The need to know and learn

I had a wonderful time speaking at the General Membership Meeting of the Philippine Marketing Association Wednesday of this week. The officers were gracious, the audience was responsive, and I learned a lot from the other resource speakers invited to the occasion.

Marketing professionals are extremely dynamic. They are creative and most eager to learn. I guess this is not only the demand of their craft, but this is actually the demand of the times.

I’ve realized that the reason why I get so many invitations to speak to existing corporate clients and partners (i.e. distributors even vendors), as well as prospects, (i.e. potential buyers, procurement officers) from a vast range of industries like energy, food, technology, real estate, banks and many others, is simply because people today are hungry

for learning. And they’re not just looking for information; they are seriously searching for knowledge that would inspire them towards action.

There was a time when cocktails ruled! Events would center on entertainers and politicians; an economist or two would give a talk, but that would be the gist of the marketing event. This is no longer the case today.

Today, people want to invest their time on events that would add value to the way they do business and that would improve their personal lives. This new, heightened demand on learning has not only brought me to all the major cities of our country; it has also given me the opportunity to do training abroad.

To say that the quest for knowledge is essential today for business and personal success is a grave understatement. But would knowledge alone guarantee sustainable success?

Without knowledge as an entry level, one is doomed to oblivion and obscurity. Knowledge is like a garden - if it’s not cultivated, it cannot be harvested.

But most people do not live their lives according to what they know. Just look around you. Many know the Ten Commandments, but they don’t obey it. In fact, some super creative people converted the Ten Commandments into the Ten Suggestions, and live by the 11th one, the favorite of philandering spouses and corrupt officials who get caught: “When caught, thou shall deny and deny until you die.”

Another proof that people don’t live their lives according to what they know is the fact that many motorists know the traffic rules yet they violate it. An American speaker friend of mine once said, “Filipino motorists are the most courageous drivers in the world. They’re not afraid to die.”

Most people live their lives not according to what they know, but according to what they’ve learned. People learn through a continuous, repetitive, persistent and conscious doing, until they develop habits.

One futurist claims that 85% of all human knowledge didn’t exist before 1964. When you take this claim seriously, you’d understand how uncertain life is. What we used to know is now challenged by new technology. And because new technology is continuously being developed and improved on, whatever new knowledge we acquire will constantly be challenged, driving the necessity to relentlessly learn new things. This can be very disorienting, especially to those who are not in the know.

And then there are those who claim to know but in reality do not. It is said that people who know the most, know they know so little, while people who know nothing want to take all day to tell you all about it.

Having knowledge is well, but learning, relearning and most important unlearning is crucial. The great Italian astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei says, “I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him.”       

Most people today recognize the importance of learning. That’s why today, entertainment has to be educational, and education has to be entertaining. People want something that will cater both to the cerebral and the emotional.

I learn so much from marketing professionals. And I’m amazed with what they know. We may not all be marketers, but we ought to develop of a love and drive for constant learning. Eric Hoffer says, “In times of change, the learner will inherit the earth, while the learned are beautifully equipped for a world that no longer exists.”

God has equipped us with a wonderful mind to learn. And thus we should.

(Get daily inspirational quotes and thoughts from Francis! Send “Inspire” to 288 for Smart or Sun subscribers and 2889 for Globe. Visit facebook.com/franciskong 2 for more details.)