Lesson Forty-Four: Information is Free,It’s Knowledge That Costs

My friend Peter has a good idea.In fact, I think it may even be a great idea. And I’m not easily impressed by these things.

But Peter also has a problem.

He’s governed by the fear that someone is going to steal his idea. It makes him cagey and suspicious, and when he talks about his big idea, he does so in a vague, elusive way. He doesn’t want to tell too much for fear you’ll take that information and cut him out. “People don’t have a right to the things I know, unless they pay for them,” he says, vehemently.

Peter doesn’t get it. So I tell him about Farmer Johnson.

Farmer Johnson had a small dairy farm, but over the years he found increased competition and technological innovation was driving down the price he could get for the milk. Bigger competitors had made large investments in automation systems that allowed them to produce more, for less.

It was a tough spot. But then Johnson had an idea. City folks were always driving up to his farm and asking to look around. They loved connecting with nature on the weekends because they weren’t able to during their work week. ‘I’ll bet city people would get a kick out of being able to milk a cow themselves,’ Johnson thought. ‘I could charge them by the amount of time, and they could keep the milk they get.’

It’ll never work, the nay sayers told him. It only takes a few minutes to milk a cow, they quickly pointed out. You’ll never make a dime.

But Johnson did it anyways.What happen next surprised even him.

The city folks loved the idea. They came in droves. But when they sat down at the cow and started trying to milk her, nothing came out. Being city folks, they didn’t know how to do it. One cow could be milked all day, netting far more in fees than she would have commanded in milk.

The point, Peter, is this. There is a big difference between information and knowledge. The only way you can turn one into the other is through the application of it. Knowledge only comes from experience. So you can sell your milk, which is what most people do. Or you can give your milk away, as Farmer Johnson did, and sell the experience of getting it.

What’s it going to be, Peter?