Experience vs. Education

About 20 weeks ago I signed up to be a graduate student at Keller graduate school. From the minute i paid my application fee I had an unsure feeling in my gut. Was I wasting my money? Do I even know what I want to do? If not then why would I get a masters for the hell of it? I pushed these thoughts aside because i figured hey, there's no harm in being educated. I still fully agree with that statement, but for some reason America has put a price on knowledge and its a HUGE price!! So tonight while I sat through half of my Finance/Accounting class, i realized this is not for me, or at least not right now and I don't want to continue to increase my debt while I am so uncertain about everything. (My parents will probably read this and be slightly disappointed but I'm 24 so I can no longer do things in my life for them, I have to do whats right for me.)

So while I was sitting in this class realizing everything I hated about school I decided what I would blog about tonight.

I have come to the conclusion that sitting in a classroom gets you nowhere in life. Now I'm not saying that people shouldn't go to school. I think everyone should go to school, but its what you do with what you learn that makes you successful. (In all honesty though, some classes are just straight up pointless). I also strongly believe that experience is the greatest knowledge of them all and that classes can't provide that for you.

So in light of tonight's post I thought I'd share some fun facts about the Richie Rich's of America and how a lot of the big dogs never even got a degree or didn't receive one in relevance to their career.

When you think of the words "rich" and "successful" who are the top men that pop up in your brain?

I'm going to guess most of you included big papa Bill Gates on your list as well as the biggest influencer in our generation, Mr. Steve Jobs (R.I.P.).  If you didn't include these two well then apparently rich and successful have different meanings to you. So lets start with Big Papa....

Bill Gates is a G.. and by that I mean a GENIUS. The man scored a 1590 on his SAT (its out of 1600 for those who don't know) and decided to attend Harvard University. However, Mr. Gates dropped out to pursue what we now know as Microsoft. His partner in crime was Paul Allen who never went to college. I know that not many people can say they are as smart as Bill Gates, but I'm sure there had to be some other nerds making software around the same time that did not become as remotely successful as Gates. Those people probably focused more on the class projects than their own. All I'm saying is that if little Billy at Harvard would of focused more on his school work, we probably wouldn't have the software that we have today.

Next up, the late great Steve Jobs

If you don't know who Steve Jobs is, I'd like to jump through this blog and slap you, and for those who don't know who he is and are playing on their mac, ipad, or iphone, I ask you to please slap yourself. Okay but really Steve Jobs changed technology as we know it, he was the co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios as well as Apple. Jobs went to Reed College for a whole semester, but while sleeping on friends floors continued to check out some classes around campus. I love this, I wish everyone would do it. Take classes and not pay for them. I mean really we aren't paying for the knowledge we learn, we are paying for the title we get after completing it all. Whats funny about Jobs is that he literally credits taking LSD to much of his success (not promoting drugs here, just reiterating what I've heard). So to cut this portion short all Jobs really did was think outside the box using his own creative ways and used some of the free knowledge he gained on the way and used it to become overly successful.

A few other bad boys without degrees are:
   Richard Branson (Virgin Brand)
   Michael Dell (Dell - bet you couldn't guess that one)
   David Geffen (DreamWorks)
   Ralph Lauren (Polo Ralph Lauren)


HEY LADIES......


No I did not forget the Richie Richita's of our time so lets get right down to business...

No introduction needed, Miss Oprah Winfrey (I would call her big mama since I called Gates big papa, but I feel like that's kinda rude due to her constant weight battle). Oprah attended Tennessee University, but guess what, she did not get her degree until 12 years after she left! This woman has done it all, and I bet you she didn't learn any of it in a classroom. She started doing local media gigs when she was young and well we all know what she grew up to be, one of the, if not THE most successful female in not just America, but the world. Oprah left Tennessee 1 credit short of a degree for a job offer, but eventually went back to finish up. However, like I said before I'm sure she learned far more through her experiences than what she did in a classroom.

The other woman I'm going to discuss is Bethenny Frankel. Some of you might wonder why, but she is my idol and this is my blog and I'll do what I want. Yes Bethenny did get a degree, but even afterwards she was struggling in her 20s to find her way like most of us. Bethenny tried many different adventures including acting and her own bakery delivery service. Both of these did not go over well for her. Bethenny really got her start on the reality show Real Housewives of New York (but she was still struggling during the taping of this). Bethenny always drank the same drink every time she went out... clear tequila, triple sec, and some freshly squeezed lime. Then BAM realized that this was gold and decided to bottle it, market it to all us skinny girls (and wana be skinny girls) and sold it for a reported $100 million. Ummm Brilliant. She took something so simple and made it the most profitable it could have possibly been. Had she learned to do that in class I bet she would of done it years ago.

Other bad mamajamas with no degrees:
   Rachel Ray
   Mary Kay
   Beyonce (yes I know we all cant sing like her, but she is quite the business woman)

For the few of you who actually read this all the way through, thank you. I would like to point out again that I'm not encouraging people to drop out of school, but I'm just saying don't focus your life around it. Realize that LIFE is what happens when you are trying to ever so diligently plan it out. Most of us will gain far more knowledge by making mistakes and falling on our faces in the real world than by getting an 'A' on a test or an assignment. But hey many of us will get those experience from our first job, and that we may only get because of our degrees.

To each his/her own, I'm out.

- D