Should you have dropped out of school?

Until circa three decades ago, the concept of going to school to obtain a formal education was still celebrated and highly encouraged. The advice was invariably, “go to school, get an education and you will be employable and succeed in life". Many people benefited from this advice because it simply worked regardless of the profession they were pursuing.

The world has evolved rapidly and in a complex way since then. The unemployment statistics of university graduates is appalling. Some people, who have taken a completely different route, have become some of the wealthiest people in the world. An advice that used to work doesn't necessarily work for everyone any more. Consequently, people are increasingly becoming ambivalent towards formal education.
 
The big question now is; "is going to school to get formal education still a guarantee for success?" Undeniably, some of the most successful and wealthiest people in the world dropped out of school to pursue an idea. Amongst these icons are the likes of Steve Jobs (RIP), Bill Gates, Sir Richard Branson and Mark Zuckerberg just to name a few. The ambivalence towards school and the subsequent pursued of a professional career has also been exacerbated by more broadly, people whom our societies have labelled "celebrities". Be it television icons, radio personalities, musicians and so on. Some American rappers such as Kanye West have openly berated and mocked the concept of school. The critics of formal education usually make example of these icons as an overarching argument.

With all honesty, the success and subsequent wealth that these icons who dropped out of school have achieved is very rare. The failure rates of individuals who have dropped out of school to pursue an idea have however not been documented. A more plausible reason for this could be that, there are just too many cases to document individually. Several researches have cited sometimes up to 90 per cent failure rates of start-up companies in their first three years of existence in the technology sector in America and the United Kingdom. These numbers are inclusive of anyone who took the step of faith into starting a venture, whether they never went to school, dropped out of school or completed a formal qualification. The caveat is then; dropping out of school to pursue an idea does not necessarily mean it will be successful. More often than not, these ideas fail. The statistics of the successful dropouts and the unsuccessful do not commensurate, with the latter being far greater than the former.

It is not uncommon in our generation today to prefer being a rapper or a DJ as opposed to pursuing a formal profession. The partiality is; we are not exposed to those countless rappers and DJs who are barely making a living. The focus is only on the few successful ones, which has perpetrated a distorted picture of the reality. Sadly, this distorted picture is pervasive in our young people today, and has engendered some kind of antagonism towards formal education.

Another important point to consider is; most of the billionaires who made it to the Forbes billionaire list actually did complete some formal education. Whether their formal education did contribute to their success and accumulation of wealth is a completely different argument, which requires investigation and inquiry. The fundamental lesson here is; anyone can pursue a business idea or a venture of some sort and create massive wealth in the process regardless of their academic or social standing and background. Being a successful entrepreneur and having a formal education are not mutually exclusive. Conversely, not having a formal qualification and being a successful entrepreneur are also not mutually exclusive.

An ecumenical sentiment is that, the education system worldwide has a large room for improvement in order for it to foster the relevant qualities that the societies need to effectively address the challenges that are prevalent in the world. Education and the concept of going to school is by no way a thing of the past. I believe education, whether formal or informal and the acquisition and subsequent leverage of that knowledge is a lynchpin of a successful career.

Should you have dropped out of school? Please feel free to leave a comment.

Is the past holding you back?

We have previously explored some of the orientations and attributes that usually limit us from progressing in life in a manner and velocity that we would have hoped for. These orientations and traits included: inconsistency, command and control and win-stay strategy. Another internal and self-imposed limiting behaviour is the tendency to live in the past.  Much treatise has been written on the danger of giving an exaggerated attention to the past. This much treatise on the danger of living in the past is justifiably so, as this pervasive limiting belief has held us captive like the children of Israel in Egypt. Even after the children of Israel were set free from slavery in Egypt en route to the Promised Land, they wished they could return to Egypt once the going got tough. The breaking with the past is a continuous journey that requires intentional choices everyday lest we regress.  The journey will get tough at times, presenting us with an option to go back to Egypt, but we have to resist and soldier on.

It is worth mentioning that not all past is bad and that some of the past or effects of the past are irrevocably in the present. There is an undeniably bad past that limits oneself one way or the other. A man cannot go forward and go backward at the same time.  Jesus said “no man who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom“. To put one’s hand to a plough is a proverbial expression to signify undertaking any business. In order that a ploughman may accomplish his work, it is necessary to look forward - to be intent on his employment - not to be looking back with regret. Arnold Bennett has animadverted upon the tendency to live in the past, saying “All around me I see men carefully tying themselves with an unbreakable rope to an immovable post at the bottom of the hill and then struggling to climb the hill”. There is a point when we need to realise that the past is absolutely intractable, that we have to move forward.

