Can a person without a good formal education succeed in this day and age?

[kidd]

Just thought of a question. In the past a person can be successful without much formal school. They can quit schooling in Form 3 or From 5 or even Form 1 and started working and be a successful boss who hires people with much higher education to work with him.

Can a person in this day and age do that?

Nowadays, with more and more people going for higher education and degree holders are a dime in a dozen, can people with low education still succeed?

I ask this question because not all kids are good at studying and excel in formal school, but, they might have other talents.

[Banh Mi]

Yeah. High School drop out self made millionaires are nothing new.

[ByTmE]

I would say that it could depend on what you want to do in life and how serious you are about it. I think that most of the people who do make it in life without education were probably also autodidacts. That is, perhaps formal schooling could not teach them what they really wanted or were passionate about, so they founds ways to teach themselves. This could be done either through personal experience, reading on your own, or even apprenticing yourself. In theory, this can occur in any field. Nowadays, it will be harder to enter into a field without some sort of formal education.

I'm sort of rambling.

I know of people who are self made currently because they found that they happened to be good at supplying for a niche market. If that makes sense. So it could still happen...perhaps it's more of the luck of the draw though in this day and age.

[Ren Ying Ying]

I would say that it could depend on what you want to do in life and how serious you are about it. I think that most of the people who do make it in life without education were probably also autodidacts. That is, perhaps formal schooling could not teach them what they really wanted or were passionate about, so they founds ways to teach themselves. This could be done either through personal experience, reading on your own, or even apprenticing yourself. In theory, this can occur in any field. Nowadays, it will be harder to enter into a field without some sort of formal education.

Yep, depends on the field you want. Atheletics, arts, media (and perhaps even business) probably demand less education than say science, medicine, law, etc.
It also depends on what you define as "sucess". If a stable job with a decent income is what you want, then formal education/degree is probably important. If you want to freelance, then it's not as important (of course, it never hurts to have formal education...unless you're calculating debt)

[mind_wander]

I remembered few months ago,an Asian IT major college drop out was able to become a millionaire after figuring out by creating two or three websites and sold them.Hey,its not the first time this happened before Bill Gates didn't finished,but he was able to make it through it.

[jadebunny9]

I remembered few months ago,an Asian IT major college drop out was able to become a millionaire after figuring out by creating two or three websites and sold them.Hey,its not the first time this happened before Bill Gates didn't finished,but he was able to make it through it.

Yeah it's completely possible. Unfortunately, it won't happen for most people who did drop out.

[IPlayWow]

Yeah it's completely possible. Unfortunately, it won't happen for most people who did drop out.

uhhh well I heard this story from my friend on wow. he live in hong kong. he was going to church and saw these guys wearing black tuxedo suit looking very nice. he start talking to them and found out they never even graduated high school but they are really rich and they party like everyday or something. He asked if their parent was rich, they said no. he asked well how did you guys make the money, they said well we can't tell you that.... and that's the end of the story.....

and here is what I'm thinking....

Maybe worshipping GOD will help?...

Maybe GOD Blessed them?

[devilz91]

Maybe worshipping GOD will help?...

No, it won't help.

Maybe GOD Blessed them?

Nope.

[Banh Mi]

Maybe worshipping GOD will help?...

Maybe GOD Blessed them?

That is some horse logic right there.

[IPlayWow]

That is some horse logic right there.

well do you have any better explanation for this?

Hey doesn't asian people have this saying.... live good and good thing will happen?

[Trien Chieu]

Yeah it's completely possible. Unfortunately, it won't happen for most people who did drop out.

Well, what do you expect? The ones that are successful are the exceptional. The vast majority of the dropouts are either at the bottom of the barrel, become ghetto, with many addictions, and/or in and out of jail.

Maybe worshipping GOD will help?...
Maybe GOD Blessed them?

This is among the stupidest thing I ever heard. Being superstitious is waste of time and energy. It doesn't do any good.

Hey doesn't asian people have this saying.... live good and good thing will happen?

