I was recently asked in an interview with a newspaper in Nigeria, “Do you also empower the illiterates in what you do?”
The first question that came to my mind was, “Who exactly is an illiterate? Or what qualifies one to be an illiterate?”
Well, let me tell you a liitle bit about myself. I love speaking, writing, thinking and creating brands (lets save all those big descriptions for another day, if you know what I mean!). Through these, I give expression to what I do, one of which is to help young people in areas of entrepreneurship and human capital development. Back to the question, “who exactly is an illiterate?”
Typically, when you hear someone being called an ‘illiterate’, the first thought that comes to your mind is that the person is uneducated or probably from the village. Well, you won’t be wrong in your definition, but far from that, do you think that an illiterate is just someone who is uneducated? I think not! Often times we are limited by the myopic definitions of what is and what is not, which can be destructive.
Simply put, an illiterate is someone who is ignorant, not necessarily the uneducated. Yes you could say the uneducated are illiterates but what about the educated are they not also illiterate? The problem about education is that it blindfolds the bearer with this wrong notion that he knows it all, whereas he doesn’t know that he doesn’t know or he knows that he doesn’t know, but he is too proud to admit that he doesn’t know. You get the drift!
That’s why you find businesses and even the government failing because of this one idea ‘I know it all’, whereas they lack the necessary skills and knowledge on how to successfully run their endeavor. So what separates the illiterates from the literates, read on!
I think that there are more illiterate than literate in this world, if you might ask me, because if there are more literates then there shouldn’t be problem of economic downturn in the world today. Interestingly, most successful businesses you can find today are not necessarily run by the literate, they are run by the illiterates. How? You may ask me, well do a research on the CEOs of most companies, you will find out that they are either people who lacked knowledge in one area or other, some are even drop outs, and some even run organizations that are not even in their area of specialization. So am I justifying being an illiterate? No! I want to cause a paradigm shift in the way we see illiterates and that it is not necessarily the absence of education so to speak.
1. Admit that you don’t know:
I know for some people this might sound like a show of weakness, but trust me, it is not! It is a proof that you are aware of who you are and what you know; and you are ready to grow. It is no crime to admit that you don’t know, but it is criminal to say you know when you don’t know, it is a high sense of insecurity, and that definitely can kill your business. Have you ever encountered someone who you gave a job to do for you based on the fact that he or she said they knew how to do it? And they finally disappointed you because they couldn’t? When you admit that you don’t know you open yourself to a world of knowledge.
2. Build relationships with people who know.
Find someone who knows how to do want you don’t know how to do. I think it is more frustrating to not know how to do something and yet not know somebody that knows how to do it. This is one problem especially for budding entrepreneurs. They somehow feel their idea would be stolen if shared so they hoard it. You cannot do it alone, you need people. Relationship is a key component for business to thrive in these times.
3. Be hungry.
Be hungry to learn, don’t restrict or limit yourself to what you know. It is only a hungry person that will be fed. As a young entrepreneur you must be hungry for knowledge. What is already known cannot be compared to what can still be known.
4. Empower others
The one who knows is the one who is capable of teaching or empowering others to know. This is a powerful principle. If what you know cannot be taught by you then you are just on your way to being an illiterate-ignorant. Our society is filled with people who hoard knowledge in the bid to exercise power over others. With the presence of the internet, information is at the fingertips of anyone who cares to find them. Empowering others is one sure way to influence and lead people.
The best organizations in the world are not essentially run by literates or the ones with the best of education but those armed with skills to explore their potentials and those around them.
So my answer to that question is that, “An illiterate is not necessarily someone who has no education but someone who is ignorant, in other words an illiterate-ignorant, and so I also empower the illiterate-ignorant.”
Keep learning, keep living.
Awesome!! I agree!
ReplyDeleteThanks.
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