Higher education and personal success. Higher education - the path to success

The university develops all abilities,
including stupidity.
Anton Chekhov, Russian writer

With a good diploma, you will live comfortably,
if you marry a rich widow.
From the book by E. Mackenzie “14,000 phrases…”

A person with any education needs personal finance accounting. I lead him in the Family program.

I think that everyone agrees that learning and self-learning is one of the main success factors, including financial ones. But how exactly do you learn? There is no single point of view on this matter. One of the most controversial issues is higher education.

Successful people without higher education

To prove the uselessness of higher education, references to authorities are usually resorted to: look how many people have achieved success without education! Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Henry Ford, Richard Branson, Michael Dell... All of them either did not study or dropped out of universities. Unfortunately, as long as this list is, it proves nothing.

First, the list successful people with higher education will be more authentic. If we are talking about finance, then the most successful investors had not just a higher education, but a higher financial education: Warren Buffett, George Soros, Peter Lynch. There are many such people in the business world. Google is generally graduate work Brin and Page. Who knows, if they dropped out of university, we would still use Yahoo search ...

General foreign studies give the following figures: approximately 40% of those who have achieved financial success do not have higher education. The figure is quite decent, but it also means that 60% received a "tower" ... In Russia, the situation is even more fun: only 2% of wealthy people have not graduated from high school. But this is due to the fact that the vast majority of today's millionaires and billionaires began their journey back in Soviet times when education was necessary to move up the social ladder ... I think that in the future the picture will become more similar to the global one.

Secondly, the research itself on the connection between education and achieving financial success is done in the style of “British scientists”. It is impossible to draw conclusions on the basis of isolated examples, and even. There are certain procedures for identifying influencing factors that are simply ignored in financial success studies.

A well-known tale illustrating the approach. We take 200 people with lung cancer. We will divide the patients into two groups. The first will not receive treatment, the second will drink raspberry tea. In the first group, 90% died, the rest survived. In the second group, 90% died, the rest survived. What conclusion do you draw about the effect of raspberry tea on cancer treatment? There is NO influence, right?

But consultants operate differently: they study survivors and ask what they did. Turns out they were drinking raspberry tea. The first person says it, the second, the third. What conclusion do the authors of books and methods draw? Raspberry tea works! After all, they do not even have the slightest idea that the result can be accidental.

When examining the effectiveness of drugs, there are two groups: the main and control. The main one is given a medicine, the control one is a placebo. And look, there is a statistically significant (!!!) deviation in the results. Only in this case can we say that the medicine works.

By analogy: you need to take two groups of completely random people, half of which will be with higher education, and the second - without. And compare their financial results. There are no such studies. The closest thing I could find is a salary comparison. University graduates have higher starting salaries. But this answer is not complete. Only starting salaries are compared, and financial success depends not only on earnings at the main job.

Advantages of Higher Education

Let's take a look at the arguments of the side that argues that higher education is necessary.

Education makes it easier to get a good job. Quite right. When posting a vacancy, the personnel department can even immediately weed out candidates without a "tower" if the competition is large. And in the audit room big four“And not all universities are listed. In large international companies, there is a ceiling that cannot be overcome without an MBA. However, with a long career, the importance of education falls, and experience and professional achievements come to the fore.

Education broadens one's horizons. You get a lot of knowledge from different areas and become an interesting conversationalist. A very controversial argument. In my experience, the most interesting interlocutors are people who are passionate about something, and it doesn’t matter what education they received. It is much more interesting for me to communicate with a traveler who has graduated primary school than with a top manager with a tower whose interests are limited to a career and the acquisition of consumer goods.

Education provides specialized knowledge. True, but with reservations. I would not want to have my appendix removed by a doctor who studied the video course “how to become a surgeon in 21 days”. Or for my house to be drawn by an architect who has learned how to create models in 3D-max. But, as you understand, the list of such professions is very small.

Education teaches to learn. Work with literature, learn a huge amount of knowledge in a limited amount of time (the night before the exam), negotiate with a teacher when you don’t know the subject, etc. All this can be learned outside the university.

The university provides useful contacts. Yes, the fraternity creates quite close relationships that can really help you achieve financial success in the future.

Education teaches systems thinking. Fundamental education gives a picture of phenomena as a whole, allows you to see the relationship between different areas. This gives flexibility. A person who has completed accounting courses can become an accountant, and even a good one. And a graduate of a financial university can become an accountant, auditor, analyst, manager, financial controller, underwriter...

Cons of Higher Education

Let's hear the counterarguments.

Higher education does not teach how to create a business. Quite right. And such a task before him is not worth it. Yes, there are "business schools", but this is on the conscience of their creators. Not a single normal economic and financial university says that it teaches how to create a business. There is nothing to say about medical, technical, agricultural universities. And financial freedom can be achieved without your own company.