This is true. Live good means "be responsible, live a healthy life, save up for the rainy days, live below your means and stay out of trouble, then bad thing won't happen to you". This is indeed a great philosophy. There is a famous Chinese phase that I don't how to say it in Chinese, but in Vietnamese it's called "An Tha^n Thu? Ky?". Too bad that most people don't follow it these days.

[Banh Mi]

well do you have any better explanation for this?

Hey doesn't asian people have this saying.... live good and good thing will happen?

I don't know. I don't follow this God guy's logic if out of everyone that goes to church, he makes rich only the guys that party everyday, and aren't even willing to help other people suceed. Why only those guys?

If you told me everyone who goes to church is rich. I still wouldn't like it, but at least it would have a statistical basis.

Also, Jesus taught to give up worldly wealth to inherit all the riches in heaven. Any modest believer in God should live like Jesus, or at the very least have no wealth.

[jadebunny9]

uhhh well I heard this story from my friend on wow. he live in hong kong. he was going to church and saw these guys wearing black tuxedo suit looking very nice. he start talking to them and found out they never even graduated high school but they are really rich and they party like everyday or something. He asked if their parent was rich, they said no. he asked well how did you guys make the money, they said well we can't tell you that.... and that's the end of the story.....

and here is what I'm thinking....

Maybe worshipping GOD will help?...

Maybe GOD Blessed them?

Maybe the GOD in this case are the triads?

[Ren Ying Ying]

I don't know. I don't follow this God guy's logic if out of everyone that goes to church, he makes rich only the guys that party everyday, and aren't even willing to help other people suceed. Why only those guys?

If you told me everyone who goes to church is rich. I still wouldn't like it, but at least it would have a statistical basis.

Also, Jesus taught to give up worldly wealth to inherit all the riches in heaven. Any modest believer in God should live like Jesus, or at the very least have no wealth.

That's because you violated the "Heavenly Rule". You can't demand logic from faith...

[Banh Mi]

That's because you violated the "Heavenly Rule". You can't demand logic from faith...

You have to follow some logic first before you break it and call it a miracle.

[Ren Ying Ying]

You have to follow some logic first before you break it and call it a miracle.

when, if you find "no logic" then...that answers your question

You cannot prove what cannot be proven. You cannot disprove what cannot be disproven. If you try to apply logic to faith, then there is no faith to be spoken of.

[kidd]

So, conclusion is, in general, a degree or professional cert is needed for us to have a comfortable living nowadays, unless you are a genius or work in entertainment industry? If you don't have that cert, you will be left behind?

So, if a kid is bad with books and but good with hands, he will have to settle for earning less?

[Ren Ying Ying]

So, conclusion is, in general, a degree or professional cert is needed for us to have a comfortable living nowadays, unless you are a genius or work in entertainment industry? If you don't have that cert, you will be left behind?

So, if a kid is bad with books and but good with hands, he will have to settle for earning less?

depends on the extent of how bad he is with books or how good he is with his hands. or maybe he's got some artistic talent?

but in general, white collar jobs tend to pay more than blue collar

[Banh Mi]

Depends on the industry you're in. I'm pretty sure plumbers make more than your average admin clerk. Chefs do alright too depending.
You'd be looking at tradie type jobs, specialised hands on skills. Or entreupreneurs, taking and managing risks.

[Trien Chieu]

So, conclusion is, in general, a degree or professional cert is needed for us to have a comfortable living nowadays, unless you are a genius or work in entertainment industry? If you don't have that cert, you will be left behind?

So, if a kid is bad with books and but good with hands, he will have to settle for earning less?

The ones with education has huge advantage over the ones who don't and it is not always about money. Money is not everything. With education, you are not guaranteed to make more money than the ones without, but you know how to manage better and know how to live your life better which are far more important than money. People like Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley are good examples. They both were very successful and made tone of money, but both led a very fukkup life. If they had good education, things would be very different. You don't hear educated people like doctors, lawyers, accountants, ect... live that kind of fukkup life but celebrities with tone of money without much education.