, etc) that will ever go into wastage. Even if you do not have the need of it today, tomorrow may present to you an opportunity to make use of it. Or it may even come in handy in the not-so-distant future.
The more you acquire knowledge, the better you will be to maximise opportunities. As a matter of fact, opportunities constantly pass around each day, but why some people take advantage of them and other people do not is simply because of differences in their level of knowledge. When you get more informed and more knowledgeable, you will know how to better optimise your opportunity to get better results. You will be surprised that if the same event is presented to two different people, they will have different perspective of it and will have different result. There is a kind of knowledge that you will possess and even challenges will become opportunities for you.
Thanks for reading
