“To realize that you
do not understand
is a virtue.” 
~ Lao Tzu

I have had extensive experience in life with being asked questions to which I did not know the answer. This happened quite regularly in the classroom during my elementary and high school years. Why did my teachers have to ask me to explain concepts from the text book when I hadn’t gotten around to doing the assigned reading? This also happened when I took the California Driver’s Test and questions were asked about the consequences of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. While preparing to take the test, I had skipped over that section in the driver’s handbook, since I didn’t drink or use drugs.

Later in life, I was challenged with a number of questions on various topics to which I did not know the answer. I’m embarrassed to admit that, at times, rather than admitting my ignorance, I did my best to bullshit my way through a response. Sometimes it worked, but not always. I think that’s a guy thing.

In my years as a teacher, there were many times when students would ask me about things I knew little or nothing about. I never had a sense that they were intentionally trying to trap or embarrass me. They simply had valid questions to which I was unprepared to respond. I had been warned, early in my teaching career, that students have a built-in BS detector, so the best way to handle such a question was to honestly admit that I didn’t know. Then I had two options. I could tell them I’d get back to them the next day with an answer, or I could compliment the student on the quality of their question and ask them to research the answer and share it with the class the next day. Both strategies seemed to be effective.

German-born teacher and writer Eckhart Tolle wrote, “Sometimes surrender means giving up trying to understand and becoming comfortable with not knowing.” While this may be true for some, teachers don’t have this option when confronted with a valid question from a student. It also wasn’t true when I found myself in a transitional job working at Kennedy Business Machines in San José. I was hired by someone who knew me, someone who had recognized my strong organizational skills. I was totally unprepared for the job, yet there I was as the new Operations Manager of the organization. During my first week on the job, one of the salesmen stopped by my desk and inquired, “When are the 300’s coming in?” I had no choice but to humble myself and ask a series of questions:

“Um,… what are 300’s?

The look on the salesman’s face was priceless. “Uh,… typewriters.”

“Who makes them?” My question was greeted with another disconcerted look.

The salesman slowly and clearly responded, “Canon!”

Only then could I turn to the file cabinet to find the purchase order which would indicate the expected arrival date for the products. I’m sure the salesman returned to the sales office with some choice words about the new Operations Manager.

Television and magazine writer Nell Scovell pointed out, “Sometimes, not knowing what you’re doing allows you to do things you never knew you could do.” This was certainly my experience working at Kennedy. In the brief six months I worked there, I learned the job, familiarized myself with the products they sold, and reorganized both the purchasing desk and warehouse to improve production. No one was more surprised than I was.

Susan Wojcicki is the former CEO at YouTube. Acknowledging that our world is ever-changing, she said, “Part of being successful is being comfortable with not knowing what’s going to happen.” When we recognize that we don’t know what’s going to happen, we are less likely to get broadsided by the unexpected when it happens.

The idea of acknowledging that which we do not know is not a new concept. The philosopher Socrates said, “True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.”   

So the problem is not that there are things we do not know. The problem arises when we fail to recognize, or refuse to acknowledge, what we do not know.