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If you don’t know what you don’t know, there are fewer reasons to be scared or worried. This may cause some of you to say, “Hear no evil.” What you don’t know can’t hurt you.

Ignorance may be bliss, but it is unproductive, maybe dangerous. Hence the adage, “what you don’t know can kill you.”

You will pass thru the following stages as you work to remove ignorance:

• Excitement: This is the reaction to learning something new, driven by a feeling of empowerment and relief.
• Boredom: Once you know something, the excitement diminishes.
• Pain and frustration: Now you have to apply what you have learned, the reality is often different from the text books and classrooms. The friction is unexpected and scary, even if you’ve warned.
• Cynicism: Your trust in yourself or your teacher is lowered. What you’ve been taught and what you experience are two different things.
• Reconciliation: You realize that the world will not adapt to you, but you have to adapt to the world.
• Wisdom: You now know what to do, you will start with what works, you will follow sound management techniques to get things done, and you will develop leadership skills to inspire yourself and your co-workers.

Removing ignorance is hard work. It is not just reading a book or taking a course. It is learning from experience. Hence, ignorance is bliss. But you cannot afford to crave that bliss, as the pain that follows will be much worse than the pain of removing ignorance.