Knowledge is Power

There are many ways to be empowered. Through the way we think, our actions, the way we treat with others and the way we allow others to treat us. The other way to be empowered is through knowledge and that’s what I want to touch on here. Maybe a little different in topic than I would normally touch on but stick with me.

“Knowledge is power” is the old saying that certainly has truth and weight behind it.

Over the last year or so, my iPhone has become increasingly harder to charge. The lightning port where the charging cable plugs in has worn out and become very loose. Sometimes it’s near impossible to wiggle it into just the right position to make charging contact. Not only that, the battery is so old that it takes mere hours (sometimes not plural) to go flat.

Increasingly frustrating, I decided to talk to the Apple service people about getting it fixed.

WOW!!! What a shock…

“The battery replacement will be $75 but I’m sorry sir, that port is impossible to be replaced as it is part of the motherboard and you’ll need a whole new unit which will cost $468.95.”

If I was the kind of person that didn’t do my own research I probably would’ve left pissed off and then gone to Telstra to get a new phone on a plan. Thankfully, my bullshit detectors were blazing and I decided to look into this issue a little deeper.

I found that not only is the port replaceable, but I could also get the parts with the required tools to do it myself for a fraction of the cost. And by “fraction” I mean for $15 off eBay. A battery replacement was another $15. I checked out some YouTube videos on how to go about making the repairs and it looked quite simple. I decided to go for it. Thirty bucks down and a week later the battery and lightning port assembly arrived in the mail.

I set myself up on a well-lit bench, put some latex gloves on to prevent a static discharge killing the CPU, played the video and began the surgery. There’s no doubt that it was fiddle work but even with my chunky fingers, an hour later, I had done the impossible. I replaced the port and the battery and made a call to a friend to make sure the phone was still alive.

The knowledge gained from simple Google searches and the willingness to learn had saved me $513.95 with only an hours work. Work that almost anyone could do by following simple YouTube video instructions.

Now this story isn’t about my phone or sticking it to Apple and their ridiculous repair policies. It isn’t about saying how good I am for being able to do this. As I mentioned, it’s something almost anyone could achieve.

It’s about not listening to the face value of what we are being told. Especially by those who are in a position to gain financially or otherwise from the information they share. I know that sometimes it’s just easier to pay someone to do something and to have that peace of mind with warranties and guarantees. But isn’t it better to make those decisions from a place of knowledge and understanding? A place of power?

What are you being faced with now that could benefit from increasing your own knowledge through research?