Education vs Wealth Creation

Sam was an average student throughout his life.  He remembers being compared with other students throughout primary and high school.  His parents even took him for extra tuition classes with the hope of getting his C grades up to at least the standard of a B and even a few A’s.  But that didn’t change.  He was extremely strong in few subjects but generally average or failing in the rest. Some of his teachers blatantly told Sam that he would fail in life. Sam did not get the grades required to enter public university so he proceeded to a private local University. His grades still did not get him on the Deans list but he was above average.  At least University to some level gave him the opportunity to choose what he was good at.  His social life was very good and he invested his time in going out with friends, playing rugby and participating in the clubs that frequently had out of town trips. Fast-forward 15 years later post university.  Sam owns and runs a courier company.  He has over 100 employees.  His annual profits exceed Kshs 10 million a year.  This is the same Sam who was told because of his grades that he would amount to nothing.  So like Sam, we’ve gone to school. Kindergarten to primary to high school.  Then we went to University.  Some of us even progressed farther and did Masters or even PhD’s. In our classes we get many people to go and actually talk to people who have created wealth.  Sam’s story is not unique.  People who were getting average or below average grades have excelled in the real world.  Some of them did not even finish school.  With stories like this, one has got to query the limitations of the formal education system when it comes to success outside school walls.  From what I have seen more formal education has not necessarily always resulted into success for everybody, as we are led to believe. Here are just a few reasons why right formal education does not necessarily give us not have what Sam has.

Formal education does not teach you personal drive.  It teaches you to study (or in other words cram) for an exam.  The ultimate objective is not what you have learned that you can apply but rather the grade that appears on your exam. Your drive is then dictated by what someone else expects of you.  The drive here is very short term.  On the outside, to do anything beyond the ordinary requires maintaining long term drive towards an objective that is not dictated, may not be recognised or even appreciated by other people.  There is no one to give you an A.  People who have created wealth have been able to establish personal vision, goals and execute them. That vision is what gets them up in the morning.  We were not taught how to develop this vision for ourselves which is such a critical element in wealth creation and I believe any success at all. For many people formal education does not get you to appreciate what you are strong at and how to use it. From Sam’s story, it was obvious he had good interpersonal skills.  Hence the active social life.  In fact he told me a lot of his contracts are from networks formed as a result of these social activities. These same skills have helped him retain employees.  There is no amount of studying physics that would have helped Sam in his business.  However there was no exam on Social Skills.  Think about athletes whose genius may not be in the classroom, but on the track.  They then get the opportunity to practice that genius and hence get on to World Sporting events. Had they concentrated on practicing what they were not good at many of them would not be on that stage.  To ultimately create wealth you have to know what you are good at and spend time on it.  Some people flourish in formal organisations, others were meant to start their own businesses.  Some people have a knack for property investments. Others have this same skill in farming.  In school we were meant to be good at 8-10 subjects all at once.  Wealth Creation asks you to be focused.

The real world is all about application and action, not just studying. Formal education glorifies studying. The application is how experience is built. After a certain phase in your life and for most careers, your formal education ceases to be a point of discussion. I was only asked to show my certificates in my first job. After that, no one asked. Your bankers do not ask for certificates. You advance because of experience.  Many times in school we were not tested in practical application.  Wealth Creation is all about practical application. It’s about doing, doing, making mistakes and then doing different. No one applauds you for just knowing. Formal education has its uses and benefits.  The aim of this article is to point out that an A in form four is not necessarily an A in other areas of life. A completely different set of skills is needed.  Likewise a D is does not spell doom and gloom.  We have to recognise there are areas we will need to work on ourselves beyond the scope of what formal education taught us.