So I want to tell you this story of a few years ago.
They invited me to talk at the UN HQ on income inequality. I’m no politician, but you’d be surprised how many business and self-improvement coaches are invited there.
The UN HQ became something more like TED and less a political institution.
And guess who I’ve met in the elevator.
Brian Tracy.
I love this guy. Him and the late Jim Rohn are my favorites. And since elevators rides are very long in the UN – as they stop at every single floor, we’ve started a conversation.
And then he said something that blew my mind.
“Imran, there is no such thing as income gap. There’s only a knowledge gap”.
At first, I could not understand this. I look around and I see poor people and rich people. I see people driving a $250.000 Mercedes and I see people who can barely afford to pay for the bus fare.
So how come there is no income gap?
But he’s right.
This is because the more you know, the more value you can create for the marketplace. The richest countries in the world are those that place a huge value on education – as Singapore does.
The poorest countries have very poor educational structures and worse, shame knowledge. In many countries in Asia being smart and loving to learn is not seen as a virtue but rather as something bad.
This wasn’t always true. Under communism, other things mattered. But nowadays, a poor boy from Ghana or Bangladesh can earn tens of thousands of dollars per month if he knows HOW.
The Internet made it possible.
I mean take it this way… we’re living in an era, the first time in human history where it doesn’t matter who you are. You can be white or black or yellow or green. You can be a man or a woman. You can be born in a poor country or born with a silver spoon in your mouth.
As long as you know how to earn money, you can earn money.
The Internet doesn’t care who you are. If your funnel is good, people will buy. Customers will not ask what school you’ve been too or who is your father. They won’t ask if you’ve been a certain person in your life so far.
You need to know how.
The “how-to” can transform a poor peasant into a millionaire or lead a rich trust fund kid into bankruptcy.
Brian Tracy and many others said one thing…
“The more you learn, the more you earn,”.
The opposite is true too. The more you earn, the more you learn.
However, what does this mean?
It doesn’t mean book smarts.
I know enough smart people who can barely pay for the bills. I know geniuses who are struggling to keep a normal job.
Doing six digit multiplications in your mind can be a cool party trick but I don’t really know how it will earn your money.
The knowledge gap refers to what Napoleon Hill calls “specialized knowledge”. These are ideas, concepts, practices, how-to to achieve something. Knowing about the universe is interesting but it won’t earn you money. How to set up an Aweber campaign will.
Knowledge can be a tool or it can be a reference. As a tool, you use it to achieve something. As a reference, you can use it to impress people in conversations.
Do you know the story of Henry Ford?
A newspaper called him ignorant. He sued the newspaper. The newspaper counter-sued trying to prove he is indeed ignorant.
So a lawyer asked him a few questions.
All of them were reference questions – like the population of a city and about the history of the United States. He answered none of these questions. Tired and irritated after a while, he looked the lawyer into his eyes and said…
“Dear Sir, I have on my desk a few buttons. I can summon several people when I press them. Any of them can answer me these questions if I ever want to know the answer and I don’t. I am in the business of making cars so I learn everything I can about this. I don’t want to fill my head with useless facts that have no importance to me personally,”.
Henry Ford was in the business of building cars. So he learned about this.
I am in the business of helping people gain freedom and earn more money than they’ve ever imagined possible. So I focus on experimenting with new ways of creating wealth and learning how to help others do the same.
Maybe you’re in the business of selling real estate.
Or you’re a piano teacher.
Or you help small businesses with their taxes.
I don’t know.
But the more you learn about what you do and how to deliver what your marketplace wants, the more you’ll earn.
And unfortunately, most of the stuff you learn outside of this will have no importance. Sure, I like from time to time to open a book on something unrelated, but learning about the history of aviation won’t bring more people into my events. Learning how to do better PPC will.
So where should you go with this?
Invest into knowledge that will translate to income. Find what works, learn it and then just follow instructions.
Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Don’t try trial and error.
Don’t spend a decade of your life trying 100 things just to discover that only 2 work. Instead, look at what others have done, through their books, courses, workshops, mentorship and jump directly at what works.
It’s like having Google Maps in life.
Without it, you’ll spin around, move in circles, trying to find your destination. This is how most people go through life. Eventually, if you work hard enough, you’ll get there but it will take tons of effort.
Or you can just input the destination and follow the instructions. You’ll get there with no issues at all.
When you do trial and error, you’re like a traveller trying to get to his destination with no map and no direction. When you learn about what makes you money, you know exactly where to go, what turns to take and how to get there in the fastest and most efficient way.
So what is your field?
What should you learn to earn more?
Leave your comments below.
Best regards,
Imran
