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Knowing vs. Knowing

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They’re vastly different things.

The ancient Greeks had two distinctly different words for knowledge. One of them is good for business owners, the other one, not so much.

A Tale of Two Words
Gnosis is the ancient Greek word for “knowledge of the head” – 2+2=4. The sky is blue. Gravity sucks. Plants need water. All good stuff to know, but not nearly as powerful as the other kind of knowledge.

Epignosis is the ancient Greek word for “knowledge of the heart/life”. This is voodoo of a different kind and is much more valuable to the business owner. Epignosis is not something you know to be a fact, that can sit in your head unused for decades. Epignosis is applied knowledge. It’s knowledge that directly affects the way you live and act every day. You don’t know it, you do it.

As a business owner we know things with our head that are interesting, fascinating, boring, essential (profit is good, loss is bad), and some of it very complex. We love complex knowledge – understanding markets, watching trends, researching possible products and services – because it all takes a lot of time to learn and makes us feel smart. Even other people are impressed when we talk from our head knowledge about these things.

Get Real
But Epignosis, knowledge of the life, is a special thing and should be cherished by business owners. It is that knowledge on which we act and build a business. Things like calling people because we “know” if we do, some will buy. Or building connections with strategic alliance partners because we “know” they can rain on us for decades with clients. Or getting out of our office and serving our clients or other business owners because we “know” that helping others get to their goals ensures our own success.

We know that we have Epignosis about something because it affects the way we do things. Gnosis is only about what we know in our heads, but Epignosis goes to the very heart of what we BELIEVE (more on that next week), and it is our beliefs that determine our actions. If I believe bicycling will make me fit, I will do it regularly, not think about it. It’s true Epignosis.

I Say Tom-ay-to, You Say Tom-ah-to
The problem is that we get the two confused all the time. We think that knowing something with our heads (I will be successful if I make those phone calls) is somehow valuable. But knowledge of the head is only valuable when it comes out our hands as knowledge of the life.

Successful business owners have a special relationship with life-knowledge, Epignosis. They go looking for the kind of knowledge that can be immediately translated into action that builds their business. Those that struggle are much more inclined to research, think, strategize, analyze, postulate and theorize. That kind of Gnosis may be very satisfying and impressive, but it will leave you poor. When it comes to Gnosis, the old adage, “Knowledge is power”, is wrong. If knowledge (Gnosis) were power, librarians would rule the world.

In Your Head, Out Your Hands
Life-knowledge makes us do something, not think something. It is at the core of Conation – Committed Movement in a Purposeful Direction (CMPD). Conation is the most important business word you’ve never heard because we live in a world ruled by Cognitives, Thinkers – Gnostics who loving knowing but not doing.

Want to be successful? Fall in love with Epignosis. Every time something goes in your head, figure out how it can come out your hands to help you build a better business. Translate Gnosis into Epignosis – it’s a great way to build a business. Stop thinking. Get moving.

Thought leaders, aren’t.

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Thinking isn’t results.

Why would anyone want to be known as a “thought leader” – for thinking? Thinkers are rarely leaders, so why do we use that term to identify people we believe are leading? There is a better term.

I’m not against thinking, I’m against elevating it to the highest status and the object of our affection. It’s not the lead actor – it has a supporting role in getting results.

Thinking is really important in the process of doing. As I’m moving forward, if I’m not thinking about all the feedback I’m getting I will just run into brick wall after brick wall. But the objective of thinking should be to create a result – to transform something.

So it makes no sense to me to call people “thought leaders” as if they are actually creating change. To call someone a “thought leader” is to focus on the process instead of the result.

Why do we celebrate thinking over results? I believe it’s because cognition, or thinking, has gained an inappropriately high status in our culture. The academics have taught us to assume that thinking is the result, not just one step in the process of getting a result.

Is this just semantics? No – there is a significant difference.

A thought leader is someone who has an idea. A results leader is someone who has changed something.

Thought leaders are educational. Results leaders are transformational.

Results leaders make history. Thought leaders write about them later.

We don’t think our way to a new way of acting. We act our way to a new way of thinking.

It is the act of acting that changes us, not the act of thinking. Nobody learns to ride a bike by reading books.

Einstein also believed we have given cognition too much credit. He said “rational thought” is the “servant of intuition”, but that we have “created a society that worships the servant and has forgotten the gift.” Cognition is simply one of the servants of getting results, and as such we should be focused on the higher value of results, not on thinking.

