The myth about doing well at school

Here’s a short article for all of you who have been told over and over again that you, or your kids will not be successful in life unless you or they do well at school.

This is a myth perpetrated by schools who wish to blame either you or your kids for “not doing well at school”, or for “not concentrating”, “not trying hard enough” or even for “forgetting to hand in homework”; and by politicians who need to justify all the money they pour into education.

Well I’m here to tell you that this is all wrong.

Believe it or not, several studies have proved that this is wrong.

For example, it has been discovered that nearly half of all self-made millionaires did very badly at school.

Kids who did well at school get into UNI easier because THAT’S HOW THE SYSTEM WORKS!

But it does not mean they become more successful. Many successful people drop out of UNI and many go on to be successful at something completely different to what they studied at UNI.

Being academic does not necessarily mean that you are successful. Being academic means you get a better job. In the self-employed investment circles job or “J O B” stands for “Just Over Broke”. And simply having a job is not considered to be a mark of being successful.

It is interesting to reflect on the fact that very few self-made millionaires studied “how to be a millionaire” at college first. Very few even studied business.

If you don’t believe me then take a look at Jamie Oliver’s “5 Restaurant” program. He deliberately picks kids who have done badly at school and they learn quicker and on the whole do much better and learn much faster than other trainee chiefs.

And if you still don’t believe me then reflect on this, Harrison Ford was voted “student least likely to succeed”, Winston Churchill was described as “lazy” at school, Albert Einstein apparently tended to “daydream” at collage instead of taking the lessons seriously and Sir Richard Branson was bottom of every subject but one.

1 comment March 8th, 2007