Why formal education does not guarantee success

Why formal education does not always guarantee success

            Have you ever wondered why there is a great deal of successful people who performed very poorly in their formal education? Why are there so many graduates who are failures in life? Why is it that you one has to meet graduates who are struggling to survive and living even below one dollar a day? Does it mean enrolling for formal education can be a waste of time and finances?  Well, it does not mean that education is not essential in success but it does not guarantee success.

1. Life skills are more important

            Success in life depends on the skills that one possesses in a particular field. Skills that are usually applied in various fields are not entirely acquired through formal education. For instance, focusing on a graduate with very pleasing academic papers in a Management course, for the graduate to be able to fit well in managerial positions, he/she must possess some skills.  When that graduate does not even know how to work as a team, usually gets angry at every small fault and a poor conflict handler, do you think that the papers can help the graduate succeed in managerial positions. Therefore, despite the papers being good, skills must accompany the papers.

2. Hard work can take you far.

            We have all in one time or another been told that “hard work pays”. For hard work to pay one’s efforts, education is not a determinant. Hard work is innate such that a person feels being compelled to work and work even harder from within. For instance, one might have a calling to entrepreneurship. The entrepreneur might be less educated and only conversant with the basic reading and writing. The entrepreneur becomes dedicated to his/her work to an extent that he employs the said well-educated graduates to work for him/her. This is evidence that the less educated entrepreneur is more successful that the well-educated graduate.

3. Passion is key

            There is that feeling that always intrigues someone and is responsible for motivating one towards working on it. This is usually the passion. It does not require formal education to realize one’s passion. Rather, it is the passion that one has that helps one in choosing the career path to follow in formal education. Realizing one’s passion, it just requires one to revisit what he/she loved to do when young. It may be thinks like sport or music that you find that they really don’t require formal education to succeed in such fields. Also, career paths taken through formal education, they should be guided by one’s passion. Such that, if one want’s to pursue teaching, teaching aspect should be coming from within the person and not just from acquired education. It is possible for a passionate teacher to succeed in teaching profession more than a teacher who is in the profession just because of the education.

5. Talent leads to success

                Talent is different from passion. Passion is an intriguing feeling towards doing something while talent is an ability that is naturally found in an individual. The natural ability enables someone to do something very well without being taught. These abilities can be realized as they show themselves very early as a child is growing. A child who is talented in athletics or in drawing, it is very possible to tell right from the child’s young age.  These talents found in children needs to be nurtured as the child develops so that they can succeed in them. Therefore, a talented person does not need formal education to succeed in his/her talent. For instance, a talented runner does not need formal education to excel in athletics but formal education would only be an advantage to the runner’s intellectual growth.

            Simply stating, as everybody is trying to climb up the education ladder, should be aware that education just complements success but does not guarantee success by itself. There are other things that can guarantee success and one can be successful without being well educated. So, if you are there crying that you are a failure just because you never acquired good education, wake up and look for your path to success.

Article By: 

Joyce Mwai