Something must go in before we can pull something out

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Something must go in before we can pull something out

Imagine that you are asked to write an article. You are so excited and can’t wait to write your masterpiece. When you lift up the pen, suddenly you don’t know what to write. You go blank because you don’t know much about the topic. No doubt you won’t be able to write more than three paragraphs. Oh man, you are stuck with an empty head. What’s wrong here?

You know that your head doesn’t have enough knowledge to churn out ideas for your presentation. You need to fill your head with relevant information. Now you start your quest of knowledge hunting. You go to internet to learn stuffs from websites like Wikipedia and HowStuffWorks and from multi media platforms like YouTube and VideoJug. You refer to books for explanation. You look for friends or experts who can inform you more about the topic. You even go as far as doing experiment on your own to learn from trial and error.

After filling your head with knowledge input from your research, you feel like light bulbs are blinking on your head - *aha!*. Now you have enough substance to write a ten pages essay. You feel so confident with your work that you write non stop that night. When you present your masterpiece to your friends or teacher, they are awed by your highly substantial work. Next time when they need to find an expert, they come to you.

This experience demonstrates the importance of knowledge input for quality output (presentation). Knowledge gives us a lot of substance in what we speak, how we write, and how we present information to others. Without substance, our talk becomes empty as our words are based on flimsy foundation – just like showing people a piece of blank card while trying to convince people to buy your idea. Things don’t work that way.

Knowledge by itself is powerful but only potentially. The application of knowledge brings the magic out of it. You first build your knowledge base by learning constantly (input). And you use the power of knowledge by applying it (output). There must be a balance between input and output. Something must go in before we can pull something out.

Successful presenters, writers, and teachers do their homework properly by pouring a lot of knowledge into their heads. When they present, they have the authority and people listen to them. Their words have power because their level of knowledge is substantial and credible like an elephant standing on firm ground. You can enjoy the same authority if you put enough knowledge into your head before presenting it to others. That’s good enough reason for you to learn, read, attend seminar, meet smart people, and get a good mentor. Learn until you become a credible expert in your subject. It’s not as hard as it seems, really.

When I write an article, I do a lot of research to make my writing credible and substantial. My article on money alone is the summary of my financial knowledge that I have learned from many books and websites. Whenever someone asks me where I got the inspiration or idea to blog, I just tell them I read and learn a lot, which enables me to churn out thousands of words to entertain (or torture) my readers.

Now for those students out there, read a lot of books, not just text books but non-fiction books as well, and learn constantly. And you will be able to write brilliant essays to impress your teachers and get good grade. Your knowledge reservoir will save you most of the time and make you a confident writer or presenter. Maybe you can start by reading this blog every day (ehm, ehm..).