SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE

Napoleon Hill in his book, Think and Grow Rich, talked of two kinds of knowledge- general and specialized. General knowledge in whatever quantity or variety is of little use in the accumulation of money. The faculties of the universities of the world possess, in the aggregate, practically every form of general knowledge. Most of the professors have little money. Professors specialize on teaching knowledge, but not on the organization, or the use of knowledge. Knowledge can-not attract money, unless organized, and intelligently directed, with practical plans of action, to the specific purpose of accumulation of money. Lack of understanding of this fact confused a large number of people who ignorantly believed that ‘knowledge is power’. However knowledge is not power. Knowledge is only potential power and becomes power only when it is organized into specific plans of action directed to a definite end.
Nearly all systems of education are not able to link acquisition of knowledge to use of knowledge. They fail to teach their students how to organize and use knowledge after its acquisition. Many people make the mistake of assuming Henry Ford who had little ‘schooling’ he was not a man of ‘education’. Those who commit this mistake do not understand the real meaning of the word ‘educate’. 

An educated man is not, essentially, one who has an abundance of general or specialized knowledge but one who has so developed the faculties of his mind that he may acquire anything he wants in an ethical manner.

During the first world war, A Chicago newspaper published certain editorials in which, Henry Ford was called ’an ignorant Pacifist’ Mr Ford objected to the statements and brought suit against the paper for publishing false statement damaging his reputation. When the suit was tried in the courts, the attorney pleaded justification and tried proving to the jury that he was ignorant. The attorney asked Mr. Ford a number of questions, all of them purported to prove by his own evidence that, he might possess considerable specialized knowledge for automobiles manufacturing but he was mainly ignorant.

Mr.Ford was approached repeatedly with such questions as the’ Who was Benedict Arnold?’ and ‘How many soldiers did the British send over to America to put down the Rebellion of 1776?’ Answering the last question, Mr.Ford replied that he did not know the exact number of soldiers the British sent over, but he had heard that it was a considerably larger number.

Finally, Mr. Ford became tired of this sort of questions, Mr. Ford answered if he really wanted to answer the foolish question the attorney had asked, or any of the other questions, he had been asking him, let him remind that he had a row of electric push buttons, he could summon to his assistance men who could answer any question he desired to ask concerning the business to which he was devoting most of his efforts.  Mr. Ford asked the attorney why he should fill up his mind with general knowledge for the purpose of being able to answer questions, when he had men around him who could supply any knowledge he required. There certainly was good logic to that reply. That answer knocked down the lawyer. Every person in the courtroom realized it was the answer of a man of education. Every man is educated who knows where to get knowledge when he needs it and how to organize that knowledge into definite plans of action. Through the assistance of his “Master Mind’ group Henry Ford had at his command all the specialized knowledge he needed to enable him to become one of the wealthiest men in America. It was not essential that he had to have this knowledge in his own mind.