Is It More About Who You Know Or What You Know?

Back in Primary school I had a teacher who would constantly shout to the class "Knowledge is power!" It never really meant anything back then but as I have grown older it has stuck with me and resonated with me.

Knowledge is everything. It is relatively easy to acquire new knowledge but the challenge is applying it and making use of it.

I grew up in a working class household and my mum would always say to me "if you work hard you will get what you deserve". So that is what I have always tried to do. Gain as much knowledge as I can and hope that it will get me to where I want to be in life.

But then I started hearing another saying - "It is not what you know it is who you know". I hate this saying because it goes against everything I was ever taught. To me that saying diminishes the importance of gaining knowledge.

What makes it harder is that I am an introvert. I find it very hard to get to know strangers which is probably why I hate that saying even more.

As I have progressed through my career it pains me to admit that there is some truth in that saying. However I refuse to totally agree with it.

It is not JUST what you know, it is ALSO who you know

That is what I think the saying should be. To succeed in your career you need a combination of knowledge and networking. If you have one without the other it will only get you so far.

So my aim is to focus on both of these things and I feel my blog embodies this saying. I want to gain as much knowledge as I can and then share it with as many people as I can through the power of the internet and hopefully that will extend my network further than I could ever imagine.

So thank you Ms McDonald, my primary school teacher, and my mum as you were both right. Knowledge has given me the power to start this blog and my work ethic will ensure I keep going to grow my network.

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Thanks for reading,

Gav