Schooling is not the Secret to Success

Others are just ordinary unknown people, like a father I know, who supports his family as well as providing accommodation for his parents. No mean feat for a high school walk-out!

Then if you look at people who have succeeded financially without a university education, the list gets even more interesting, Steve Jobs, Matt Mullenwig who started WordPress and Arash Ferdowsi, the co-founder of Dropbox are rich and famous examples!

What does it take to succeed, if not formal credentials?

Successful individuals have found something worth doing, something they believe in, something they can’t NOT do. Their passion and motivation drives them to overcome fear of failure, to take responsibility for their mistakes, to be flexible, to break boundaries in innovative ways, and to persevere.

They have a vision that will serve others. They are usually humble and able to receive correction.

They are self-motivated and dependable. They usually have good people skills along with good manners, courtesy and integrity. In a word, they have good character.

Secondly, they may have walked out of school or university, but they didn’t ever drop out of learning. They became self-directed learners who hacked their way to success in unconventional ways. They didn’t ever give up and accept hand-outs or become dependent on other people.

They didn’t become victims of their circumstances, making excuses or blaming someone else. Successful people don’t blame the economy, their parents or lack of parents, their background or political policies such as apartheid or BEE for their struggles. They don’t give up because they are too young, too old, too white or too black!

They don’t let reports of doom and gloom deter them from pursuing their dreams. They own their life and their work and they do it with excellence.

Success doesn’t come to those who hesitate—it comes to those who work, who learn, and who never, ever make excuses.