Maybe It's Not What You Know

Written June 13

I once read a story about a Buddhist monk who gave only one lesson to his students: "Practice don't know."

The lesson, of course, is about the ego's need to be right, better, wiser and more successful than the next person. I know this lesson would be lost on most people who work in the ego-less business of advertising!!!

But I think the notion of "not knowing" is very relevant in today's increasingly complex marketing world. The reality is that the more complex our world becomes, the less we know about what truly works. Yet, as counselors to our clients, we feel compelled to always "know" the answers and be the experts. But, all one needs to do is read the pundits who write about our business to know that nobody really knows which end is up...everyone has an opinion and each opinion is equally valid. But no individual is really right.

Anyway, this post was prompted by a piece in MediaPost this morning called Acknowledging What You Don't Know It was an interesting take on how we can use our "not knowing" to become wiser and, at the end of the day, more well informed.

How are you at "not knowing?"