A person must have a certain amount of intelligent ignorance to

When Charles Kettering said, “A person must have a certain amount of intelligent ignorance to get anywhere,” he was not praising folly, but calling forth the courage that walks hand in hand with faith. He spoke as an inventor, a dreamer, and a man who had looked into the face of impossibility and smiled. For there is a kind of ignorance that blinds, but there is another that frees—the ignorance that does not yet know defeat, that has not yet been tamed by the cynicism of the world. It is the innocent boldness that allows one to begin what others have declared impossible. Such is the intelligent ignorance that gives birth to discovery.

To possess intelligent ignorance is to stand at the edge of the unknown and take a step forward, even when all wisdom says you cannot. It is to act not because you are certain, but because you are inspired. The ancients called this sacred daring the spark of the gods—the divine madness that seizes the heart of inventors, prophets, and poets alike. Without it, no temple would have been raised, no ship would have crossed the horizon, no flame would have been stolen from the heavens. For if man waited until he fully understood the path, he would never take the first step.

Consider the tale of Christopher Columbus, whose voyage across the uncharted ocean was born not of certainty, but of a holy ignorance. The scholars of his day told him the seas were endless, that his ships would fall from the world’s edge. Yet Columbus, driven by a vision he could not fully explain, sailed onward. He was ignorant of the dangers, yes—but his ignorance was intelligent, for it was joined with persistence, skill, and unyielding faith. He did not know all that could go wrong—and that was his strength. For had he known, he might never have left the shore.

In every age, those who achieve greatness are those who are wise enough to ignore the limits imposed by others. Kettering himself, the father of modern automotive innovation, refused to accept the failures that would have stopped lesser minds. When others said a self-starting engine was impossible, he pressed on, guided by a kind of ignorant intelligence—a vision that refused to bow to “facts” that were merely the fears of the timid. His invention not only transformed machines, but also redefined what human persistence could accomplish. His ignorance was not the absence of knowledge—it was the refusal to let knowledge harden into defeat.

The meaning of Kettering’s words runs deep: wisdom alone can paralyze, for those who see every obstacle may never begin. True creation requires a balance between knowledge and naïveté, between the wisdom to prepare and the ignorance to believe. Too much wisdom breeds caution; too much ignorance breeds ruin. But intelligent ignorance—that sacred mixture of curiosity and courage—propels humanity forward. It is the fuel that lights the torch of innovation, the breath that stirs the winds of progress.

Let us remember too the story of the Wright brothers, who dared to defy the very laws of nature as understood in their time. They were not engineers by the world’s standard—they were bicycle makers. Yet their ignorant courage allowed them to see flight not as fantasy, but as possibility. They did not know all that could go wrong, and thus they found the way that went right. When their fragile craft lifted from the sands of Kitty Hawk, it was not only the machine that rose, but the spirit of mankind itself—borne aloft by the wings of intelligent ignorance.

So, my child, if ever you stand before the unknown, trembling, remember Kettering’s wisdom. Let your ignorance be not foolish, but intelligent—let it be guided by faith, tempered by discipline, and strengthened by action. Do not wait to know everything before you begin, for that day will never come. Knowledge grows only through the courage to act without it.

The lesson is this: there are doors that only open to those too bold to know they are locked. Be that person. Venture into the untried. Learn as you go, fall and rise again, and let your mistakes be your teachers. Do not let the fear of ignorance bind you; let it drive you to discover. For all that humanity has built—the light, the bridge, the song, the dream—was born first from one brave soul who knew too little to be afraid, and enough to believe.