There is also a difference between IQ and EQ. A lot of people may be book smart, but they lack street smarts. These are the people who did very well in school but once facing reality, fell flat on their faces and are living sub-par or mediocre lives. On the flip side, you see some people who did poorly in schools but later on in life, are doing tremendously well for themselves because they have high EQ…they know how to deal with people, they know how to negotiate, communicate, network, and have experience.
Robert Kiyosaki talked a lot about “fake teachers” meaning, the emphasis on apprenticeship or coaching is better than just being educated or told knowledge in a classroom by a teacher who doesn’t really live out what they are teaching.
In other words, he was making the comparison of how his father, a phD well educated man couldn’t teach him about how to make money but his friend’s dad who wasn’t a PhD but did own his own hotel and properties was able to teach Robert about money. Who would you rather learn from? A PhD professor in the subject matter but only makes $150,000 a year or a high school drop out who makes $5 million a year in the subject matter? I’d rather learn what the latter guy is doing and how to do that, than sit in a class and learn from the PhD professor (in the same subject matter).
Learn from the guy who is actually doing it and being successful than from the smart guy who just has all the knowledge about it, but doesn’t actually live it in his own life.
I wrote in response to this comment "There are some people in this world that have a thirst for knowledge. "
Satiating a thirst for knowledge doesn’t require attending college, unless said knowledge requires very specialized equipment or infrastructure, like space telescopes, particle accelerators or access to locations, i.e. an archeological site. But that speaks more about gatekeeping of those resources than about the ability of people to self educate and apply their knowledge.
Isn’t this like asking “Who would you rather learn web design and web application programming from? A guy who does web design and application programming making $150K a year, or Mark Zuckerberg, who is worth billions of dollars?”
You should read “The Black Swan.” Fact is, most high school dropouts who make a lot of money got lucky, and were in the right place at the right time. Entrepreneurs who made a fortune on their first company usually fall on their faces with the second.
If there were a magic formula for making money that could be taught, more people would be rich. Plenty of people will take your money pretending to teach you that magic formula, of course. Getting a good education will make you more on the average.
Maybe some high school dropouts make millions. Most make peanuts.
Let’s say you are a rich young woman looking to start her life with a mate (a man in this case) and you have all the money he would ever need in his life. You had all the means to take care of him and offer him lifetime security. He’d never have to worry about bills, finances, healthcare, etc.
But there’s one catch to this. He has to drop out of school and forget about that whole charade of going through the education system, getting your degree or whatnot just so that you can feel like everyone else who has done it and not look like a failure or embarassment.
For example, let’s say you own massive farming property or huge auto mechanic/body shop, or a giant retail franchise…and you are worth millions. If the man loves you and you love him, couldn’t he just decide to skip all the “jumping through hoops” and just start life today living with you and joining you in your millionaire business? He’d have everything he needed instantly today, but people don’t seem to think it’s good to not graduate, get your diplomas, degrees, etc.
Cornflakes2, your posts so far suggest you are a male. Apologies if that’s not the case, but assuming it is, how would you feel about abandoning educational pursuits to become a trophy husband?
Agreed. Not saying dropping out from HS is the recipe to get rich and successful, but more so that going through HS and College isn’t a 100% secret recipe to being rich and successful. There are a lot of bad examples on both ends of the spectrum.
As you said, many of them who did drop out and got rich were ‘just lucky’. Regardless of HS/College education, timing and who you know arguably plays a bigger role. If you know the right people, know what to do and when to do it, you can do amazing things in life. The notion of people looking down on you or dispensing shame or embarrassment that you didn’t graduate from HS or College is just such an old world way of thinking. It’s just not true anymore. It’s an old relic continuing into this new age. People shouldn’t look at what you have done, but what you are doing. Who cares if you didn’t graduate from HS or College. If you are a millionaire or billionaire right now and doing a lot of good for the world, others, and yourself…why even judge if the person has a piece of paper on the wall that says blah blah blah.
If we flipped the script and said he was living in poverty, struggling to survive, but he’s got a nice piece of paper on the wall that says he attended this college and graduated…is that piece of paper magically going to put money in his bank account or food on the table? No. That piece of paper has no meaning. It’s not alive. It does nothing for you except to stroke one’s own ego.
Thanks for asking. I welcome it.
Of course it will depend on many factors. In my scenario, it is not being a ‘trophy’ husband or wife. It’s scenario where you are truly in love and will be for the rest of your life regardless of education, status, or money. So in the case that one of the subjects has all the means to basically set you free from the “matrix”, I would choose to leave the matrix (system) and go with my love hands down any day all the time every time!
Remember, just because I drop out of HS or College to go with my love who has everything for me, doesn’t mean I can’t still educate myself. We would educate ourselves from our life experiences, from all the things we would be able to do with our lives together, the people we could meet, the places we could travel, the projects we could work on together… HS/College can be great, but it’s not the only answer in this life. Like I said, you really don’t need it at all. You could still be as educated, as intelligent, as well-thought out of a person without it. The notion that we are all enslaved to this rigid system that tells us this is only way to go through life is wrong to me. Of course, most people cannot afford to risk take without a formal education so that’s why they go through that route.
Have any of you seen the movie “The Family Man” with Nic Cage and Tea Leoni?
There was a similar situation even though not exactly the same, but in principle. They were madly in love…a young couple ready to start their uncertain future together but the only certain thing was that they’d have each other and their love. But the guy decided to go for the education route and put his love on hold. He left her at the airport and what was supposed to turn out to be just 1 year internship at a prestigious firm turned out to be 13 years of separation. He ultimately became quite wealthy for himself and had the nice car, women, and crib, but he was empty…something was missing.
He gets a glimpse of what would have been had he not left his gf 13 years ago at the airport and stayed with her as she said. He sees in that other life a dingy job as a tire salesman, a crappy family minivan and a very modest home. He’s got some buddies and they go bowling in their leisure time. That’s his social life compared to what he has in his wealthy life, the ski trip to the alps, the high society social functions, hanging out with other mega rich folks. But in this humble life, he has the one thing that he has always wanted…his love…they would get married, have 2 wonderful children, and their relationship would be the envy of their neighborhood and friends (compare that to his wealthy where he could be the envy of the world).
I won’t spoil the rest of the movie, but for me, when I saw that, I understood the point. I agreed with the point. As it was also quoted in Iron Man, you could be the man who has EVERYTHING and yet nothing (meaning you could have all the money, toys, power, fame, recognition, ++, but if you don’t have love and family, you have nothing).
I haven’t seen it, but it sounds both corny and flakey, no pun intended.
Protip: Plan your educational endeavors more carefully so you don’t end up inadvertently spending thirteen years in an internship that was only supposed to last for one.
False dichotomy. Plenty of people have humble lives that are miserable, and plenty of people have luxurious lives that are happy, and most people don’t experience a tradeoff between love/happiness and education levels. (And many people have happy lives even without romantic love and family ties.)