There are three levels of education and learning.

The first is facts and memorization. It’s the kind of education you get from a teacher who thinks that history is about places and dates. That’s the lowest form of learning, and its not really very useful. The second is formulas and logic. It’s helpful to an extent, but it’s usually theoretical. It’s learning based on the way things “should be.”

Any time you speak the words “should be,” you are, at some level, avoiding reality.

But those who graduate from the school of hard knocks master the highest level of learning.

The highest level of learning is pattern recognition.

I’m not talking about one of those tests where you look at a series of numbers and you figure out what the missing one should be. I’m talking about the honest observation of cause and effect.

Real street smarts is about seeing patterns, cause and effect in the squishy, murky world of business and real life.

The leap from level 2 to level 3 comes largely from abandoning the “should be” world and way of thinking and simply seeing what is. There are a lot of people who are bitter because the “should be” world and the “is” world don’t match up. They’re mad because people at Wal-Mart make $7 per hour when they should make $12 but they don’t recognize the cause and effect that causes people to get paid commodity wages. They don’t recognize that the things people are taught in school don’t work.

The Should-Be World vs. the IS World

Some folks wouldn’t have the guts to admit this, but when I was in my 20’s, I was a network marketing junkie and I was absolutely convinced I was going to make a fortune in Amway. All kinds of anecdotal evidence had been carefully placed in front of me to convince me that I was destined to be successful in that endeavor.

The entire MLM industry continues to exist because people would rather see the world as it should be than how it actually is. When someone shows you an MLM deal, their little diagram of circles and big fat bonuses bears no resemblance whatsoever to what real people actually do. Many business opportunities (Most? All?) are sold that way. For a long time I was enamored with that illusion. It was only when I graduated from formulas and should be to pattern recognition and reality that I was able to see it for what it really was: An endless maze of smoke and mirrors.

Out of the blue, I got an email from my old upline Diamond in Amway. I used to revere this guy. He was extremely successful, with over 30,000 distributors – at least until that whole business went into a massive meltdown about 10 or so years ago. Now he’s hanging on to what he’s got left. He had toured my website and his email said, “I wondered when you made the comment about your past life and the “half truths” you were handed if you were talking about your days with us? If so, let me simply say that no one ever intended to hand you a half truth.”

Yes sir, with all due respect, I got an awful lot of half-truths, especially the ones you see on my website. Glad to have finally un-learned ‘em.

What’s really sad is that he’s still going around that merry go round, apparently unable to come to grips with what’s happened since the Internet came along. He’s selling carburetors in a fuel-injection world.

All the clarity he needs is readily available, as soon as he graduates from formulas and ideals to the school of pattern recognition.

Photo by João Trindade cc by-sa

About the Author

Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.

He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.