Success: Is Education Important - Essay Example

Your Success: Is Education Important? People judge each other by success nowadays. Most of the people go about the success ladder by studying, going to a university and all that. However, most people do not adhere to that kind of mentality these days. Most people, citing successful college dropouts, tend to think that education is not really as important as what people think it was. So the question is, is education important? For me, it’s not as vital as it’s formerly thought of, but it is important. First things first: What is success anyway? Success is achievement of intention; attainment of fame, wealth or power; it could be something that turned out well. For most people, achievement of intention is quite personal. You could be successful on your own but not many people may know it. On the other hand, most people judge others materialistically: wealth, fame and power. Most people can tell if someone is successful by telling if that person is “rich and famous”. And being rich and famous is equal to being powerful because many people believe in you. So the question now is: will education make you rich and famous? How does one get to be rich and famous; ergo, how does one get to be rich? People get rich because of abundance of money: business. Selling and trading commodities is a surefire way of being rich – not getting employed. Now do you need education in order for you to get successful in entrepreneurship? Theoretically speaking, yes, because business is actually a field of knowledge and knowledge and skills have to be learnt. They are not commonsense knowledge. One should actually have competence in the said field if one wants to be successful. To have competence in business (or any other field for that matter), one should be taught by teachers/mentors. Formal education, or going to school, solves that problem. However, there are people who do not need formal education. They are those who have been living in a certain environment that would make them knowledgeable in a certain field. For example, children of business owners, especially those who keep their businesses in their houses, already have the knowledge in how to run the business. Specifically, their family business. They do not need formal education, if at all, it is just complementary to append their existing, inherent knowledge. One may ask, what is the definition of education? According to Encarta, education “is the imparting and acquiring of knowledge through teaching and learning, especially at a school or similar institution”. It is also defined as an “informative experience”. With the second definition, one can say that hanging out in a convenience store for twenty four hours is an education because you are informed about the ins and outs of the convenience store culture for twenty four hours. It is an informative experience on your part. But what we are pertaining in this paper is the first definition of the word “education”. Does having a bachelor’s degree ensure one of being successful, i.e. rich, famous or powerful? One can immediately say no because there is such media hype on modern day IT tycoons who happen to be college dropouts. There are Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. All of them are famous dropouts from college, yet all of them are successful: They are rich, famous and powerful. Not only they are powerful because of money, but they are powerful because they actually revolutionized the way the world lives. They revolutionized the way WE live. They made technological breakthroughs that changed the cultures of everyone, and they were dropouts. With them as examples, could we conclude that it’s safe to drop out of college and pursue dreams, or in their case, their interests? No. Because we have to understand that they are geniuses. They think differently than the rest of the people, and they can actually be good at they interests because their talents jibe well with their passions. They are geniuses in their own field and they are lucky enough to have given a break by their colleagues and the society. Obviously, many people are not like them and many people can be like them. Thus, we resort to education. There are many studies that relate educational attainment to success, especially in business. This has been documented by the Federal Reserve, and other agencies that document financial performances. According to the Federal Reserve, there is an economic premium put on education. Of course, one can see it, college graduates are better paid than high school graduates (FederalReserve.org). According to Ferguson, “Most economists have found that an additional year of schooling typically raises an individuals earning power between 8 and 15 percent. Recent studies show that four years of college boost earnings about 65 percent”. This evaluation is usually rated between the linkage of economic opportunity, earnings and educational attainment. This may be a harsh reality, but that is reality. Education is important if you want to earn more. There are individuals that do not agree with these findings though. According to a survey by Barclay’s Local Business, only 46% of small company bosses had a degree and only 11% believed achieving a good education is crucial to business success. These people justify their opinions by saying that college education is quite expensive and pursuing college would put them more in debt, hence, they pursue a career in business instead even if they have not earned their college degrees. There are those like Jordan McGreevy, who left school to run his own computer empire. He said: "Having worked on my game during the last few years at school, I felt confident that I knew enough about the field to not go to university (BusinessZone). Although there are clearly people who can be successful even if they do not pursue college education, we cannot deny that they have at least tried and pursued college at some point. They were pursuing it, but their finances, or lack of it, denied them of that option. It is a known fact that college graduates earn more than those who do not have college degrees, and people want to pursue that destiny too. As Ferguson said, “economic achievement and educational achievement are intertwined”, which is also quite synonymous to educational achievement and being successful, are intertwined as well. As a conclusion, education is important on being successful. References: “Education”. Microsoft Encarta 2009. CD ROM. “Education is not the Key to Success”. BusinessZone,co.uk. 16 March 2007. Web. Retrieved 20 November 2011. Ferguson, Roger, Jr. W. The Importance of Education. FederalReserve.org. 24 February 2006. Web. Retrieved. 20 November 2011. Kangasharju, Aki and Pekkalas, Shari. The Role of Education in Self Important Success. Government Institute for Economic Research, Helsinki, Finland. August 2001. Web. Retrieved 20 November 2011. “Success”. Microsoft Encarta 2009. CD ROM. “The Importance of Financial Education”. OECD: Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development. July 2006. Web. Retrieved, 20 November 2011. U.S. Department of Education, Digest of Education Statistics, Table 311, National Center for Educational Statistics, 2004. Web. Retrieved 20 November 2011. Read More