Research says that the higher the education ladder you climb, the greater your chances of success. The perception of people on the ground, however, is that we will see graduates sitting at home. Instead, we see dropouts and individuals that did not go to school being the ones who succeed. Exactly, what is true and what is not?
Bob Marley when asked about education and how it affects him that he didn’t go, he said that if he went to school he would have turned into a “damn fool”. And I think what he meant was that school is a pruning mechanism that shapes and beats people into the system.
Think about it. You begin going to school at the age of 3. From the age of 3, you are already taught that you have to wake up in the morning and be somewhere. That somewhere is filled with strangers, and you’ll probably have teachers telling you what to do. You will do this from the tender age of 3 until you turn 18 and matriculate. By this point in time, it is so ingrained in your psyche that it is difficult to think that there’s another way to live.
And so, with the same behaviour, you continue into university. At university, the authority now relaxes a bit. The responsibility for your success now rests in your hands. Unlike in school where teachers probably spoon-fed you and did their best to teach you according to your learning style. At university, most lecturers go to class because it’s part of the job. They are lecturers, not teachers. Meaning they care about their research and could care less about teaching students.
Let’s say that you are smart and diligent enough that you finish in record time. The degree took you 3 years so now you are 21 years old. Congratulations! You are officially ready for the world of work. You see, for 18 years of your life (21 – 3), you were preparing for this moment. You were preparing to become employed. To be an adult.
Yes, research shows us that those that go through this process do end up employed over those who do not. But why do you want to be employed? Well, you want the apartment, the car and those clothes to make you feel good. The job, like the last 18 years of your life, will probably be in an environment with strangers (you probably don’t like but have to tolerate as you did with your classmates) and there will be someone to dictate your work. But really, you have been doing this for 18 years of your life so you’ll quickly adjust.
But you go to social media. You are a young man driving a humble Kwid. There’s a video on YouTube by two extremely, jaw-dropping beautiful women. These women tell you that a broke guy is a guy who works 9 – 5. The one woman is like that’s unfair because some guys need to work. In your heart, you think that perhaps they said that for the algorithm so that they can trend. But moments later, the very same woman goes on to say that she won’t suffer, especially for a man. That even if the man is doing a 9 – 5, he must earn at least 50k upwards.
You tell yourself that these girls don’t know anything about the real world anyway. So, you switch from YouTube to TikTok. There’s the content creator that you love watching. Then you recall that he said that he dropped out after he got paid 15k for a single post on TikTok. So you watching a dropout who is probably at the stage where they are making double that amount per post.
Out of curiosity, you look at their profile. You see that out of every 10 posts, your favourite content creator has about 6 sponsored posts. So using the 15k as a benchmark, you realise that this content creator is making roughly 90k with those posts.
And another thing that you notice is that the creator posts a minimum of 3 posts a day. So in a month, this creator posts roughly 90 posts a month. By assumption, you work out that your favourite creator has roughly 54 branded posts a month so that equates to roughly 810k a month that they make. Yes, they have been creating content for almost 6 years now but they closing in on making a million soon because of their relentless work ethic. You won’t see a million until you are 64 and ready to retire.
But you are at work. Mr Mthembu, your line manager, keeps passing your office and you feel like he knows you not working and that you are on TikTok. You decide that in order to avoid him giving you a negative review in the next performance appraisal, you’ll get off the phone and start working. But instead, you open YouTube Music to listen to some hip-hop.
While listening to the music, you realise that almost all the rappers you are listening to either dropped out, didn’t go to university, or did go but did not study music. These rappers are making roughly half a million with each show they perform (in which they perform monthly or quarterly) and yet they do not possess the "key to success" which is a university qualification.
There’s nothing you can do about this information. You are at work. You are not a rapper. You are not a content creator. You are not a businessman. You are a university graduate who is lucky to be employed in an economy where being employed is a luxury. At the expense of your dreams, at least you can afford that 6 pack with the boys when you guys meet.
Unlike the rappers and content creators who are living life to the beat of their hearts, your life dances to the tune of Mr Mthembu’s mood swings and the company culture. You regain your focus because the shackles of debt remind you that you cannot afford to daydream about a life where you are living your dream. Instead, you have a report to submit before close of business. That's your life. That’s your success.
I think that’s what Bob Marley meant by saying that education would have made him a damn fool.
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