I. Don't. Know.

I'm not the kind of person who steals someone else's ideas and present them as my own. And I've never really done the whole "reblog" thing where I use someone else's post as a crutch to try to generate traffic for my blog.

I write because I want to and because I enjoy it (most of the time). I don't get caught up in how many people read what I write or share it with anyone else. I'm not Seth Godin and I don't have to rely on my writing / blogging to pay my bills and keep food on the table.

That being said, I recently came across a link in my Twitter feed from @DanWaldo an edgy "out of the box" kinda guy. He linked an article from @iannarino entitled "It's Professional Not To Know The Answer."

Anyway, I thought it was a great article. I won't include the entire text of the post but I just wanted to share a snippet in case you missed it:

When You Don’t Know, Say “I Don’t Know”

The inability to say the three little words “I don’t know” doesn’t afflict only salespeople. It’s an epidemic with management, leadership, and all sorts of professionals. But true professionals have no trouble admitting that that they don’t know something when asked.

Even if you are a subject matter expert with years in your field, with all you know there will still be more that you don’t know. When your client asks you a question to which you don’t know the answer, the legitimate, professional response is: “I don’t know, but I’ll find out the answer for you.”

So quit trying to "fake it until you make it."  People can tell when you are faking it. And I personally don't like to do business with people who deceive me and I'm sure there are others that feel the same way. So if you are going to rely on me and people like me for your income, just be honest with us. Because if you aren't and you "fake it" you will never "make it."






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