I grew up in an age where I was told that in order to be successful, I needed to earn a degree, at the very least, ideally I needed two degrees. I was also told that I needed to enter into one of five professions; medicine, engineering, accountancy, law or technology. My father would often comment on the fact that what I needed was a company that could offer me career growth so that I had career stability and could evolve my career with one company. Now obviously this advice was well meaning, and actually quite strategic. As a first generation immigrant, my father’s advice was essentially to position my career in such a way that there would always be demand for my services.
However what none of us were anticipating was the rate of technological advancement and the way that it would democratize information and the holders of information. This seismic shift in how we consume information has meant that the reliance that we had as a society on Universities to educate us has diminished. Now this is not to say that Universities do not play a vital role in society, because I believe that they do. I just think that more light has been shone on alternative ways to achieve success than going to a university.
Lets dig into some of those myths;
You need a degree to be successful
Degrees are valuable, because I personally believe that education in all shapes and forms is valuable. I won’t argue the fact that entry into top universities provides access to other smart students and professors at the top of their field. However there are people who learn more from doing rather than by reading or researching. For those people, the internet has been an amazing resource of information. We have many examples of entrepreneurs who started university and dropped out like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, and others who did not even go to university like Oprah, but who dived head first into their talents and made the most of them
You need a professional or corporate job
Maybe it is the African upbringing that I had, but all around me, it was assumed that the path to success was via a university degree and a professional or corporate career. However we are seeing influencers build careers from their creative pursuits and so many different types of business opportunities that people can leverage into great careers. There is also the growth of the gig economy with solopreneurship and multi-passionate or liquid careers, where people combine a number of different career interests and create their own unique career pathway. So while it is possible to be successful by going down the traditional path, you can also be successful by following an alternative individual path
Better to be safe than sorry
I believe in taking calculated risks. Many people will not consider doing something knew because they are fixated on either losing all of the things that they have built up to date or are scared that the “new thing” they are going after, will not work. Instead of looking at pursuing a different career or business in this way, I would recommend approaching our career as a scientist, and really viewing it as a process of evolution. Yes the new thing might not work out but you would have learnt lessons, and made connections that could lead you to the ultimate thing. The only way to fail to to hide away and not try at all.
Decide on a career and grow
One of the things that I have never understood is society’s expectation that at the age of 18 or 21, we should all be in a position to make decisions that will impact the rest of our professional lives. As human beings we are constantly evolving, and at the age of 40, your needs and desires are so different to your twenty year old selves. Also for every one person who has clarity that a certain career path is for them, there are many more who have no clue, and who need to go through a process of exploration to uncover what makes sense for them as a career or as simultaneous careers. The Author Marie Forleo, is an example of such a multi-passionate person. Increasingly many professionals are realizing that they do not have to choose one career path to stick to for the rest of their careers, they can half multiple careers simultaneously or move from one career to another, as many times as they see fit through throughout their working life.
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