Originally written in 2011, minor edits in 2023
“You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird… So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing –that’s what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.”
-Richard Feynman
Knowledge is potential power. Knowledge is the capital needed to invest in your success. Unless you have knowledge, even the question of success doesn’t arise. I know that it’s not possible to know everything but at least you should try to know all that is relevant to your work and field of passion.
Remember, knowledge and education are different things altogether. Education is important in its own place, but power arises out of knowledge. Education tries to provide us with some tools to gather knowledge required to excel in a certain field we pursue but it cannot be enough. What we need is knowledge, the potential that can be converted to power as and when necessary. This is the reason why all the students who excel in studies are not necessarily successful in life. Many people are very good at education, always score distinction in exams but then fail miserably in life. However, there are many examples of people who were college and school dropouts but have revolutionized the world with their contributions. Did they have education? No. But did they have knowledge? You bet they did! They knew everything that was required to reach their destination. They didn’t graduate from the University of Harvard but they did graduate from the University of Life with flying colors.
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Bishal Gyawali 
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