Knowledge and skills: Keep expanding

*** NOTE: If you stop learning, you start dying.  ***

The world is dynamic, so is everything in it. One philosopher, Heraclitus, said, "You cannot step on a river twice." That means, when you step on a river, by the time you lift your leg to step again, everything has changed. Later, his student and a skilled philosopher, Cratylus, argued that you cannot even step on the same river once. From the time you touch the water surface to the time you reach the bottom of that river, everything has changed. The water you touched is already gone. That means change is inevitable and it happens so quickly. Always move with the trend.

fig. 1: Read as many books as possible. Nature, Science, Media, Digital businesses, Ecommerce...

While many people learn to get white collar jobs, it is even more important to learn while operating your business. When you work for others, like a company for instance, bosses laugh. They leverage on your knowledge and skills for their own advantage.  That does not mean you should not work for them, but it could have been better and more advantageous if you pour all that knowledge to your business. It will pay more.

“The best advice I ever got was that knowledge is power and to keep reading” – David Bailey, English fashion and photographer

Keep learning something new day in day out on how to improve your business and make more profit. Learn from books, journals, magazines and from online sources to gain the specific and general knowledge in your industry.  Moreover, keep expanding your business and diversify to even new ventures to create a conglomerate. Companies like Dangote group of companies, owned by the richest man in Africa, a Nigerian called Aliko Dangote, ranges from sugar retail to manufacturing of cement. Even the big multi-national companies always have more than one line of product which all contributes towards the overall gross profit.  Google started like a search engine back in 1998. Today, it has venture everywhere. Smart home by acquiring Nest (2014), transport, by introducing Google auto (changed name to Waymo), a driverless car subsidiary, cloud, by introducing Google Cloud Platform, mobile, by acquiring Android (2005), video content, by acquiring You Tube (2006) among other ventures. All these contribute to its gross revenue of almost $100 billion annually, which was not there in the early 2000s.  This is a good illustration of diversifying through knowledge-acquisition and applying the same in growth. 

As I said, once you step out to the field of business, together with the right information, you will be able to seize opportunities as they show themselves, as Warren did. You will grow like a tree from the mustard seed (smallest seed, yet it grows to be the biggest tree in the forest). You should also know what competitors (if you are in a competitive business) are doing to kick you out of business. With that information, you can easily make informed decisions on how to deal with such matter. Keep your eyes wide open, and ears wide open.

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest” – Benjamin Franklin, scientist

*** Knowledge and skills success tips ***

Ø  Always keep learning. This expands your knowledge and skills to conduct your business.

Ø  Always expand your business.  Diversify to new profitable ventures to increase your revenue.

Ø  Leverage on technology and innovation in your business.  These eases way of doing business, reduce costs/expenses, thereby, increasing gross margins and profits.