Why do so many fall into the "I gotta go to college" matrix? If every high school student is taught to think this way, then our children are in grave danger. First of all, few and far between are ready for the rigors of academia upon first attending. The academic abyss between high school and college (never mind the emotional / social / responsibility change) is expansive and growing. The number of first-time attendees who register and don't graduate is staggering. Worse yet, they've all been told or influenced to think college is the end-all and cure-all and any other way to job or career is "inferior" thinking. College is by far not the end-all and cure-all it's put out to be nor is it without its own problems and shortcomings.
There is so much wrong here that I could fill volumes, but for now, I'll just give you the head lines.
- "Required" classes are arbitrary and vary from college to college
- Curriculums are assigned with little explanation as to anticipated outcomes and practical application
- Curriculums are assigned with little to no research into match with student's real skills, attitudes, abilities
- Colleges supply knowledge and overlook that of building critical, real life skills and attitudes
- Colleges rarely directly address self-control, accountability, work ethic, focus, discipline on and on
- Academics mainly work to theory with students very rarely put in real world situations
- Learning occurs best by doing not by sitting and listening with little chance for application
- Students very rarely are encouraged to do the required self-exploration to determine strengths
- Students very rarely are encouraged to address destructive personal weaknesses & shortcomings
- The average student will no longer use his / her degree within 5 to 10 years
- Even Harvard is not the end-all and cure-all to success: 5% of one graduating class made more than the other 95% combined due to missing critical knowledge, skills, and attitudes
- Colleges don't teach students how to deal with failure
- Colleges don't teach students how to deal with people: peers and fellow employees
- Colleges don't teach students how to do more than is required to obtain success
- Colleges don't teach students how to work from the mindset of an entrepreneur but rather to outdated models of job maintenance and retention philosophies or none at all
This list is incomplete by far. There are many reasons why college degrees fail 70% of students within 5 to 10 years. But the biggest reasons I've seen is that students work to the grade and very rarely if ever work to knowledge or, I should say, work to build unrelenting curiosity.
It is the rare student, few and fare between, who has the level of curiosity and inquisitiveness that is essential in this day n age of the entrepreneur. Since the average new workforce employee will have at least 3 to 5 career changes in a lifetime (some experts say as many as 10), you can no longer afford to consider yourself an employee, especially an employee of any one company. You as a modern day worker (or as I like to call it, a new-world global worker) must see yourself as an entrepreneur who is constantly building skills, knowledge, and attitudes to work toward greater success and career stability. If you don't do this then your long-term work life is toast.
Considering that job stability is a thing of the past because of downsizing, outsourcing, and the overall rapid economic change, along with the death of pensions and social security, it is more than ever vital to be ahead of the pack. You have to keep your knowledge, skills, and attitudes sharp and updated to ensure that you'll not only keep your job but when the time is right that you'll get the next job or move up.
No longer can you sit and just "ride it out" to retirement. That is a thing of the past. Even relying too much on college for the end all and cure all is dangerous thinking and sets you up for the inevitable fall. To cite some examples of those who've been uber-successful with little to no help from college will hopefully get you thinking along the proper line of thought.
Leonardo de Vinci, a polymath (skilled in engineering, art, science, etc.) built his understanding through personal, extensive observation and analysis and little formal schooling.
Albert Einstein had some college but to come up with the creative he thought outside the box, doing most of his thinking while working at a patent office.
Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense (the most read booklet of its time and critical to building revolutionary sentiment) had this to say about creative thought: " As to the learning that any person gains from school education, it serves only like a small capital, to put him in the way of beginning learning for himself afterward.
Every person of learning is finally his own teacher, the reason for which is, that principles cannot be impressed upon the memory; their place of mental residence is the understanding, and they are never so lasting as when they begin by conception"
Benjamin Franklin, another polymath, studied and observed like Da Vinci to produce some of the most important and influential writings and inventions known to mankind and why he, even though not a holder of any major office during the revolutionary era, is the best know man of his time.
Alan Greenspan, a premier chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and an extremely high achiever, developed a heightened curiosity. He labeled himself a "sponge for information." In his autobiography, he speaks of billionaire Suleiman Olayan who began as a truck driver for the Arabian American Oil Company then sold water to businesses, diversified into construction, insurance, and eventually bought stock in JPMorgan, Chase Manhattan, Mellon, Bankers Trust, and four of five other big names. He too, like Greenspan, was a sponge for information.
I have personally heard of the super successful who spends most of his spare time reading and studying to maintain an edge. You may not want to be super successful or a CEO, but in this day of the entrepreneur, you can't get lazy and stagnant. The change coming at you at breakneck speed demands you keep your head in the game, and this requires a constant updating of knowledge, skills, and attitudes.
If you don't build a curiosity for something, a passion, an interest in something that doesn't go beyond the normal, you will more than likely not achieve the success you desire, for working just for a paycheck gets old faster than you think. And in this day 'n age, that thinking won't help you hold onto a job anyway. But if you don't achieve success, you will never reap the joy and level of satisfaction that is unspeakable or that which we were all designed for but few achieve; the experience is unimaginable and a beauty that only the fortunate will behold.
Stop listening to failed high school and college counselors who've been out of the loop for years if not decades and have little to no understanding of what real life success is or what it takes to achieve (one told Dan Kennedy, a uber-successful marketing guru he should be a social worker; another told a famous movie director to consider another field). Stop listening to uninformed friends, family, and acquaintances and find out what you really need to do to not only achieve but to find uber-happiness and the joy in life you require and deserve.
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