There’s a difference between knowledge and wisdom that can become the secret weapon of success for anyone walking this earth; in any relationship, in any industry, in any situation. Our world runs on knowledge today. We have it at our fingertips. We use the internet like an encyclopedia, and there’s a growing trend of commercialized workshops and courses that anyone with a Teachable account can charge money for. If you have a question, Google’s AI can usually find an answer within under a minute. That’s knowledge.
Wisdom, however, comes with experience. It ages like wine. It is a deeper understanding and insight into development, and it takes a lifetime. Wisdom is an ongoing, critical journey, and a perspective on how to manipulate knowledge in a way that outshines book learning.
In order to build an empire, you need more than business knowledge. You need wisdom.
We’re living in a fast world, however. Competition in music is brutal. In order for newer and younger music artists to keep up and push their way to the top, wisdom can be obtained through mentorships and connections to veterans in the industry. And in order to gain your own wisdom at a pace that can keep up with current trends, there are things you can do that will help. Most of these things will revolve around your mindset.
Pause before reacting. Allow wisdom time to surface. Don’t rush to judgment about anything, and definitely don’t react right away. There’s a simple trick to keeping yourself from making impulsive decisions. When you hear something that causes an emotional response in you, just stop. Give yourself 12 good, long hours to think and to relax into the news. This is a great way to keep control and avoid embarrassment or responses that might haunt you later.
Consider wisdom traditions and time-tested principles from various cultures or religions. Find the universal truths that resonate with you. This is something a lot of people get confused with religion. Cultural wisdom comes from experience shared and passed down through oral tradition, and sometimes real, physical rituals. One example is a sweat lodge experience in most Native American cultures. It’s simply a physical way to relax, reset the mind, and connect with an invisibly collective sense of wisdom. Yogis have a different way of doing it. Martial arts forms that psychological/physical bond in China. When we take the time to slow down, relax, and use our bodies in a strategic way, there comes a real and effective way to clarify problems and solve them.
Reflect on your own history. Every human being goes through difficult and traumatic situations. These are highly valuable. Learn to access them and learn the lessons they’ve taught you. You do not have to do anything “wrong” in order to learn a lesson from a negative situation. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time, being connected to a family with serious psychological issues, etc. doesn’t mean you have to hold those lessons inside and live like a victim. Process the consequences, and realize this is ultimately valuable in building your own life wisdom. It makes you priceless, relevant and very useful to other people who don’t have those experiences. Use it. Let it be the wisdom that guides you and others.
Read books and writings by respected thinkers, philosophers, and spiritual leaders. Realize there is a collective of wisdom that has existed since the dawn of man, and we can all access that collective information through each other’s documentation.
Now that you know where to get it, what do you do with it?
Knowledge can run a company, build an audience, and promote your work. But it only goes so far, and for most, it’s short lived. Wisdom and the ability to take that knowledge, use critical thinking, consider other people’s experiences and see more deeply into the soul of your business or art form is what’s going to sustain and insure its continuance. It takes time to build an empire, because it takes a more dynamic understanding of that empire in order to keep it going. When someone gets married, for example, does it mean they shouldn’t continue to date, or pay attention to their partner? Of course not. If you stop building and developing that relationship, it withers. So does any business, and so does the personal brand. You are the relationship. You are connecting to other people, building a world of art and music for them, and of course you don’t stop paying attention to your fans once you reach any degree of fame. If you do, they go away.
Wisdom is one of the most important forms of currency on this planet. We all want it. We all share it. So take what you have inherited by being a part of this world—that collective wisdom that we all have the right to tap into when we need it.
