It’s often said that the wisest person in the world is the one who admits that he knows nothing.
This is what the oracle at Delphi said of Socrates. Because at the time he realized (and admitted) just how little he actually knew. But this is something that people are afraid to admit in today’s world. We’re all too concerned with being “right” that we rarely, if ever, leave ourselves room to be wrong—or to make mistakes.
But the most creative among us welcome mistakes. This is because mistakes make us think. And mistakes also are capable of spawning spontaneity.
There’s nothing wrong with being “wrong” from time to time. After all, we’re all human, and making mistakes is part of learning and growing. And if you set out to be perfect, you’re going to find yourself stepping onto a battlefield littered with bodies that all sought the same thing.
“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”
―Plato,The Republic
When people talk of ignorance, it automatically comes along with a stigma. As if this is a place that you dare not ever tread. Who actually wants to be wrong, right? But the truly creative mind sees ignorance as possibility, and mistakes as opportunity.
Basically, if you don’t know what you’re doing, then what’s the point in worrying about it. Just give yourself permission to be wrong, to make mistakes, and to fail. Because without failure you’ll never mature, and you’ll never learn what you aren’t capable of.
In the room where all the wrongs and rights of the world are found, not one of them sits apart from the other without having once been in the other’s shoes.
You have to be wrong at least once if you ever hope to be right.
Sometimes, it’s uncertainty that becomes our greatest blessing. So embrace the fact that you can’t be right all the time, and take your understanding of this to a higher level.
Do this, and you’ll have reached a higher level of ignorance. And then, just maybe you’ll learn something profound.
No matter if you’re right or wrong.
Travel Well.