Higher education does not teach investing and money management. It is truth too. Although a good financial education certainly does not interfere with this. Buffett and Soros are examples of this. Personally, financial and mathematical training helps me a lot in understanding some aspects of investments and analyzing financial instruments.

Standard item set. There is a program that all students should study, regardless of their inclinations and interests. That's right, if you aspire to a red diploma. Otherwise, nothing prevents you from studying the necessary subjects, and learning the necessary minimum for the “unnecessary” ones to pass the exam and pass.

Separation from practice. Often lectures are given by people who are familiar with the subject from textbooks. As far as business specialties and finance are concerned, this is often the case. A lot depends on the university. It is no secret that the popularity of legal and economic education led to the fact that such faculties opened universities that are very far from economics and jurisprudence. It is not surprising that they have neither personnel nor programs that meet modern requirements. How lucky: we were taught a course on civil law by an acting lawyer, an actuary talked about insurance, and the owner of an audit firm talked about auditing. There are also reverse examples: public administration, macroeconomics, the theory of the firm were read to us by pure theorists, in fact, retelling textbooks.

Huge waste of time. 4-5 years every day for several hours. Can not argue with that. This is probably the most important drawback of the “tower”. Time is a valuable and irreplaceable resource. Personally, I think that higher education is given too early. At the age of 17-18, a personality has not yet been formed, vital interests have not been determined, and the choice of education is not conscious, but under external pressure. As they joke, for girls, the university stands for “get married successfully”, and for young people - “the opportunity to evade shaving”. After that, it is not surprising that graduates consider the “tower” as wasted time.

The most optimal option would be to make a higher education with a qualification, as in an MBA. Do not accept students with experience less than 3 years in the specialty. Specialty training - either on the job or short courses. It doesn’t matter which university a student graduates from, they won’t be hired for a serious position, and it is possible to fulfill the duties of a lower level even without a “tower”. But those who go to higher education will know exactly why they get it.

So do you need a college degree to be successful?

I will not tire of repeating that the need for any action or inaction is determined by the goal.

If you want to save lives in the operating room, create new mechanisms, discover the Higgs boson and determine the composition of dark matter, it will be difficult without a higher education. Contrary to the popular misconception that Einstein was almost an ignoramus, in fact he had a higher education in physics from the best Swiss university.

If your task is to earn money, then the question of higher education is more complicated. It can both help and hinder. At the university, you will not be taught how to sell, manage people, or organize business systems. But they can teach financial analysis, programming, that is, specific specific knowledge. And the more precisely you define your path to success, the clearer the answer to the question will be for you: whether to get a higher education.

In general, do not be fooled by the promises of any of the parties. Do not listen to the agitators to quit your studies and start your own “buy-sell” business or the now fashionable “info business”! Do not listen to those who claim that without a high school diploma you will be lost. Education, like any other activity, must have a purpose. Why do you need/don't need it? And only you can decide whether a higher education will help or hinder your success.

Nick Cherry

I propose to find out who is more among the readers of the blog - supporters of higher education or its opponents. Vote for your choice. Write additions to the arguments for either side in the comments.

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Classmates

It so happened that today higher education has to compete with cunning, arrogance and determination. The presence of the three listed qualities, as it seems to many, is quite enough to achieve material well-being. And vice versa, their absence, even for a highly educated person, means a complete career failure. Women's magazine Charla decided to figure out who wins today: the person who received higher education, but not having that same entrepreneurial streak, or someone who was deprived of the joy of attending boring lectures, but endowed with the qualities necessary to successfully build a business.

Higher education: how it was

During the Soviet era, attitudes towards higher education it was not at all what it is now. Universities were perceived as a pass to the world of prestigious professions of an engineer, doctor or economist. In the absence of a diploma, it was possible to get a job as a worker at a factory.

But what do we have today? Many of those who received higher education in the Soviet era remained "overboard" in the early 90s. At the same time, people who did not have a higher education, but who possessed those same notorious three qualities, were able to achieve material success.

Is education devalued? No, it's just that the chances are to some extent evened out. The spiritual and intellectual side of the issue remained the same. But few people care about this, because a former engineer who has two higher educations, and even knows that not only hair dye is permanent, can today trade behind a counter in the market next to a former janitor.

Assessing the current situation, many representatives of the older generations were generally disappointed in higher education.

But the conclusion is not at all a call to be arrogant and cunning. A person who knows how to convince, achieve goals, manage himself and, if necessary, people, and even have a higher education, gets a much better chance of success than a person without a higher education, who actively uses his “punching” qualities.

Yes, in universities there are no such subjects as "ways to achieve goals" or "methods of managing people." But it is the university that develops those qualities that help to reveal these abilities in oneself.

