What if I told you that I could make you an expert in less time than it takes to cook some TV dinners?
What would you do if you could attain guru status in any subject before you even finish reading this post?
Would you use it to bolster your reputation with your peers? Would you use it to enhance your personal brand? Would you climb onto your roof and shout, “I AM A GENIUS!” for all the world to hear?
Well, you can do whatever you’d like, because all it takes to transform anybody from an average schlub to a knowledge adept is two things: The 10% Rule and the economic principle of scarcity.
The 10% Rule has been covered in this blog before, but it boils down to this: you only need to know 10% more than your audience to be a knowledgeable source. Easy enough, right? But how can you use it to your advantage?
Enter scarcity. Here’s an example:
The World Cup is going on right now. There are millions of people all over the globe watching it. But soccer/football/fútbol isn’t quite as popular in the USA. In fact, no one in my office is watching the World Cup. Except for me.
I check scores, watch highlights and read game overviews online. This takes up maybe three minutes of my day. I don’t know too much about the specifics (I’ve only watched a few games, and those were all when I was on vacation a few weeks ago) and I hardly remember the names of most of the players, but I still have some knowledge of the events that are going on.
As a result, I have a tremendous knowledge lead over my co-workers. So even though I might be lacking in knowledge depth compared to an avid World Cup viewer, I’m still more educated on it than anyone in my office. After all, it’s more than zero. And that’s why, whenever someone’s curious about how the different countries’ teams are doing, they ask me.
This is where scarcity comes into play. The fewer people with knowledge on the subject, the more powerful even remedial information is. If there was another person in the office who was also watching the World Cup, my expertise would diminish. In fact, they might have more information than I do, making them seem like the expert, and putting me at more of an “enthusiast” position.
So to truly become an expert in as little time as possible, you need to find a knowledge gap that your audience has and then exploit it with the information that you have on the subject. Even if it’s just browsing through the article on Wikipedia, having any information puts you a leg up over everyone else. If you know where there’s a dearth of information in peoples’ minds, you can use it to your advantage.
This sounds suspiciously like being an early adopter, doesn’t it?
That does make sense, though. The people who are the first to try something have the most time to get familiar with it, investigate it, and learn about it. Whether it’s business blogging or using the new iPhone, the people who have seniority and history will at least seem to be experts compared to those who join up later.
So if you want to become an expert in a flash, find a subject in which the knowledge of your audience is scarce, then gain at least a 10% knowledge advantage over them. You can even get it done while you’re finishing a sandwich!
Just don’t take the World Cup. That one’s mine.
