Skills versus Knowledge

By Gao Peng

Once,a millionaire recounted in his autobiography that he has four talents,which all sound so simple:

I know how to type and do it well;

I know how to communicate effectively and convince people;

I know how to guide others to do their work well,though I don’t know how to conduct those detailed processes;

I know how to sell products to customers and let people understand my ideas.

That’s all.He said,“I can also taste which dish is cooked by my wife.Except for the above,I know nothing else.”

It is merely these four capabilities that allowed him to create a great enterprise with hundreds of branches,spanning from insurance to cosmetics and other fields,with an annual profit of up to 100 million US dollars.

I once invited him to give a lecture to my institution,where the audience was 200 students from the University of Pennsylvania,with an average age of around 21.

As he stepped up to the podium,he opened with a question:

“Boys and girls,just tell me that if you’re asked to land a job tomorrow morning,will you have the confidence to apply successfully?”

Someone answered,“Yes.”

He then asked,“Tell me why.”

The discussion thus began.Throughout his 40-minute speech,he focused on one theme that it is more significant to strengthen certain abilities than to acquire profound knowledge,hoping that young people would commit to cultivating three or four skills,or one that is good enough.With such skills,it will be hard for you to lose your job.

(FromDestiny,Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing House.Translation:Qing Run)

有一位百万富翁在自述中说，他拥有四种才能。听起来都特别简单：

我知道怎么打字，并且打得很好；

我知道怎么进行有效沟通，并且说服人们；

我知道如何指导别人把工作做好，虽然我不懂得操作那些细节流程；

我知道怎样把产品推销给顾客，并且让人们明白我的理念。

仅此而已。他说：“我还能品尝出哪道菜是我妻子的手艺，其他的，我一样也不会。”

就是这区区四种能力，让他创造了一家伟大的企业，旗下拥有几百家分公司，跨越从保险到化妆等多个领域，年盈利高达一亿美元。

有一次，我请他给我的机构做一次讲座，对象是200 名宾州大学学生，平均年龄只有21岁。

他走到讲台上，开口问的第一个问题就是：

“同学们，请告诉我，假如突然让你明天早晨就找一份工作，你们有没有自信应聘成功？”

有人答：“有。”

他接着问：“说说原因。”

讨论就这样开始了。他在40分钟演讲中，始终围绕一个主题：强化自己某些能力，比获得渊博知识更重要。他希望年轻人重点打造三四种技能，有一种足够优秀的技能也可以，有了这些技能，你就很难失业。

（摘自《命运》江苏凤凰文艺出版社）