We grow up believing–because we are told it is so–that certainty is the cornerstone of learning.
A teacher presents us with a “fact,” we memorize it and are tested on our ability to recall what the professor at the lectern posited as the gospel. If we can absorb and regurgitate it, we are anointed as magna cum laude.
Let’s take a step back in time. Two decades ago, I spent time alone with Bill Gates on the Microsoft campus. When I told people I was going to meet Gates, they asked “Who’s that?”
It didn’t take long for the “secret” to get out.
At the time, I asked Gates who he viewed as a role model. His answer: Richard Feynman I didn’t know about the Nobel Prize winning physicist, but I set out to change that. As I did, I discovered that Feynman– one of the giants of the 20th century–was a passionate critic of standard education. Of the idea that a student should listen and embrace what she hears as certainty.
No, Feynman argued that doubt is the true driver of knowledge. The more you doubt, the more you are determined to learn. To explore. To challenge. To test. To keep seeking knowledge until you run past conventional wisdom on your way to the truth.
I have long believed that the most important word in business is “Why?” Time after time I meet with companies doing things a certain way and when I ask them “why,” they appear to be dumbfounded by the question.
They do it that way because they have always done it that way.
I have been a victim of the same brand of myopia. For years, I swore that my firm, MSCO, should not engage in advertising. But on a TV appearance last year, I suggested that every business, faced with the angst of The Great Recession, should take proactive steps to grow their companies while the competition was hiding in a bunker.
And then I wondered “why” MSCO wasn’t advertising. So we launched our first campaign and it was a roaring hit from the start. Doubt had crept into my thinking. Why didn’t we advertise? It replaced the stupid certainty that held the company back.
The more I realize how little I know, the smarter I get.
Mark Stevens
CEO
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Feynman is one of my heroes also. Unbelievable curiosity being one of his other dominate traits. Another great column. Thanks.
I know Advertising in a down market seems to be a taboo of sorts, against all odds though Branding (for me) has to be the most I do for myself in business.
I was a contractor years ago in Lake Tahoe, CA; I was able to build my business by staying in my niche and Advertising the hell out of myself. Business cards, and networking developed into word of mouth advertising. Once the ball got rolling I was booked three months in advance every year for five years until I moved away.
The company I work for now doesn’t agree with Branding, I am starting another business so I can call my own shots on how I want to advertise me.
When asked who I would want to dine with, my answer everytime is Richard Feynman. His love of knowledge and the quest to buck the traditional system at every turn has long been my model of life since encountering him early in my adulthood.
So glad to find others feel the same way …