Education

My cousin is a couple years out of finishing school and is a little disgruntled with the whole 'education' thing. She has seen educated people live normal lives while those without an education have appeared to propser. I'm not close with my cousin as I live in Australia and she lives in Ohio in the states, but from what I have been told she goes to school during the day and has to work pretty hard as a waitress around school hours. I sent my aunt an email to pass on to my cousin with the hope of clearing up a couple of misconceptions. Here's the email in the hope that it helps you or someone you know. If you do know someone in a similar situation, please consider passing this article on - I would have loved to have this perspective when I was in school. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Mum said that my cousin doesn't think education is important because you don't necessarily need an education to make money. I think she is right in some respects, but she is only seeing one side. The problem is that there is a phenomenon called the "survivor bias". The reality is that you often only hear about the success stories - like Bill Gates who dropped out of Harvard Law, or Richard Branson who started Virgin with a bunch of hippies and no tertiary education. What you don't hear about are all the people that never make it - of which there are far far more! I think she is right however, in that education doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be wealthy financially. What an education does provide you is a lower bound on your income. An education gives you a competitive advantage over those without an education, which means you are more likely to pull through in times of hardship. For many people, including myself, education provides enrichment, and that helps me lead a more complete life. All that said, I hated school too. I started primary school with A grades, and finished high school with a B/C average. Once I got in to uni I had a great time. I spent more time in the food halls and tavern than I did in class, and believe it or not, I'm the better for that now. During university, I even experienced some education that I was genuinely interested in. Anyway, I think school really does suck, and the education system is incredibly boring for most people. Unfortunately, it's also the price you have to pay for opening far more doors in your future than you realise. If you want to become wealthy, then your education will allow you to see what those people without an education can't see. The trick to becomming very wealth I believe, is to take something that you know very well, and use that knowledge to help as many people as possible. Education will give you the ability to know something very well, but only an entrepreneur can take that knowledge and help many people with it. Take the iPod for example, Apple know consumer technology very well, they understand supply chains, interface design, hardware, software, and so forth. They use their expertise for the benefit of the masses. I hope this helps you understand a bit more. Your education is important, but you're allowed to not like it. I assure you things will get better! Hang in there.