Different skill and knowledge for different wealth creation

Not too long ago, there was this professor who hired a boot to bring him down stream to another town. As he was sitting on the boat, enjoying the beautiful scenery along the river as the boatman paddled the boat down stream. They passed some huge rocks protruding out the water.

To start a conversation with the boatman, the professor asked, “ Boatman, boatman, do you know anything about mineralogy?”
The boatman answered, “ No, what is that?”
The professor answered,” I am so sorry, one quarter of your life are wasted.”
The boatman was unhappy and felt sad.

As the boat flow passed some floating leaves and plants, the professor asked, “Boatman, boatman, do you know any thing about botany?”
The boatman replied, “No, what is that?”
The professor said, “ Oh! I am sorry, you just lost half of your life!”
The boatman felt so sad.

As the boat floated through ranges of mountains, the professor asked, “Boatman, boatman, do you know anything about geography?”
The boatman replied, “No.”
The professor said,” I am very sorry, you just missed out three quarters of your life!”
The boatman felt terribly sad.

As the mountain closed up, the river narrowed, and water became rapid. The boatman started having problem of controlling the boat as the water got faster and faster. Then, the boat suddenly hit a huge rock and started to fall apart.
The boatman then asked,” Professor, professor, do you know how to swim?”
The professor replied frightfully, “No!”
The boatman then say, “I am sorry, 100% of your life is wasted!”

This is a short story told by Adam Khoo, the motivational guru whom I attended an introduction to his program, SuperKids Camp. The whole point of the story is that a person who has good knowledge and skill in one area of his expertise must not be satisfied and contented to what he already know. There is always some situations where your knowledge and expertise cannot be applied and be useless. In those situations, another person who thought to be weak in certain skill and knowledge than you, will be excel in that situation which fit nicely into his skill set.

We must not be contented on what we know, as continue learning is a process and a pre-requisite for anyone who wants to be successful. Creating and discovering wealth is no different. We will need to be constantly upgrading ourselves in all areas leading us nearer to our goal. Every person we meet in the journey have a certain skill set which we can learnt and be useful in situation down the journey of discovering our wealth.