How To be an Authority in Your Field

“A little learning is a dangerous thing;

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring” – Alexander Pope

Knowledge is critical to success in life. High flyers never get weary of learning. They never believe that they know enough. Therefore, they try to learn at every opportunity. Even as wise as he is known to be, Socrates is reputed to have said: “The only I know is that I know nothing.”

They do not want to talk or operate from the standpoint of ignorance. So, they develop a voracious and undiscriminating appetite for information.
The result is that they are soon seen as authorities to be consulted in their field. The reason is that many people are too lazy to scratch beyond the surface. For example, even with an Internet-enabled phone, many people will prefer to call someone or send a message asking for the simplest of information that Google can supply in a second. Most people tend to assume that the so-called authorities know more than they actually do. And when a person is constantly consulted in his area of business, he will definitely succeed more and make more money.

Some people erroneously think that being an authority in a field is such a difficult matter. They think that they may never know much to be listened to in a particular field of knowledge. But everybody can become an “authority” by making a little effort.

Two experiences made me believe that once a person is determined, it does not take much effort and time to cross over from the sea of ignorance to the spring of knowledge. About a year before the 1994 World Cup in USA, I was not very knowledgeable in football technicalities. I loved football very well like most young Nigerian men, but I could not talk with any certainty who played what position in a match. I also knew little outside the Nigerian league. My condition was not helped too by the fact that I was outside Lagos before 1994, where I did not have access to much information as Lagos provides.

 So, if I saw my mate or somebody younger analyse a Nigerian match with a lot of statistics, criticising or praising the formation and style of the Nigerian team, I was amazed. How could he know all that? Then if the discussion shifted to any European league, I would go dumb. I had no interest in the European league. As far as I was concerned, it was not my business.

Then in 1994, I began to read every sports newspaper and magazine that came my way. I began to watch any sports programme that was shown on TV. (I had no access to satellite television then). All sports radio programmes did not pass me by too.

A few months later, the tide turned. Those who used to make me look like a greenhorn in sports analysis began to reckon with me. If I talked football or sports, they listened. If there was an argument about the role Samson Siasia or Sunday Oliseh was playing in a match, I was consulted. If anyone needed to know the position a player with Ajax , Bayern Munich, Real Madrid or AC Milan played, I was consulted. If someone needed to know the name of the coach of a club or a country, he would be told to ask me.

I began to ask myself, “So what did all those guys who were talking with so much certainty before know?” I discovered that whatever they knew was shallow. The reason they looked very knowledgeable in football to me then was because my own knowledge of the game was low: I enjoyed the game without knowing all the technicalities.

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Culled From Punch