Why Common Sense Isn’t so Common

We expect the world to acquire common sense, though we often find ourselves using the line “Common Sense Isn’t so Common”, yet have we ever stopped to analyze why or perhaps what it is that makes some people so much more aware of whats going on around them?  Do we ever wonder why some people are street smart and others with PhD’s are not capable of showcasing common sense in some situations?

Common sense is not so common and it is partly because our past upbringings and situations we have dealt with are also not so common.  As a society, we certainly have some education standards, for example going to school until the age of 18 making it mandatory and in most cases for free.  We also have standards around the type of minimal education each person must go through, such as mathematical, english or history topics.  However, we are not offered education on common sense, maybe perhaps it is because common sense cannot be taught but rather experienced.

When you compare two individuals, one with a high level of education and the other a college dropout, most would assume that the college dropout is more likely to have failed 5 years down the road, although it all really depends on circumstances.  Someone who has been sheltered their entire life, never exposed to real life situations, or even never having experienced earned values is often unable to deal with them in the long run.  While the uneducated high school dropout may not have achieved in school, he will certainly have a much greater sense of survival and self-sufficiency making him more aware of his environment as he depends on it for survival.  This awareness to situations, surroundings and people’s reactions is a direct result of past experiences which in this case are much more amplified than those that have had no choice but to understand their background in order to find themselves and create their place in society.

On the other hand, you have the individual who perhaps was brought up in a wealthy environment where everything was catered to them and never really had to deal with knowing how to act, understand people, or even understand how to put 2 and 2 together to survive.  This individual simply got accustomed to the luxuries of taking the thinking out of things and emotions, therefore, being told how to think.  Being sheltered for a long time and not exposed to most of life’s basic experiences, creates a disconnection resulting in what we call lack of common sense which really is no different than saying,  ”people just don’t get it”.

If you bring to mind some of your friends, family members, and others around you, you might notice that not all are prone to understanding what “entrepreneurship” really is.  You might think to yourself that it makes no sense that someone would want to work for others their entire life and that they never imagine life as an opportunity to reach their true potential, additionally, possibly believe that many of their actions classifies them as people that don’t get it.  Reality being that 30% of a person’s abilities is based on the fact that people are a by-product of their own environment and often their environment or exposure to a certain way of life is why they are, act, or even believe in certain things.  Religion is a good example, as many are born into and brought up within their parent’s religion, despite not understanding anything about it, it is simply accepted that they are either Christians, Muslims, Catholics, or just about anything else.  If you do not separate them from their beliefs, church and all those other activities they are exposed to for the first 15 years of their life, it is very likely that these individuals will forever remain in that religion and with that belief.

Very few times are people capable of looking past themselves and their current knowledge and understanding that perhaps their way of being today is the reason their life is so limited tomorrow.  The real question is how self-aware are you?