The title of this post is a quote by Mark Twain. Please realize I am not saying that formal education is unimportant; what I am saying is it is not the end-all-be-all that it has been made out to be. I am a self-educated individual and believe that we learn much more by doing than by sitting.
After graduating high school, with just short of a 4.0, I did what most people do; I went to college. I found it to be boring and not much of a challenge, well except for math! It didn't take me long to realize that I needed a different route, so I joined the Coast Guard. During my four years I learned quite a bit; about life in general, about responsibility and how to deal with people.
When I left the Coast Guard I had planned on going back to school but never made it until the end of 2009. For the past 15 years I have battled the stigma of not having a degree. Wherever I have worked, there has been people who have degrees and even though I have been without one I have been a top performer at each place I have worked; often out performing those with a degree. I have been told by numerous people that, upon finding out I did not hold a degree, they thought I had a master's. I do not say this to impress anyone but to impress upon people that just because someone hasn't been to college, it doesn't mean they aren't worth hiring.
I understand that there are careers out there where someone needs to go to college; doctors, lawyers, chemical engineers etc. That being said there are also careers, good careers, that you don't need to go to college for. Where I work now there is a very intelligent man who has his MBA. Not only is he "book smart", he also has a high degree of common sense. We have conversations everyday, and never would you suspect that one of us has a master's and one of us is just beginning his college education. Look, I understand there is intrinsic value to school. I am not saying school is pointless, I am saying there are other ways to be educated and those ways have intrinsic value as well and are often overlooked.
Stay tuned for my next post; Why I Fired My Company.
