The following is an excerpt from Kahuna founder and CEO’s book Carpe Aqualis – Seize the Wave! Get the book here.

“Embracing ignorance is the starting point for knowledge and understanding leading to expertise.” – Frank Lunn

The path to enlightenment begins with ignorance! Embrace your inner ignorance. You may have never heard anyone embrace ignorance before, but true enlightenment is actually building your positive ignorance. Let me explain. Ignorance is darkness found in what you do not know. Enlightenment is having the light turned on to take away the darkness of ignorance.

One of the greatest assets you possess is curiosity. Channel it and challenge it. Do not be held back by ignorance. Learn to embrace it and use it as a tool. The secret to genius is learning to master the art of ignorance. Contemplate this concept for a moment. When you are fully committed and begin the journey taking action of learning, you will become far more ignorant than before you began your quest.

To get smart you have to be willing to be ignorant as a path to growth through failure and then understanding. Before you can truly become smart, you have to realize, accept and embrace how much you do not know. As you begin to know what you don’t know, you can take action so that you will know.

This is a positive cycle of expanding your ignorance to get smarter. This may take a minute to wrap your brain around, but to expand your knowledge, you must be willing to intelligently expand your ignorance first. Developing your ignorance creates a vacuum for knowledge to replace the void created.

1. What you don’t know you don’t know      (blissful ignorance)
2. What you know you don’t know                 (intelligent “profitable” ignorance)
3. What you know you know                            (knowledge)

Progression for “Profitable Ignorance” — Educate. Enlighten. Empower.

Education is information leading to knowledge. What you do with the knowledge shared in this book can just be read and never acted upon or it can be applied.

Enlightenment is positive planned ignorance leading to the acquisition of knowledge through education. It is taking the knowledge shared and understanding even embracing how much you don’t know. This allows you to start digging in for further understanding and a practical knowledge base that lets you take action.

Empowerment is applied enlightenment. It is knowledge mixed with action. Empowerment literally means to give power. This provides tremendous leverage as you take action on what you do know based on what you did not know before. Empowerment is about equipping yourself with knowledge powered with action. Many will read this and nod their heads in agreement, yet never change anything in their lives. Ultimately, empowerment is action wrapped around knowledge and applied to your life with focus.

Reading a book or watching a video on surfing is knowledge. Knowing two styles and methods of surfing is also knowledge. Realizing there are 20 other techniques and styles you did not know about it is enlightenment. Applying that knowledge to the practical application of improving your skills is empowerment.

Henry David Thoreau observed, “To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.” We are all born into the world ignorant and without knowledge. Whether we chose to remain ignorant or take action to adapt and apply knowledge to our advantage over our environment is a choice. Each choice or series of choices culminates over time in our destiny. The real question is whether we want to end up where fate takes us or take control to whatever degree we can to choose our own destination. Knowledge applied to your life gives you power over your life and leverage to affect your own future.

Interested in learning more about how Kahuna Accounting can help you grow your business? Schedule a strategy call with Kahuna Accounting and we can discuss best practices for bookkeeping, profit, and growth!