Knowing is half the battle...

I know everyone has their own thoughts about the old: "It's not about what you know, It's about who you know."

I'd like to take this opportunity to add my version of this old standby. I was laying in bed last night trying to fall asleep and I was just having all of these thoughts when this one popped into my head...

"It's not about what you know, it's about who you know and whether or not you can convince them that you seem to know what you know." (Yes, I just quoted my own thought like it was someone else's words.)

Anyway, I think the magic part of the equation is not just knowing someone it's convincing them that you know relevant things.

What is knowing something anyway? I think the way we use the word currently it means that you've internalized something into your memory and/or belief structure the way it was taught to you through whatever method. Thus, you know something if you learned it in school, if you read it in a book, saw it on TV or if you've actually experienced it firsthand. The issue, though, isn't really whether or not you know something, it's convincing the people that you come into contact with that you actually know things.

Back to why I was thinking about this, though... In my humble opinion, I think that I know a reasonable amount of things and I know a good amount of people in the company I currently work for... but the part that I really have trouble with is letting the people I know in on the secret that I actually know things.