When I left the Civil Services to join an MBA program, I found people looking down on technical knowledge as something low-value, meant for the ‘junior guys.’
The senior folks were the ones supposedly creating real value because they could speed-dial an Ambani or a Jamie Dimon. For them, knowledge did not seem to be a requirement.
In fact, so strong was this belief, that I have seen big-name folks raising thousands of crores through this handshaking and back-patting. And what happened after that?
Their incompetence frittered away all those crores.
For sure, senior guys may not do spreadsheets and numbers — but aren’t they supposed to have deeper wisdom? And if you have never been in the trenches, doing the numbers and details, where will the wisdom come from?
Networking can’t replace knowledge.
We can fool each other, but we can’t fool reality.
Do the networking, build relationships, but if you don’t know your business cold, no network will save you.
No knowledge is low-level. The only thing low-level is ignorance.
– Rajan