Higher education and prestigious professions

Also in kindergarten When the children were asked the usual question about, Masha said that she would be a hairdresser. But when it came time to choose your path after school, the mother-doctor insisted on entering an economic university.

Today, Masha works as a “little” accountant at a large factory and looks with slight envy at some of her friends who open their own hairdressing salons or, for example, nail service centers. It seems to her that even then, in kindergarten, she felt today's trend towards an increase in the prestige of such professions as a hairdresser or a manicurist. And what was it for higher education?

Yes, indeed, such professions are now popular, as well as the profession of a photographer, seamstress, bartender, make-up artist. In general, many of those who did not receive higher education are at the peak of the wave of success.

But there are two “buts” here that should not be discounted.

Firstly, fashion is changing rapidly, and you need to be enterprising enough to go from a nail technician or retrain to some other master. And will the master be in the same demand, for example, at the age of 50? At the same time, Masha has every chance for career growth, and by the age of 50 she may well become a chief accountant with a good income.

Secondly, the market for masters of the service sector is already quite saturated. And to stay afloat, you need unconditional talent. Do you feel it in yourself? Then it might be worth a try. But do not rush to talk about the uselessness of higher education. You will definitely need it in the future, because even the most interesting work can become uninteresting or unclaimed. That's when the golden time for your diploma will come.

Another point related to the prestige of the profession concerns work in one's specialty. Few people dare to connect their lives with the direction in which they received their education. Journalists with a chemical education, accountants-engineers, environmental designers. Today, such specialists are no longer surprising to anyone. But is it right?

In our opinion, higher education should be perceived precisely as a base that provides more opportunities. But the possibilities are very different, and not exactly those that you have heard about for 5 years within the walls of your alma mater. Talent and desire, backed up by intellect, are the best help for a successful career in any field.

Higher education: even the score

Learn not to divide everything into white and black. It is not necessary to completely abandon higher education or, on the contrary, sit out five years on the student bench while others gain work experience.

Almost all employers require experience. But even without a higher education, you are unlikely to be accepted for a well-paid position. This means that you need to look for the best way out. Perhaps this way out will be correspondence education or part-time work during training. But in this case, there is still no place for great ambitions, and conversations like “I’d rather sit at home watching TV than work as a laborer for two kopecks” will not benefit anyone.

You need to understand that work at the time of receipt higher education is a great way to learn something by doing. And good education usually comes with a price. In this case, own time.

Many of those who read this article have long made a choice for themselves and unlearned (or not unlearned) their legitimate five or six years at the university. Do I now have to regret the lost time or, on the contrary, go to receive a higher education that was not received? Our answer: higher education in modern world is necessary because you never know where life will take you. And it will be very disappointing at one fine moment not to get the coveted position simply because your competitor, who has a similar work experience, has received a higher education, and you have not.

Inna Dmitrieva

Controversial moments in higher education

Some people think that higher education is not necessary. This is justified by the fact that famous people(name names) have achieved success without higher education. However, this still does not prove anything.

Let's say that the list of successful people with higher education will be real. If we talk about financial activities, then the most brilliant specialists in the field of investment had not just a higher education, but a higher economics.

Foreign statistics have provided data that more than 40% of businessmen abroad do not have higher education obtained at http://www.ideka.ru/. Accordingly, 60% received it. We have a very small percentage, within 3% of successful people do not have a university education. Such a small percentage is due to the fact that they received a "tower" back in Soviet times, when it was simply necessary on the way to a career. Some analysts suggest that the same global practice is waiting for us in the near future.

But you can’t compare two groups of random people like this, where one has a higher education, and the other does not. There are no studies of their financial results. You can only compare salaries, because at the initial stage, a specialist with a higher education is paid more. But even that is only at the initial stage.

Positive aspects of higher education

Higher education is the way to success to get a good job. After all, if there is a recruitment to the organization on a competitive basis, then candidates without a “tower” are immediately eliminated. And for some places, such as international companies, candidates who have completed prestigious universities With good rating. With a long work experience, the importance of education decreases. All that's left is experience and knowledge.

There is an opinion that a person with a higher education has a wider outlook, it is more interesting with him, he knows more. This is a moot point. Sometimes a person has lived such a rich life, seen so much, it is so interesting to communicate with him. And he has no "tower". And some top-manager with a higher education is obsessed with his career obtained thanks to http://www.ideka.ru/napravleniya-i-spetsialnosti.html and is focused only on acquiring his own benefits. It is unlikely that he will be able to interest others in something.

Therefore, there is no universal recipe for achieving success in your own life. For some, education is simply necessary to achieve heights. For someone - on the contrary, to which there are many examples of famous people. But do not forget that against them there are ten times more of those who dropped out of school and never achieved anything in life. Therefore, you should not assume that by dropping out of university, you will definitely become a millionaire.

