September 25, 2026

Business by the Book

Proverbs 13:16  Every prudent man dealeth with knowledge:…

To business people knowledge is vitally important. It’s often been said: “Knowledge is power,” or “Information is power.”   Someone once said that if a person was able to combine all knowledge that the world has ever known before the year 2,000 it would not equal the amount of knowledge, or information that is available today. There is no way to support this claim, yet Daniel did prophecy that in the last days …many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased (Daniel 12:4) 

With the internet of today, information that years ago would have taken hours or even days to find is now available in seconds. If information, or knowledge, is power any person with an internet connection is powerful. Data can be found anywhere, but how to use that data is knowledge. The ability, or the willingness, to search out a matter, listen to all sides, and establish a well thought out and informative decision seems to escape so many.

As a sales manager I once had a sales representative that was a card carrying member of Mensa, the high IQ society. He was brilliant, and to be quite transparent I was a little intimidated, at first. No doubt this man was brilliant. Anything he read was immediately committed to memory. Having a discussion with him was like talking to the internet. He was widely read and could tell me what many people thought about many subjects, but he could not tell me what he thought. His mind was so filled with the ideas of others that he had no ideas of his own. He could not combine all that knowledge and make a decision, he could not individualize an issue and state his own thoughts on the matter; he could not even state how he felt without quoting someone else. This man had information, but he lacked the ability to deal with it. He did not know how to use it, how to evaluate it, or how to draw conclusions from it.

Having knowledge, or information, is pointless unless it is used effectively. In business how a person deals with the information they have is more important than simply having the information. Anyone can find information, but prudent individuals learn how to deal with that knowledge.

Dr. William Howe