Reply To: To Succeed In Life, You Need Two Things…

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#57368

@omaonu Great point! The kind of ignorance Mark Twain was saying leads to success is the right kind of ignorance, as you described.

That is ignorance of the statement ‘it can never be done’.

I buttress my point with the story of how Henry Ford, the founder of Ford, the car manufacturer ‘invented’ mass car manufacturing.

In those days, cars were only for the ultra-rich the way private jets are today for the ultra-rich.

The less wealthy folks made do with the good ol horse and carriage. But Henry Ford was determined that cars should be more affordable.

So, he made a design for a more affordable car he called the ModelT. Now, Ford didn’t have much of a formal education. And the educated engineers he approached with the plan told him it wouldn’t work.

But Ford decided to be ignorant that one time, and insisted that they implement his plan for the ModelT. And guess what, the engineers were able to make Ford’s design work.

And Ford and the engineers made a ton of money selling the more affordable ModelT to a mass market. That was a first in car manufacturing history.

And it happened because Henry Ford was confident of his design and also decided to be ignorant of the advice that it wouldn’t work.

Reversal
Being ignorant in this sense doesn’t mean that you should never take advice from people with experience. It means you may have to make up your own mind if you should follow the advice they’ve given you or not.