My Dilemma: Is School Vital To Be Successful?

[RLorenzen]

Let me just say to everybody on here that seems to be determined not to attend college right now. You don't need to decide the second you leave high school whether or not you want to go to college. If you don't want to go right now then don't. Work for a few years and see what the real world requires of you. If you succeed then congratulations. If you decide you want a degree after all you can go back to school at any time you want. I know people just getting their degrees now and they're in their 40's and 50's. You don't always know what you want to do at 18 years old and there's no rule saying you have to go to college and then have a career, in that order. You can do it the opposite way as well. People treat education like it's a deadline and you must know immediately at 18 whether you're going or not. It's not.

[Shadesz]

nickhumph,
I'm glad you clarified that you will finish high school. It is very important! But, are you there for the right reason?

"Get good grades so you can get into a good university so you can get a good degree so you can get a good job." Wait, you want a job?

People substitute the following words WAY to often; school, education, degree, coaching, wisdom, experience, ... ... ... job, income, ... ... ...

There are MANY avenues available to gain a real education. Your best bet is to use ALL of them. Learn at school, don't focus on grades. Learn the 'data' but also learn the social & networking skills. Learn character by completing something you don't feel like completing. In your business hire a business systems consultant (coach), a good accountant (coach), a couple lawyers. Make friends with your college professors. ALL of those are your teachers. Your employees are your teachers. Competitors are your teachers. Books are your teachers. Boring tasks are your teachers.

BUT, back to the first question... are you there (anywhere) for the right reason?

If you hire the coaches to simply do the work for you, you are a fool. You pay them to not only do the work, but to teach you. If you do not ask questions you are missing an educational opportunity.

Which leads me to my next concern... you say you are uninterested and bored in class. To me, that means you are not there for the right reason. You should be in class to LEARN. Sure homework is usually busy work. I hardly finished my homework. I failed high school because of that but I find it alarming when you say you are bored and uninterested in class. If you are there to learn something... anything... you will rarely be bored. You get out what you put in. You need to learn in every class even if it isn't the subject being discussed. How is the teacher presenting the idea? Could it be presented better? How? How could it be presented more interestingly? Remember, learn in every class... math class, choir, science, history...

You said history is the most useless subject there is. No offense but you couldn't be farther from the truth. When you learn what a franchise is you are only studying history. When you read a book about business you are reading history. When you learn how people who dropped out of highschool/college became successful entrepreneurs you are reading history! While it might appear that your current history class is useless to you it isn't. Even math and science are just history (the history of what other people have discovered... so far). Every ounce of temporal knowledge is just recorded history.

Anyways sorry it is scattered, but the question remains... why are you there? Notice some people here say go to college for a backup. I disagree. That is the wrong reason as well. Go to college to learn. That's it. To learn. Do everything to learn. Start a business to learn. Help your friend through a hard time to learn. Go to school to learn. Complete a triathlon to learn.

Oh, and backup? What's a backup? (search youtube for "Tony Robbins tells Rocky story")

Have I confused anyone yet?

Oh and ps.. you complained about the diplomatic tenancies of the kids at your school. One day you may realize how much diplomacy is required to pull of a successful business...

[Shadesz]

If you decide you want a degree after all you can go back to school at any time you want. I know people just getting their degrees now and they're in their 40's and 50's. You don't always know what you want to do at 18 years old and there's no rule saying you have to go to college and then have a career, in that order. You can do it the opposite way as well. People treat education like it's a deadline and you must know immediately at 18 whether you're going or not. It's not.

Not to pick at you. Hopefully it doesn't appear like I am.

Getting a degree gets you in a good field of work so you can work for 40 more years and retire. Those older people you know that are just getting their degrees will not benefit from them the same way a 25 year old would be. If they are relying on their degree for financial support (think retirement) I am extremely sorry for them.

Anyways the point is... youth is an AMAZING asset. If a young person does not capitalize on it with urgency they will most likely be missing opportunities that will never return.

Pick your path and stick to it. Work your back end off and learn, learn, learn (especially from failure, embrace failure) until you succeed.

I believe mediocrity is failure.

[TheBigIdea]

preserving the status quo is a BIG no no.

[nickhumph]

Hi again.
I thought I would just bump this topic back up again to show an youtube video by a 10th grader:

YouTube - School Sucks, Rants Rule

This video shows exactly what I mean.

[nickhumph]

Hey guys I graduated high school last month, just letting you know that I'm basically going to take a year or two off to try make some of my businesses successful!

Attending college is still in the back of my mind because it would be great just to have fun, socialize and make connections with new people.

Anyway hope all of you are making your businesses more successful!

[Jetnut]

Sup Nick,

Cant tell you much but personally in high school my grades were also around 2.7-2.8 im going to UNI but im not going to a very good one in Brazil, its a decent uni that obviously learn alot of things(im studying Business Administration) so it helps out alot in the entrepreneur-ing area. because to be an entrepreneur you have to know how to administrate, and good administration is the master key of any company. you could have a billion dollar idea but have horrible administration and it wont lead to anything.

Administration englobes alot of things like:
Marketing, Control, organization, planning, leading, motivation, some political science, and unfortunatly some math haha (i was always bad at math too dont worry about that),

[fp_23]

i graduated school. granted a fair majority of the info is useless and you'll never use it EVER in your life...

however there is solid info mixed in with the garbage. obviously learning your language (english class for those here in the usa) and math. Those are two subjects that you'll use everyday of your life. period.

government/history can seem boring but if you pay attention it'll help you avoid the mistakes those in the past made.

I had it pretty rough through school. i chased girls endlessly...cut classes...had a gps of 1.0 or less in most cases...eventually sold drugs, etc.

i finally smartened up...went back...tried my hardest to focus and graduated with a 3.7-3.8 gpa.

Little did i know i had ADD this whole time. Now it all makes sense as to why i couldn't bare to sit through class...during the time my parents/fam/teachers just thought i was lazy and a trouble maker/class clown.

I haven't sought out any treatment for my ADD...infact i forget i have it unless i stop and think about it.


I focus much better working on my own.


Sorry for the rant...but point is school is important to an extent...the basics...math, reading/writing, etc. but chances are you wont need to know when the ming dynasty was around to check out at the supermarket. get it?

a lot of the best information ive ever received was on street corners or online forums...not in a class room.

infact teachers aren't that bright to begin with...they simply follow a schedule and give course work out accordingly.


i say dont drop out but at the same time dont be fooled into thinking you need college. sure it wouldnt hurt to take classes you're specifically interested in (ie. business) but a degree isn't required for success.