Every person wants to be successful in life. What is success? Agree that this is a fairly broad concept. Success is both material well-being, and the achievement of high professional skills, and authority among colleagues, and sustainable family relationships. This list can be continued endlessly.

Today, you guys, as school graduates, dreaming of success, are aimed at getting a higher education. And this is no coincidence. Today, to get a good position, to find a job you like, you need to have a higher education.

Benefits of Higher Education

• Higher education- this is evidence that a person has received a certain profession, has the knowledge, skills and abilities associated with it, and in the light of modern achievements in science and technology.
• A university graduate thinks more broadly, knows how to apply his knowledge in the most non-standard situation.
• The 21st century is the information age. Computer systems, the latest technology and improvements are used literally in all spheres of life - everything is connected with a huge flow of information. A person with a higher education is taught how to mine correctly necessary information to use them at work. He understands that one cannot stop, one must constantly keep up with the times in order to be aware of everything new that has appeared in the field of his activity.
• Finally, people with higher education have always been and remain the color of society. It is they who contribute by their activities to the progressive development of society, create something new, try, implement, improve. The future of the country largely depends on their activities.

Life does not stand still. She is constantly moving forward, everything in her is changing. Higher professional education, its presence is a necessary reality of time. Therefore, you need to get it in order to become a self-sufficient person, to be able to realize yourself in the future, and, no less important today, to become competitive in the labor market.

• Decide what kind of business you would like to do in the future. In no case should you enter any university that comes across - just to pass, just to get the crust of the coveted diploma. You will have to work in your specialty all your life, activities must necessarily bring joy and satisfaction. The worst thing is doing something you don't like.
• Having determined the profession, find out in which universities you can get it.
• Find out what exams you need to pass to enter these universities. remember, that work in preparation for the exam- this is a serious matter, so you need to take elective exams only those that you will need for admission. Excessive number of exams will make it difficult to prepare for them.
• Start preparing for the exam. There can be many methods and methods here: seriously prepare for classes at school, attend electives, enter preparation courses for USE, study with a tutor, study theory on your own, take tests - in general, get ready and get ready. Preparing for the exam is a difficult and big daily work.
• Psychologically set yourself up for success. Do not be pessimists, believe in yourself, in your strengths, and then you will definitely pass the exams well.

Thus, higher education is a way to success in life, this is the start that will help you achieve a lot in life. Therefore, make every effort to successfully complete school, pass on high USE scores, and in the end - to become students of the university of your choice.

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The myth that a person needs to have a higher education to be successful has long been debunked thanks to the examples of talented people who have achieved unprecedented heights without a cherished crust (Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, etc.). But how was the fate of ordinary people who dropped out of their studies at the university?

website collected stories and tips from Internet users that will help you figure out whether a diploma is really needed for a successful career now.

• I am 26, I have 27 flower shops in St. Petersburg. This phrase, which I heard at the age of 18, helped me achieve success: “ You're a good guy, but you don't have any money." And I began to take revenge. With 3,000 rubles in our pockets and an old passenger car, my classmate and I started delivering flowers. And after 3 years, the girl - the author of this phrase showed up, but, as it turned out, she was not worth it. I left the institute in the 2nd year: one day I had to take an exam and pay salaries to employees. Chose the second option.
• Lord, I just now realized having received two higher educations, that I no longer need to get up at 7 in the morning to study! Now I have to get up at 6 for work.

In the second year at the session, one teacher gave me a grade that cannot be retaken (automatic expulsion). I decided not to waste a year in vain and started freelancing, quickly acquired clients. When it was possible to recover, I already had a regular income of $ 300-500. When I returned to school, I realized that Institute limits my growth. He reached the 4th year of the correspondence course and still has not taken the diploma. Then I was already working in a promising studio in a circle of professionals, and it started ... a studio, a startup, now a huge corporation. I don’t remember the name of the teacher, but thanks to her, that’s straight from the heart!

• My sister brought a diploma of completed higher education today. Mom could not find anything to say except: "Keep, do not lose, you will show the children."
• Last summer my friend decided to go to Poland to work. She arrived, and she was told that instead of one job that she was promised, she would pick strawberries. She immediately began to swear and tell that she had 2 higher educations. To which the employer replied: “Well, do you want us to applaud you when you pick strawberries?”
• My son so got me with the phrases " Why study, because Bill Gates never received a higher education, but a billionaire” or “Steve Jobs didn’t study at the university either!” That I couldn’t stand it and brought the disassembled system unit from the computer to my son’s room, cut off Wi-Fi in the apartment and said: “If you assemble at least a system unit without Google so that it works , then you can safely pick up documents from the university! After 2 hours, he came to me with a request: “Dad, turn on Wi-Fi, I need to cook the course!”