You Do Not Need a Formal Education to Succeed. Or Do You?
It is a complicated question. Have you been confused between mainstream claiming that a four-year degree is simply not worth it and your parents claiming that it is required?
Elon Musk: “Don’t confuse education with schooling. I did not go to Harvard but people who work for me did.”
Markus Hetzenegger: “While others spent years studying and commuting between exams and parties, I built a seven-figure company in the same amount of time. I’m not saying it was easy, but it was the only path I could see for myself — and I would choose it again today.”
The theory goes that formal, four-year education is a big waste of money, time, and earning potential; it does not prepare one for the complexities of the real world. It is not required for success. Just look at the dropouts like Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates.
While it is true that many stories of success did not involve a four-year degree, this thinking is problematic from a practical, psychological, and statistical perspective.
Education is required to succeed but it is not sufficient.
If you have a degree, you will probably succeed. If you succeed, you probably have a degree. The statements seem similar. But do you see the subtle difference between the two?
The former states that formal education is sufficient or enough to have a high chance of success in life. Around 39% of adults over 18 have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher in the US and only around 15% of Americans belong to the professional middle class (Source: Educationdata.org). Statistically speaking holding a degree may not even help to rise to the professional middle class. Therefore, the former statement is incorrect.
The latter says that your success probably required a degree. Forbes found that 84% of the richest 400 Americans hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared with just 33% of American adults. In other words, the success of the richest is correlated with having a four-year degree.
One needs to realize that mainstream media oftentimes manipulates the two statements, subtle differences of which are hard to recognize. Indeed, a degree is not sufficient for success, but it may as well be required in many cases.
Cognitive biases lead to inaccurate perceptions.
Behavioral biases serve as a roadmap for many misconceptions. One of such biases is availability bias that is defined as “the human tendency to think that examples that come readily to mind are more representative than it actually is the case” (Source: Whatis). For example, events are given larger weight due to substantial news coverage while their actual probability of occurring may be insignificant. In 2019, US air carrier, Southwest Airlines, experienced a mid-air engine explosion 2019 that killed a passenger. In the aftermath, the company saw a sharp decline in ticket sales, with the firm losing between $50 million and $100 million in sales. Consumers inflated the expectation of a similar incident far beyond its actual likelihood.
By this same token, we regularly hear about the millionaires and billionaires who do not have formal education, and, as the result, we inflate our probability of success without a formal education. This is our availability bias playing its tricks forcing us to disregard actual statistics.
In conclusion, the question of whether you need a formal degree is a personal one. It depends on your life circumstances and the industry you are interested in. If you would like to be an entrepreneur or a programmer, the best route is to probably experiment and learn in the real world. If you would like to be an investment banker or a lawyer, there is almost no way for you to succeed without a formal degree. One thing is certain: the worst thing you can do is follow the mainstream and make the most important decision in your life based on popular misconceptions.
Writer: Anna Koch, CEO at U-UNITY.COM
