The Need To Know

The Need to Know

Who was your favorite teacher? Maybe it was the person who taught you piano. Or a high school science teacher or that literature professor. Some would say their mother. Some would speak of a mentor or a spiritual counselor.

Hopefully the knowledge you’ve accumulated has benefited you. You’ve learned a trade and now earn a living. You have wisdom to avoid life’s pitfalls and to enjoy life’s pleasures. But is that the only purpose your knowledge serves?

The ultimate end for your knowledge and wisdom should be to pass it on to others. It doesn’t matter how smart you think you are. What matters is that you possess bits of fact, pieces of advice, lessons from experience that are too valuable to keep to yourself.

Your best teachers have made you who you are. In the knowledge you share with others, you can return the favor for those with a need to know.

Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: Wisdom preserves those who have it.

—Ecclesiastes 7:12