Intelligence, without knowledge and experience, is of limited value.

This morning, I heard a friend complain about his son, an undergraduate, who has just returned from Sarawak the night before.

According to the friend, the son had booked a ticket through a friend. When he was shown the printed ticket purchased, he merely gave it a casual glance. It could be due to trust or belief that there can be no mistake in such a simple matter. How mistaken he was! As a result, he did not realise that the ticket was booked for a wrong date.

The day they went to the Air Asia ticketing booth to claim their tickets, this son and his friend discovered their mistake and were forced to purchase another two tickets. So, it turned out to be an expensive mistake.

Fortunately, there is a lesson, albeit an expensive one, to be learned from this experience. The next time, we can be assured that those two young men would scrutinise whatever ticket, document or statement before putting it aside. Experience can teach us certain matters which intelligence alone tend to neglect.

Although it was expensive and, perhaps, unnecessary but the understanding that details have their importance can and do play a part in our lives. How often have we heard of people who have bought insurance or an expensive item with a warranty to discover that their claims are not up to their expectation. Upon questioning the people concerned, it is pointed out to them that there are clauses in the insurance or the warranty in which it is stated that the claimants are not entitled to their claims due to having committed or agreed to all the mentioned conditions given in the said insurance or warranty. if the claimants had read the fine print as well as the bigger print, then, they would have known what rights or claims they are entitled to and no frustration would have resulted.

The unfortunate thing about those people who did not get what they erroneously believed they were supposed to be given is that they usually go into denial of the fact that the mistake of not perusing those important conditions was theirs. When there is denial, the blame goes to the other party whose only wrong is not to have cautioned the people concerned to read the fine print before signing or agreeing or accepting anything. When there is denial, the people who made the mistake refuses to accept the mistakes as theirs and therefore do not wish to ensure that such mistakes do not take place another time.

We ought to realise that mistakes and achievements are experiences; experiences from which we can learn something from. Yes, we may be stupid for making such a mistake but if we learn from that mistake, the stupidity is immediately replaced by a wisdom based on knowledge and understanding through the experience. Be a fool for that one moment to step ahead to the wisdom gained for the remainder of our lives.

Intelligent people do make mistakes as long as their intelligence is not backed by knowledge and experience. That is why the best learning that can be attained is through practical use of intelligence and knowledge.