C-Students of the World Unite...The Times They Are a Changin'

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Are these C-students or A-students?

Is there a relationship between education and wealth? Personally I wasn't aware one existed.  Oh, what's that? You've always been told "go out and get your education and you'll get a nice paying, secure, and safe job"? Now that you mention it I have heard something like that.  I believe it was my dad who said "get your education and doors will open."  Sage advice from a man who, despite not finishing college, had a stable government job for 38 years.

Yes, just 30 years ago a college degree, "higher education," did give you some guarantee of a job which you could use to turn into wealth when companies routinely gave pensions to retirees.  But today? No such luck. No such guarantee.

Oh, what's that you say? "Now you need an education to do anything; to even be considered in the conversation that elusive group the wealthy." Really? Who says?

It seems to me that something has changed within the last 30 years and our old ways of thinking haven't caught up, at least not in North America.  Thomas Friedman nailed it in his great globalization book, The World is Flat, people all over the world are going out and making their own economic destinies.  The world has gone through a complete transformation and in a world that is flat anyone with a computer and internet connection has access to knowledge.  It is not localized in universities any longer.  Virtually everyone has an equal footing; whoever can access that knowledge quicker, more efficiently, or in more novel ways has the edge, education or no education.

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About the only guarantee a higher education gives you is a 10 to 15 year financial "hole", in the form of student loans, to dig yourself out of once you graduate.  That is before you can even think about building wealth. On top of the burden that  student loans puts you under, there is a psychology that builds up from so many years in school.  This psychology trains students to avoid taking risks.  There is a mentality that develops that says if you don't know the answer then Shut Up! Don't risk failure; and the longer you go to school the more engrained this psychology becomes.  The psyche that builds up makes the divide between education and wealth even harder to reach because it stifles two of the greatest tools out there for wealth-building: entrepreneurship and risk-taking.

Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, says it best "A-students work for C-student and B-students work for the government." I believe it too, because C-students took the risks, whether in high school or in real life.  They failed, so they know what its like and they know its okay to fail.  A-students were just smart enough to take calculated risks and for the most part didn't fail.  The B students, however, were stuck somewhere in the middle.  They were more afraid to fail than either group because they didn't succeed enough or fail enough to get used to either feeling.  I ought to know I was a B student.

Today, after many years of education (and many student loans), I am also an educator.  I know that an education is valuable, but not for wealth-building.  Education does help us become better human beings (it has that potential anyway), more well rounded individuals, and more compassionate for others.  But education as a necessary ingredient for wealth-building? Nice try, lets go another route....lets change our thinking once and for all.

Education is great, don't get me wrong, but there are other better avenues to build wealth than an extra four to 12 years of education after high school or even an associates degree (which by the way gives you the most bang for your buck when it comes to cost vs. benefits of an education).

Lets change our old way of thinking about the relationship between education and wealth.  Yes, there used to be a more direct link between the two, but to think one still exists is a little like still thinking the world is round...things have changed.  There is a missing link between education and wealth, but most Americans haven't figured out yet what that link is.  Once we do the beeline we once thought existed between education and wealth will be eradicated and more and more people will make their economic destinies without a higher degree.

I'll give you a hint at what that missing link is...Its what will make those C students so successful after high school (and, unfortunately for me, their lack of it in high school that frustrates so many teachers).  Its a passion for what you do, once you find out what that is, and a willingness to take risks which turns into motivation to succeed, formal education or no formal education.

Once we all start thinking like C-students and getting out of our comfort zones (like Linus from Peanuts, it seems that education is our comfort blanket), take some risks and finally take charge of our own economic destinies I think we will have fewer "educated" people, but hopefully, more wealthy people too.

This post was inspired by the personal finance group writing project: Education and Wealth sponsored by gobankingrates.com.  If you liked this article click here to vote it as your favorite article on the above topic.  Thanks.

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