When Knowledge Isn't Power

Knowledge is power when we deal with the familiar; but entrepreneurs, the inventors of tomorrow, often dwell in the domain of the unknown, which demands curiosity, resourcefulness, and courage. It is the way that the future is created.

Knowledge is power…except when it isn’t. My favorite example of when it is comes from an enterprise named after this phrase. The KIPP Schools (“Knowledge is power program”) are the most successful inner-city college prep programs in the nation, succeeding in areas where the public school systems gave up years ago.

Combining longer school days, rigorous academic programs, a culture of achievement, and intensive continuing support, KIPP produces inspiring results. In neighborhoods where the high school drop out rate exceeds 50%, 90% of students at KIPP charter schools graduate and go on to college.

In urban settings where schools can be hobbled by bureaucracy, poor leadership, and inadequate teachers, KIPP provides a life- changing alternative. By getting the fundamentals right where they have often gone wrong, their schools are having a major impact on education nationally. KIPP is an excellent example of “knowledge is power”. It prepares students to participate in today’s world by focusing their attention on achievement and giving them the skills to attain it.

But entrepreneurship is filled with examples where knowledge is not power. Entrepreneurs aren’t as concerned about today’s world as they are in creating tomorrow’s. They often deal with the unknown, creating new things or new ways of doing things that no one thought of before. This requires not so much knowledge as attitudes like curiosity, resourcefulness, and courage.

These attitudes spring from a love of what they do. Loving what they pursue, they are naturally curious about it. This kind of passion gives them an endless inquisitiveness and fascination that fosters creativity and innovation. When you really love it and have to do it, you become resourceful. You don’t let obstacles stop you.

When the obstacles get really big, if the passion is big enough it produces courage. How much do you really love it? How much are you willing to put on the line for it?

This is the place where entrepreneurship separates itself from “business”. Business is about making money and giving people what they want. So also is entrepreneurship. But entrepreneurship adds another element that dominates the others: the enterprise is often a statement, even a definition of who the entrepreneur is. He defines himself through it, bringing all of himself to it.

At its best, the statement is, “This is who I am; this is what I stand for; this is what my life is about.” For most people, there is something eerily unfamiliar about this. They are used to holding something back, needing a margin of safety, often wanting to please people and find agreement, all of which give them some security in their lives. But entrepreneurs discover their security in different things.

They are secure in who they are, what they can contribute, and what their world should look like. Clarity of vision gives them an almost transcendent sense of faith in what they do. They see something better than what surrounds them in the seen world available to them and others. But it is more than a vision; they actually experience its reality and are driven to make it real to others. They know what it is. It is very clear to them. Initially, they just don’t know how to do it; and that is how the entrepreneurial adventure begins.

Knowing and not knowing simultaneously may be the Zen-like koan of true entrepreneurship. It is not for the timid. But it is in this state that the future begins. Knowledge is power; but not knowing in acts of exploration and creation can be even more powerful.

Keep the faith.
Live your life.
Take care of each other.

Leonardo