Education and Financial Success
Too often in the media, the debate on the relation between education and financial success centres on the trivial points. Last week’s debate in Vijay TV’s “Neea Naana?” (You vs Me) was no exception.
In my opinion, some of the common misconceptions are:
1. Scoring marks doesn’t mean a person is “learning”. In the Indian education system, it is a proof of good memory. Very rarely does a person scores in the 90% s and yet doesn’t learn by rote. The board education is more inclined to learn by rote and writing 100s of pages rather than succinct answers. To blame the British for this bane is the pot calling the kettle black. The Indian culture in general is geared towards cronyism, subservience in the name of obedience and playing it safely. No wonder the people who teach and score the answer sheets find it difficult to digest if the student is brighter than them and in many cases fail to understand things that are not in the text books.
The professional courses entrance exams are the best that the country has but unfortunately tends to skew towards the urban students who have both the financial muscle and the know-hows to master the system. One can see a big gap between scores on the board exams & the professional courses for a vast majority of the students.
2. Another pet peeve is the lack of understanding that a good education is a safer bet towards a secure financial future compared to a lack of it.
3. Most of the folks fail in their attempts to run a successful business. This some how seem to elude the folks who argue that those who are less educated are more prone to success through self employment.
4. The oft quoted fact that - Bill Gates didn’t have a degree and hence education/marks is not important is fatally flawed. Bill was an outstanding student who was admitted to Harvard but preferred business over degree.
5. There is general perception that white collar jobs are easy money while it is otherwise. There is a high risk of never making it to the top in the most productive years for a vast majority. On the contrary, the entrepreneur manages to be his own boss and makes good money in part because of favourable incentives, quick time to market for good ideas and more passion.
6. Also, those whose claim to fame is score alone are never the ones who make it to the top. The ones who make it to the top most frequently are the ones who have, what we at Sun call the “Contrarian Thinking”. “Yes Boss” types tend to grow slower and rarely make it past middle management.
There is a lot more I can rant about but have decided it is enough for the day….
