The Understated Truth

I had this friend in high school who wanted nothing to do with school because his father had a lot of money. And he was the only son and child so automatically, he was going to inherit everything.

Years later after we were all done with university, he reached out to me and told me about how he was trying to get into the university. I was shocked because he was the same person who said he would never stop foot in any university as long as he lived. According to what I heard, his dad passed on some years after high school and he actually was given everything.

From houses to cars to his dad’s company but they were going bankrupt because they weren’t having honest management. And that was why he was going to school so he could learn how to manage his dad’s company. I was a bit sad that it had to get to that point for him to realize how important education was. All that time, he could have even learnt from his dad while he was alive or even offer online courses but he didn’t.

Honestly, I never blame him because there are all these motivational speakers on the internet talking about how they made their first million as school dropouts. Meanwhile they probably had knowledge of what they were doing all that time either from observations or something else.

I think people don’t get the real reason behind education. We get educated so we become knowledgeable. And I don’t just mean theories and abstracts. There are things you did in senior high school that you won’t do now and that’s not even because you grew. It’s just because you came to know things through learning and experience.

I laugh when I hear people say Bill Gates was a school dropout so they won’t go to school. The man didn’t just dropout of any school, it was harvard. And do you know what it academically takes to enter harvard? Of course, he was a smart guy who knew what he wanted but what about you? I believe these are all factors that contribute to getting to the top. But there are so many people even in school who get asked the question “where do you see yourself in three years?” and they tell you “they don’t know”.

Such a person can’t be compared with someone who knows want he wants even if he’s not so educated. I also think when people are learned, the chances of they being cheated by people are slim. Imagine if my high school friend had furthered his education and had a little management knowledge, I don’t think their company would have gone bankrupt.

When we talk about success, people only think of money but I believe it’s a whole package. To be able to achieve that dream of yours, you definitely need to get a little knowledge about how to go about it. And the process of getting that knowledge is education, be it formal or informal.