Keys to success #4: You don't know what you don't know, so you always need to keep learning.

I have what I would consider a fairly blessed and successful life and career. I have learned a lot of things, but I know that I am not an expert on all matters.

There is much more I need to learn in areas of interest to me such as investing, the economy, business, music etc. The problem is that I do not know what I do not know - in other words, I have no idea what relevant information I am lacking. Also, the world is moving so much more rapidly today than it did a decade ago that keeping up with what's new is also a challenge.

As such, one's learning never ceases.

When I started my career in sales, I attended sales seminars and training to learn to do the job better. When I started in business, I would seek out information from wherever I could on small business and networking opportunities. When I started investing, I read many books, attended seminars and courses on property investing and legal entities to learn how to do it right.

I have spent tens of thousands of dollars, and hundreds of hours attending seminars as well as hundreds of hours more just reading books. Not all of it was good or worthwhile, but you don't know unless you try it, right?!

I once spent $5,000 to do a 3 day course with Robert Kiyosaki to learn more on property investing. $5,000 may sound like a lot, but if you can pick up one bit of relevant information it could make you a lot more than $5,000!

After having experienced a bad year of investing and business decisions, my wife and I were feeling rather disillusioned, so went to a two day "Achievers" conference looking for a mental kick-start and some motivation. The seminar was at the Sydney Entertainment Centre and there must have been over 5,000 attendees for this conference. We listened to many speakers and one speaker asked everyone to stand up. He then asked people to sit down if they had been in business less than 6 months, then less than 12 months, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years and finally asked all who have been in business for less than 20 years to sit down.

My wife and I were two of maybe 50 people left standing, and everyone was looking up at us. We were looking at each other, then at the people looking up at us, suddenly everyone began to applaud us as well as the others that were still standing. This was a huge pat-on-the-back for us, it was the kick-start we needed.

Now to be honest, I don't know what we paid for that conference - maybe a couple of hundred dollars each? I really couldn't say. However, the returns were priceless for us. We walked out of the conference realising that the issues we faced over that last period may have been tough, but we were tougher.

We felt renewed, revitalised and motivated.

Above all, it made us look at what we had already achieved and knew that we still were capable of even more.

That moment when we were still standing in the Entertainment Centre while being applauded made us realise that together we were unbeatable.

Now, that was a million dollar moment for us.!

Since retiring, I took my interest and passion for investing and turned to the equity markets to give me a bit of a challenge and occupy some of my time. My learning continues and I have had to understand terms like "instalment warrant", "mini warrant", "reverse repos" and so much more. I want to understand how different things affect the markets and understand the terminology. I have done a lot of reading, joined groups, left groups, joined other groups, listen to pod casts, signed up to news, infomation and advisory subscriptions in order to learn what I don't know.

However, one thing I do know is that this learning will never cease - never ever.

If you want to have any edge over your competition, if you want to do well in your chosen area, then you must be focussed and become an expert in that area.

To become an expert, you must first acknowledge that you need knowledge and practice. Then, you must understand that "you do not know what you do not know", and as such, you must commit to learning all that you can. You must then apply what you learn, analyse the outcome, refine your techniques, add other things you have learned and then apply again and again until you perfect what you are doing to the best of your ability.

The learning will never cease.

Lessons:

1. You do not know where or when the next million dollar idea or information will come to you, so keep an open mind and keep learning.

2. If you are going to put your hard earned money on the line to start a business or investment portfolio, learn as much as you can about the subject in order to minimise failure and losses and maximise the profits and results.

3. The world is changing constantly. What worked yesterday may not work today. Keep learning to stay abreast of what's new.

4. You just don't know what you don't know. The only way to find out is to keep learning.