A lot of times, most of us may be looking back and regretting the mistakes we did in the past. Consequently, that limits us from fully enjoying and embracing the present.  What one has done, one has done and there’s an end of it. As a great prelate unforgettably said, "Things are what they are, and the consequences of them will be what they will be. Why, then, attempt to deceive ourselves “. It is also worth mentioning here that as we go through life, we invariably attempt to do the best that our current awareness permits us to do. We learn as we go along, which also implies that our awareness will increase appropriately and in proportion. This is why sometimes we look back at our past mistakes with utter shock, shame and guilt wondering how on earth we could have made those decisions. We then move forward with feelings of guilt and regret.

Some behavioural psychologists have pronounced this behaviour unfair and unjustifiable. They describe guilt as an emotion about the past. Guilt usually comes when one makes a mental comparison; by mentally going back in time to that vignette that we feel shameful about. We then use our present awareness with all its values to harshly adjudicate our past performance in that situation, saying we could have done better. Consequently, this triggers the emotions of shame and guilt. This exercise is not very fair because, if you could get an opportunity to go back with your current awareness and re-live that situation that you are shameful about, just before the event and ask yourself, “knowing what I now know, if I were re-living this event right now, would I have done something different?” The answer is always “Yes”. This is so because you always do the best that your current awareness permits, hence you have an opportunity to go easy on yourself.

Is that past holding you back? Luis Smith said it more bluntly, “you can’t reach for anything new if your hands are still full of yesterday’s junk”

I would like to hear your views on this issue of the past, feel free to leave a comment.

If at first you do succeed try something harder.

My previous article “Are you standing in your own way?” was a point of departure as regards the discourse on the indeterminate nature of life and our propensity to use a “command and control” response to this inevitable.  In this article, I wish to continue the discussion on that conundrum; the indeterminate nature of life, and present another orientation that we usually employ when dealing with life. In a pursuit of our goals, we sometimes get repeatable success and results by employing a certain approach or strategy in our various endeavours, whether it is at work, school, and business or in relationships. Too often many people are lured into what is called “win-stay” orientation in behavioural psychology. In “win-stay”, we repeatedly employ one particular strategy if it brings about the desired results. For example, a student may use a certain studying technique repeatedly if it has proven to help him pass his exams. If whatever you are doing is giving you the results you desire, then you will invariably keep doing it. 

At this stage, we are ecumenical on the point that life is unpredictable, that it has its own mind and usually takes in own course. We are usually thrown into hysteria when our win-stay strategy doesn’t work anymore; when what we used to do, and brought desired results doesn’t work anymore. Life is in a constant state of change. What used to work today may not necessarily work tomorrow.

There is no better story that exemplifies this than the story of Hem and Haw in the highly referenced book in Spencer Johnson’s oeuvres called “Who moved my cheese?” Hem and Haw were two little people, same size as mice who lived near a maze and would go into the maze everyday looking for cheese. If they find this cheese, they would feel happy and successful. One day Hem and Haw found what they were looking for – their kind of cheese at Cheese Station C and they were elated. Each morning they would run to the station to enjoy the tasty cheese that awaited them. After a few days, they realised that the cheese was enough to last them a lifetime. Hence, they started waking up a little late, taking time to get dressed and walked to the station instead of running. Not surprisingly, Hem and Haw employed a “win-stay” strategy; they moved their homes closer to the cheese station and built a social life around it. They would invite their friends over and show them their cheese accomplishment.

One day Hem and Haw woke up, and to their dismay, the indeterminate nature of life had kicked in; there was no longer cheese at the station. They were unprepared for this. The change immobilised them, as they sat down crying and yelling “who moved my cheese?” They returned the following day hoping that whoever moved their cheese would have returned it, but the station was empty. The thought of starting a new cheese search was unbearable. Every day, they returned to the station with hope, but they grew more depressed, the cheese was no longer. This is the danger with ‘win-stay” strategy. The one skill that got you a good job for ten years may become obsolete and the company lets you go, because you didn’t learn any other skill. Some of the top companies in the world went bankrupt due to “win-stay” strategy and failed to reinvent themselves. 

