Marcus Leung's Blog

It seems to me that every time someone’s asked for advice on a problem, an unwritten rule comes into effect where they’re essentially expected to become knowledgeable on said issue. And if they don’t know it yet, the sooner the better.

Mark Suster, an entrepreneur turned venture capitalist, touches on this topic in one of his blog posts for “Both Sides of the Table.” In the post he gives business advice to entrepreneurs and venture capitalists alike, though the advice is basically applicable to any field of business. He describes how saying “I don’t know” is often the right answer; he disregards the importance of answers in favour of knowing what questions to ask. Suster recounts how in his own career he felt like he was fooled into thinking he had to know everything, but later realized that real business leaders are ones that can admit that they don’t know everything.

While reading Suster’s post, this concept of “not-knowing” really hit home for me. I feel that in today’s “technology-centric” age, people are placing increasing pressures on themselves to know things they don’t know much about. Suster’s advice of admitting one’s lack of knowledge is extremely relevant, not only with entrepreneurs looking to start-up, but also with students. I think that if students could adopt this open-mindedness, they could learn at a greater depth than they would thinking that they already know-it-all.

Image found here.