Knowledge is key to success

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Generally speaking, you are more likely to succeed in life if you concentrate on what you understand the best. Success is more difficult to achieve if you are always approaching situations in which you have little or no experience.

For example, if you know how the pieces move in a game of chess, you can easily win against someone who does not know the moves. If you pit yourself against a chess master, however, it is extremely unlikely that you will win, unless you too are a master. This is because the chess master has spent a great part of his or her life learning strategies and closures. You can’t hope to compete unless you have the same knowledge. Life is much like a game of chess: The more knowledge you have, the less likely you lose.
When faced with the unknown, your ratio of success will rarely better 50 percent and there is no way of telling whether you will succeed or not. But if you are facing something in which you already have significant experience, your potential success rate will rise to near 100 percent. It is easier to win anything once you know the ground rules and how to proceed.
When it comes to the experiences of life and especially its challenges, most people are amateurs. Few devote themselves to a study of the challenges they face. For this reason, they are almost certainly doomed to failure. To avoid failure, we all need to gain knowledge first. You might ask how to go about this. There are, in reality, many ways. You can read, which is very important. You can get information from watching television, learn from movies, and listen to talks given by others. Whatever method you choose to use, when you encounter things you do not understand, you need to find the relevant information and material on which to base your decisions. If you are truly conversant with the subject because you have taken the time and trouble necessary to understand it, failure is much less likely.
Experience of life can also be a great teacher. Without a good experience of life, failure is always a possibility. As noted earlier, not all knowledge emanates from a classroom. Those who have lived closeted lives, no matter how well-educated they may be, can’t have a great deal of knowledge about the way the world works. They have no knowledge that there are people in the world who will do all they can to bring about their failure, and traps await them if they are unwary. They probably do not understand the dangers that face them because schools may not have taught them about the existence of suffering, setbacks, and delusions in the world.
A few people are lucky enough to find a route to success without ever having to face setbacks but most, at some stage, will experience them. If you are aware of the pitfalls in advance, you are at a considerable advantage. It is important to be aware how specific people will react in a particular set of circumstances so you can react accordingly and appropriately...
You have to learn about every aspect of life, and that includes evil. Even if your every intention is geared towards the good of the world, you will still have to encounter its evil at some stage. Know your enemy, because this is a big part of dealing with evil.
There are people in this world whose every intention is to cheat and trap others. Even if it is not actually intentional, some individuals will resort to this sort of behaviour when they find themselves in certain situations. To prevent them from wrongdoing is also a form of goodness you can practice. By allowing evil to spread, even good people become the accomplices of evil. Therefore, you need to broaden your range of interests and carefully study the sources of evil in life, as well as the origins of corruption, failure, and setbacks. By doing so, you can prevent problems before they even occur, avoid failure yourself, and live a life of happiness.
There are limits to what anybody can experience, but if you watch your friends, parents, siblings, relatives, and friends diligently, you can still learn a lot. Look closely at why people fail, what leads them down a path of wrong, and what makes them go astray. There is no lack of examples if you keep your eyes open.
Those who have sufficient time to spend complaining about their own ignorance should spend that time in study. As a result, they will gain more knowledge and will be able to make correct decisions. This is a way to walk the path to happiness.
Today, we live in an information age and we are provided with the best circumstances to learn. So many books are published and so many educational materials are available that the human intellect has reached new heights. Never in our entire history has the world seen so much mass intellectualism as exists right now. Compared to those who lived in times past, people today possess an almost god-like knowledge, or at the very least, have the opportunity to access it.
Given that we live in such a privileged era, it would be wonderful if everyone alive today would make a thorough study of the Truth. This is why I am presenting the Principle of Wisdom here. Naturally, this principle begins with a study of the Truth, but that does not simply mean storing the knowledge. I would like you to put the knowledge into practice in your daily life and in your efforts to help others also to reach the Truth.
Remember your workbook of life? When solving the problems in your workbook of life, you will exhibit certain tendencies in the areas in which you have particular difficulty. You may have specific problems in relationships or issues in some other area of your life. A good and coherent knowledge of the Truth will act as a sound basis for solving your problems, and it is important to put the knowledge you gain into practice. Then you are able to say, “I see how this should be done. This is how I can free myself from worries, solve my problems, correct my shortcomings, and achieve liberation.” There is no end to the small discoveries you can make on a daily basis as you walk on the path to enlightenment. When you can utilise your knowledge and experience it as part of your enlightenment, you can convert your knowledge into wisdom.