Many people we identify as “thought leaders” are really “results leaders”. We need to give them their just recognition and relegate thinking back to it’s appropriate role as a SERVANT of the result, not the object of our affection.

Let’s celebrate and promote “results leaders”. Thinking isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

What do you “think”?

The Conative Filter

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Stop Thinking: Conation, not Cognition.

Conation is one of the 1,000 most obscure English words and yet the most important business word you’ve never heard. Want to know if you’re doing well and going where you want? Filter everything through the word conation:

Conation – the will to succeed that manifests itself in single-minded pursuit of a goal.

Or my definition:

Committed Movement in a Purposeful Direction

It’s nuts that this word has been buried in the lexicon, but there was too much “doing” in it for the academics to feel comfortable, so they let the word drift into obscurity. These Thinker/Cognaters love cognition because it allows them to justify sitting around thinking things to death without taking any action. Conation is scary to them because it requires action and metrics of success, not just pontificating.

But if you bring Conation back into your life and business as your main filter, and use cognition as a faithful servant of your Conation, you’re going to be a lot more successful. Conation is way more important to your success than cognition.

The Conative Filter

  1. Commitment – Affection/Passion – are you sold out to what you’re doing? Willing to go down with the ship? Do you have “quiet resolve” to succeed no matter what? If not, your chances for success are low. Commitment, utter abandonment to the cause is the foundation of success.
  2. Movement – Activation – Doing – are you sitting around cognating (thinking) about what great things might happen if you ever did something? Or are you moving forward and figuring it out as you go? Doers get things done while Thinkers are thinking about doing something someday.
  3. Purpose – Cognition – Discipline/Plan – Do you have a plan for the highest and best use of your time (Yield per Hour)? Cognition is ONE of the things you need to be doing to be successful. It’s a faithful servant of conation.
  4. Direction – Vision – Just because you’re going flat out doesn’t mean you’re going the right direction. Do you have utter clarity about where you want to end up, exactly what it looks like, and when you want to be there? You get what you intend, not what you hope for.

Conation is all four, not just two or three. Direction, Purposeful, and Movement without Commitment will not sustain you. Commitment, Purpose, and Direction are useless without Movement. Movement, Commitment and Direction are of no value without Purpose (a plan to get there).

Want to know whether you’ll be successful, or why you’re not? Use the conative filter to see if you’ve got all four attributes going at once. If not, shore up the one that needs your attention. You’ll make more money in less time and make a bigger splash in the world around you.

People with committed movement in a purposeful direction make history. Cognating dreamers write about them later.

Conation – The Most Important Business Word You’ve Never Heard

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I have somewhere I have to be.

The only motivation book I will recommend to others is Self-made in America, by John McCormack. John introduced me to an obscure English word that I now use as a cornerstone of my daily activity – conation.

I’ve truncated John’s working definition: Conation – the will to succeed that manifests itself in single-minded pursuit of a goal. – to:

Committed Movement in a Purposeful Direction

Social scientists have long talked about the Three Aspects of the Mind. Cognition (doing), Affection (feeling) and Activation (doing) are the three legs. Conation is when we take all three of these and figure out where we want to go, then start going there. Conation isn’t thinking, it isn’t feeling and it isn’t doing. It’s having crystal clarity on where you want to end up, and doing anything you have to in order to get there.

I find it fascinating that almost everyone I know has a good handle on what cognition, affection and activation are, but virtually no one I know is familiar with the word that puts them all together – conation. The most important of the four words, the one that creates action as well as results, is nearly unknown. Why?

Our educational system has promoted thinking and feeling almost to the exclusion of even activation – doing. Conation is most closely related to doing. If you don’t do, there is no conation.

We are all taught that if we just get enough information into our heads and feel good about it, that we’ll eventually do something about it. I believe the reason this valuable word hasn’t gotten much attention is because we’ve all bought into that idea handed down from the ancient Greeks on through that

We think our way to a new way of acting.

We see cognition – thinking – as the all important fundamental on which the other two swing. And of course we all like to feel stuff. So affection gets plenty of attention, too.

But we do not think our way to a new way of acting.

We act our way to a new way of thinking.

Even Einstein supported this when he said, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

Want to grow a Mature Business? Add “conate” to your daily verb count. The will to succeed that manifests itself in single-minded pursuit of a goal, or

Committed Movement in a Purpoesful Direction

Clarity – I know my goal. Hope – the will to succeed, that comes from knowing my goal. Risk – singleminded pursuit.

How do I know I’m conating? I’m already moving in a purposeful direction, with complete commitment to getting there.

Get out of my way, I have somewhere I need to be.