Hem and Haw had mice neighbours; Sniff and Scurry who were also looking for cheese. Sniff and Scurry however, used an eccentric strategy called “win-shift”. In win-shift, after you win the first time, you shift to a new strategy of winning, and winning in that way you shift again and find a new way of winning. If you then shift and lose, you can fall back onto the previous strategies that won. There is a proverb that says “If at first you do succeed try something harder”. Sniff and Scurry also found their kind of cheese at the station and they were happy. Each morning, just like Hem and Haw, they would rush to the station to get cheese. The difference was, the mice would tie their running shoes on their necks while they nibble on the cheese, ** and later in the afternoon, they would put their shoes on and go searching for more cheese in the maze. After a few days, they found more cheese at Cheese Station N and later at Cheese Station M. As the indeterminate nature of life is not discriminatory, one morning just like Hem and Haw, Sniff and Scurry found no more cheese at Station C. They were not surprised and were prepared for the inevitable and knew instinctively what to do.

** This piece is not included in the original book; "Who Moved My Cheese" by Dr. Spencer Johnson and was added here for emphasis on "Win-Shift" Strategy

Are you standing in your own way?

I remember walking into a class one day and the professor; a rather unorthodox man started asking students what their expectations were on the course. One student replied, “My expectation is to learn how to conduct proper research and be a good scientist.” This sounded like noble expectation to me. To which the professor asked, “what if your expectation is not met?” The student continued, “I would be very, very disappointed.” The professor paused and said, “Just drop it. Drop that expectation then. You could be preoccupied with your own predefined expectations and then miss out on what’s really happening here.” The caveat from the professor was not to stand in the way of our own learning.

In this article, I want to zero in on the concept of “command and control” that Paul Scheele, the author of “natural brilliance” talks about. 

As human beings, we have grown up with a certain mental disposition of command and control. Using this phenomenon, we usually predict what should happen in our lives and then subsequently try and force circumstances to follow our predictions. In other words, we command what should happen and how it should happen, and then we try and control circumstances in life to make sure it happens that way. You may have come to a realisation already that seldom life happens that way; that life has its own mind and it usually takes its own course. 

Imagine you were to ride a bicycle down an unfamiliar hill. Beforehand, we have a meeting and try to predict everything that will happen; what you will do first and then your next move. Then you must follow that plan. As you start riding down, you will invariably realise that the prediction is not emerging as initially set out. On your way down, you might encounter a curve which wasn’t discussed in the meeting, and then you will have to respond dynamically to this new information and situation else you might end up crashing badly. Instead of leveraging on the emergent new information and situation, you are out there blocking your own way with predetermined notions of how life is supposed to unfold and trying hard control and channel situations, alas. 

We usually use this command and control strategy in our relationships, careers, jobs and so on.  To which we discover the hard way that life’s situations are often indeterminate. The pervasive nature of life, of dynamism, usually throws us into a state of hysteria because of this propensity. Our adaptive capabilities are crippled, rendering us paralysed by constant change of life and hence marginalises our ability to respond and live effectively. William Styron describes this struggle as a sense "of being accompanied by a second self - a wrathlike observer who, not sharing the dementia of his double is able to watch with dispassionate curiosity as his companion struggles.” 

How do we deal with the emergent nature of life? We have to develop a “sense and respond” capability. The authors of “The power of small wins” put it this way, “in the face of an unknown future, brave people act. They deal with uncertainty not by trying to analyse it, or planning for every contingency, or predicting what the outcomes will be. Instead, they act, learn from what they find, and act again.”

A good example of “sense and respond” ability is typified in sports such as surfing. A good surfer is the one who can leverage on the chaotic nature of a wave, turning that potential energy into kinetic energy to move him to where he wants to be. He doesn’t try to predict the wave and he doesn’t try to control it. He has developed the skills of sensing and responding to the wave.

Are you standing in your own way, in business or in your career or in your relationships or in your studies? Do you seem not to achieve the results you want or the performance you desire and consequently putting a lot cognitive pressure on yourself? You can get out of your own way, by being fully present in that which you are trying to achieve, being aware of the new information that is unfolding, and using that information to embody the next move that needs to be taken and then enjoy the ride.