Be Your Own Expert!

It's a novel, singular, unique and controversial concept in this day and time of specialists.

You're sick and you go to a doctor and get meds and do what he says.

You need work done on your house, you call a contractor, explain what you want done and let them take care of it - right?

You need help working out your problems, you go to a counselor or psychiatrist.

That's the way the World Works - Right?

But it's not the way I do things.

Anytime I have an effort, new direction, change, crisis or need that involves any sort of effort or money, I do my own research aka due diligence.

With a base foundation of engineering, which is one of the best formal training programs in the world for detecting bullshit distribution in the World, I am able to "transfer knowledge" from that training and the knowledge and experience it has afforded in over 30 years and apply it to "new learnings".

In a nutshell, it doesn't take me long to become a "relative expert" in a specific field, vocation or procedure.

I say "relative expert" because it's blatantly obvious I will never be a doctor just by reading about a specific illness, surgical procedure or medication for a specific ailment or situation.

But I can gain a "working knowledge" of the specific circumstance such that when I do talk to a "real expert", I can ask intelligent questions and gain pertinent and specific knowledge that will help me make better decisions.

Case in point, my Total Knee Replacement.

By the time I got done researching and reading about Total Knee Replacements, I was able to spend 2 hours with a Surgeon that had done over 6000 procedures and go through a Menu of Options that covered Preparation, Procedure and Post-Op for having a Total Knee Replacement.

That knowledge and the ability to exchange Q & A with "The Expert" allowed me to be an EXPERT FOR ME!

Which is really important, because what it does is put you in control of your destiny instead of blindly relying on "An Expert" who may or may not be a Real Expert.

Let's face it - there are good and bad representatives in every field - be it Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Accountants.

You have to arm yourself with enough specific knowledge about any particular field to be a good "BS Detector" for that field and be able to identify when someone is taking advantage of you or misrepresenting themselves.

It never ceases to amaze me how people will just blindly trust "Professionals" just because they have a PhD behind their name OR are on Angie's List or recommended by some friend or colleague.

I mean - Come on People - get off your lazy ass, get your head up, look around, do some Due Diligence and don't be a Victim and don't compromise your Expectations.

This approach does several things.

First, it arms you with the knowledge you need to get the best product or service you can get.

Second, it keeps you learning new things about new subjects and new fields which in and of itself has many obvious advantages.

Third, it creates Awareness of how the World functions, makes you cognizant of Scam artists and gives you a Deep, Wide, Varied and Intelligently Adaptive Base of Knowledge that is Transferable to other Subjects and Situations.

So the next time you find yourself relying on an Expert to solve your problems - DON'T!

Back up - Back off.... Go get some knowledge and understanding of the Subject Matter yourself and.....

Become Your Own Expert!