Ever so often, I get asked questions like this one,
“Ethan, I attend your workshops and I really enjoyed and learned a lot from them. But if everyone used the tips and techniques that you taught, there will no longer be any competitive advantage doing so, isn’t it?”
Yes, of course it is true!
It is true that the mindsets, perspectives and techniques that I teach cannot serve as a source of competitive advantage *IF* everyone used them.

You see, the keyword is “IF”.

The fact remains that few people take action on the knowledge and skills that they have.

Just take a look around you. How many students graduate from universities around the world each year?
Having that degree means that they have completed more than 16 years of formal education, is it not? It also means that they are equipped with some really cool knowledge and skills, is it not?
And why, oh why, is it that although they are armed to the teeth with knowledge and skills, so few of them are really successful in their career and life??

[Side note: In fact, a good percentage of people who are considered successful in our societies today are without degrees. I personally know a number of them.]

The answer is simple: Because they don’t put what they have learned to use.

Many of them, and I hope you are not one of them, are taught that, in this information-age-knowledge-economy, knowledge is power.

This can’t be more wrong.

Knowledge is only *potential* power. If you don’t put that knowledge to use, it will only sit in the books and on the backseat of your mind and can never be powerful.

Only ACTION is power.

To cause something to change, to move, to improve, to work, there MUST BE ACTION. That’s why people who can put knowledge to appropriate use are said to be wise.

Only the top 5% of the students who come to my training workshops will take action on what they have learned. As such, these are the same 5% who will be successful in their careers and lives.

So, if you would decide and commit to applying what you’ve learned to your life, you would be amongst the top 5% of the entire population. The other 95% will still not have a clue what their lives are about and where they are heading.

Guess what? You will have close to ZERO competition and, thus, all the advantages needed. So, let’s not worry at this point in time what will happen IF everyone used the techinques that I taught. Such a question is a good academic question of no practical value.

My point is this:  There is no point gaining more and more knowledge. Start taking action on the knowledge and skills that you have acquired and continue to learn from that point forth. This, then, is the mark of a wise and successful person.

Question for you: What action will you be taking today? Or are you going to wait for the 9 planets in our solar system to align first? : )

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