#112 - 50% of What You Know is Right

Today it is just me, I'd like to share a quote with you that opened up my mind a little bit, in a really good way, and inspired me to think about what I know, and how we should perhaps be a bit more opened minded sometimes...

 

But before I share that with you, I'd like to tell you a story of self-reflection this week. For the past 7 days, I was in Honolulu Hawaii, on spring break with my family, and had the chance to catch up with 2 other sprinkler nerds, my good friend Paul Bassett and Dave Woods, both from ENVOCORE. They are working on a killer project at Pearl Harbor that I was fortunate to assist with, and it was great to see them both. Special shoutout to Dave Woods, for entertaining my wife such that she actually drank a beer. 2 beers. My wife doesn't drink beer, and we met Dave at a tiny microbrewery on the Island, and my wife actually drank beer.

 

On the flight home, I was catching up on emails and remembered that I had been asked to be interviewed on the Scaling UP! H2O Podcast, and as part of the scheduling process I was asked to answer a series of questions, one of which was to write a short bio about myself and my business history. It was in this process of reviewing my past that I had a few moments of self-reflection that I typically don't allow time for.

 

I asked myself a question, I don't know why, but it seemed like to right question to ask if I wanted to advise someone else and tell them about my business career.

 

At first I wrote down a whole bunch of things, a ton of accomplishments, timeline, work, projects, etc. Then I reflected again, and asked myself how I could simplify this - if someone were to ask me for advice, about what got me where I am, I'm certainly not going to rattle off all of this goobliguck to them, TMI!.....then I thought, is there something specific that ties my different successes together. And I encourage you to ask yourself this same question - what makes you, you? What makes you successful at what you do? What got you where you are?

 

I boiled it down to 2 specific traits, or philosophies, or whatever you want to call it.

 

#1 Creativity

#2 Curiosity

 

That is pretty much how I got here.

 

Got here talking to you, and that is how I'm going to get where I want to go.

 

This will be different for you, and I encourage you to spend time reflecting on this from your own life, and if you have never had a thought like this before, give it a try, it may seem awkward weird, but I can tell you that the benefits will start to compound over time.

 

So now, let's transition into the quote of the week...

 

I heard this quote while listening to the Tim Ferris Show, and I'll plug that again, it is a great podcast for expanding your mind, I highly recommend it.

 

Tim mentioned this quote, and he couldn't recall the exact phrasing, so I looked it up.

 

The quote is this:

 

 

This quote was from Dr. Charles Burwell, Dean of Harvard Medical School from 193-1949.

 

It resonated with me, partially because of my passion for curiosity and creativity, but also because this is all just a big experiment. Seriously, watering plants is just a big experiment, and I think that it is important to remind ourselves that what we think we know maybe be correct, and it also may be incorrect. And it could be correct today, in 2023, and it could also be incorrect in 2028. Everything is subject to both change and relevance to the information provided at the time which may lead to the theory being correct or incorrect.

 

Just think about sprinklers.

 

How we water the landscape today, is different than how we watered the landscape in 1975.

 

The tools we use are different.

 

The scheduling formulas are different.

 

The automation is different.

 

And I say this to give you permission to keep an open mind. You do not need to be an expert who has all the answers, instead, I encourage you to be an expert that continuously questions what you know, in constant pursuit of perhaps a better way of doing it.

 

That's it. 50% of what you know is right, you just know which 50%.

 

That's it, my friends, I encourage you to stay curious, ask questions, try something new, learn, and repeat.

 

Have an amazing weekend.