"Circumstances may cause interruptions and delays, but never lose sight of your goal. Prepare yourself in every way you can by increasing your knowledge and adding to your experience, so that you can make the most of opportunity when it occurs." -Mario Andretti
"As knowledge increases wonder deepens." -Charles Morgan
One thing that is very sad to me is when I see a person that is full of potential and they remain a failure in life because of their lack of curiosity and ambition in the pursuit of knowledge.
I imagine that if I asked these people if they would like to make more money at their current job that they would quickly answer "yes" without hesitation.
"Great," I would respond. "In order to make more money you will need to be of more value to your employer. Therefore you will need to increase your knowledge of the job and learn new skills. This may require you to study while you are away from work to develop these new skills."
At this point most of them would probably respond with some sort of excuse for why they can't do it. "I don't have the time", "There's no room for advancement at my job", "I'm not doing that in my free time if I'm not getting paid", or "That doesn't sound fun. I'm not going to waste my free time doing something miserable like that." all come to mind.
For those people out there all I can say is - They just don't get it. Chances are that I can't even explain things in a way that they will ever get it.
If you came to this website and are reading these words you are one of the few people that do get it. This Axiom is for you.
Knowledge is power. The more useful skills you learn in life the more likely you are to become successful, make more money, be happy, and move up in the world. Simple as that.
The people that "don't get it" see the simple equation of school = learning. The truth is that many people go through the education system and learn almost nothing of value. The people that get it have valuable knowledge that they have acquired from numerous sources often outside of school.
Don't fall into the mindset that free knowledge is of less value than the knowledge gained from a formal education. Outside of a few professional degrees (doctor, lawyer, etc.) it is possible to learn a trade and become employed without any formal schooling - although this process could be much harder without formal schooling. For example, you could study graphic design at home and work as a freelance artist. Ultimately, the quality of your work and success will depend on your knowledge and experience - not the school you went to.
I am constantly trying to learn new things, whether it be taking free classes on Coursera, reading new books every week, watching documentaries, travelling, language learning, and so on. It is because of my constant pursuit of knowledge that I have yet to hit a plateau in my success, and doubt I ever will.
