No one in the history of humans has ever had the brain capacity to understand everything. It’s a fact. We all have strengths and weaknesses, which makes the world we live in flourish. When you’re sick, you need a doctor. When your tooth hurts, you head to the dentist. When you’re ready to develop a marketing program, you find a marketer. When your car breaks down, you need a mechanic. Ok, ok you get the point.

When thinking of the marketing example above – where my expertise is focused – I have seen folks try to create a marketing program out of thin air. They spend large amounts of money, buy multiple software programs, forget to track benchmarks and results, and wonder what went wrong when the program doesn’t work. It usually doesn’t work because the person in question doesn’t have the experience required and thinks that by reading a few blog posts and watching a motivational video, they can do anything. It isn’t their fault per se —information is at our fingertips these days — but experience and understanding may not be as tangible.

“They didn’t understand it, but like so many unfortunate events in life, just because you don’t understand it doesn’t mean it isn’t so.”

― Lemony Snicket, The Bad Beginning

As one of my favorite quotes from Lemony Snicket above implies, we may not always understand everything and that is okay. But we should be aware that when don’t understand, we shouldn’t pretend we do. We all have different experiences and strengths and we should work together to accomplish the big goals. The best results will always be achieved when seasoned experts are brought in to practice their expertise.

But how do you know who is an expert and who is a hack?

Now that gets into an entirely different issue, one that involves research, gut feelings, and a good character judge. But don’t feel discouraged if you are bamboozled. Just learn from your mistake and move on to the next resource. We all make mistakes, but those of us who learn from them hold the key to success.