In this episode, we discuss the importance of trying to discover the things you don’t know what you don’t know in life.
Full Transcript
Hi Everyone, welcome to the You’re Daily Cup of Joe Podcast, with your host Joe Bautista. In this podcast, my goal is to give you quick lessons on how to grow yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually so you can have better careers, better relationships, and better personal finances.
I’m also the author of the book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to Get Better Every Day”. In this book, I wrote down over 30 tips to help you grow in those four cornerstones. I’m also the founder of Grow With Joe, where I combine self-development coaching and financial planning for Latino Professionals.
In today’s episode we’re are going to talk about how in life there are the things you know, the things you don’t know, and the things you don’t know, you don’t know. The first two are pretty self-explanatory, but I want to focus on the last part, which are the things you don’t know what you don’t know. It is in this area where the majority of opportunities in life lay.
I feel like one major area where people don’t know what they don’t know is taxes and financial planning. I feel like people just shut off when they come across these terms and they are losing out on a lot of opportunities when it comes to their personal finances. Back in the day before I started my journey to become a financial planner, I had no clue how taxes worked. When it came to submitting my taxes, it just felt like some random number was being generated where I was getting money back or I had to pay money. If I got money back I was happy, but if I had to pay, then I was upset.
Then when I took a financial planning class that covered taxes, I was like oooohhhh, this is how it works and now when I file my taxes, I don’t get upset because I know the rules and what I have to pay. If you get money back at the end of the year, it means that you overpaid your taxes and you gave the government a zero percent interest loan. I guess if someone is bad at saving money, this could be a good thing but it is not the optimal thing to do.
We all live by the same tax rules, but it is up to us as an individual to take advantage over them or have them take advantage over us. Play by the rules though, don’t break the rules. If you miss a deduction or tax credit, the IRS is most likely not going to catch that for you. The tax code is complicated at times so it is best to seek out a professional and do a little research for your self. I would recommend a course or reading blog posts because there is a lot of information out there and a course just breaks it down faster for individuals.
But once you understand the things you don’t know what you don’t know, then you will have more power. Yeah, we don’t know about taxes but within taxes, there are a lot of different sub-categories and these are the things that we don’t know that we don’t know.
When I started my financial planning career four years ago, there were a lot of things that I didn’t know that I didn’t know. At first I thought to become a good financial planner, all I had to know about financial planning is the technical aspect of financial planning but then I soon realized that I had to know business management, marketing, persuasion and sales, and coaching as well if I want to become a successful financial planner that can stay in business.
One thing I wish I would have known when I first got started in the business was marketing. Marketing is the life-blood of all businesses. You can have the greatest product in the world but if no one knows about it than it doesn’t exist. I didn’t know that is was so important four years ago and I would have spent a lot more time on it in the past.
The best way to know the things that you don’t know that you don’t know is to be a continual learner. I don’t try to be a deep expert on everything, I just want to get a basic understanding for how to do something because we can’t become experts in everything but if you spend 30 minutes trying to learn something, then you can be more informed and not be taken advantage of in a situation. I feel pretty lucky that I discovered economics and lived in DC because know I have a pretty good understanding of how America works and when it comes time to vote, I can make a more informed decision when it comes to voting.
I would say Udemy or Coursera have lots of great courses that you can take to improve your learning on a subject. Plus you YouTube is a pretty good resource to get in a quick lesson. Most of the time when I have a question about something, I go straight to Google to see what the answer is. I’ve also bought courses to help speed up my learning curve on different subjects. You have to realize that one hour with a professional can save your eight hours and if you value your time at $50/hr, then that one course can save you $350 because you spent that one hour learning and now you have seven hours to implement that lesson in your business or at work so you can get a promotion.
If you want to have a better career, better personal finances, and better relationships, go out and learn about the things you don’t know what you don’t know. I’ve read a lot of books on relationships over the past four years and I feel I’m much better now that I was than my early 20s. Same thing with my career and personal finances, and it’s because I go out and learn.
About two months ago, I got into a discussion with someone about why they weren’t getting promoted. They thought it was because they were getting treated unfairly at work but then I ask the person how many books or classes have they took on persuasion? How many books did they read on negotiation? There are tons of soft skills that people need to learn if they want to become a success at work and in their personal lives but if you start to learn the things that you don’t know that you don’t know then you’ll be successful. You actually have to implement the things as well but knowledge is the first step.
I think as people we have to take extreme ownership over our personal development. No one else is going to come in your life and force you to learn these things that you don’t know that you don’t know. You might get a nudge or some insight on how to develop yourself but if you don’t take the leap, then you’ll never know the things that you don’t know that you don’t know and all the opportunities in this world will just go to someone else.
That’s it for today’s episode, to summarize it, in life, there are the things you know, the things you don’t know, and the things you don’t know what you don’t know and it’s in this area where all the big opportunities lay. If you can start to find out more things that you don’t know that you don’t know, then you’ll be more aware of how you should navigate through life. If you don’t know the things you don’t know what you don’t know then you’ll keep making the same decisions that will give you the same results. That might be enough for you but if it’s not, then you should really start to explore the things that you don’t know so you can better understand how to become successful in this world.
To get a free copy of my book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and just pay for shipping and handling.
I have a quiz on my website that grades your inner circle, so if you want to find out if your inner circle is an A, B, C, D, or F, you can take that quiz at growwithjoe.me/quiz
I’m also trying to do a feedback Friday episode, so if you have a question that you would like to have my answer on the air, just e-mail me at [email protected]
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Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
*Music outro
