Study....

Study and study and study... any point?

You say, to study and get a degree and you can become successful.

But then, think again. Today I attended my philosophy module and it does sort of suggest this, at least by Socrates. According to the dialogues I'm studying, it suggested that success is something which cannot really be taught, let alone achieved by anyone. It does however, go along with the point that if you wanna be successful, say in the field of dentistry, you have to be good in dentistry. I have no problem with that, since specialised professions nowadays have specialised knowledge which common layman would not comprehend without training from the experts. But this is relatively easy to achieve as long as you mug... yeah... mug mug mug. But given the current situation, it's difficult to be a successful dentist (just as an example) just by specialising on the stuffs you are supposed to be specialising in.

They may argue that those so-called success books and talks held by famous people like Anthony Robbins, Robert Kiyosaki, Brian Tracy are craps which doesn't do much to change people's life. But I would like to argue that it's not with the effectiveness of their delivery that counts, but it's with the mentality of those which matters. No one can expect their lifes to change just by attending a talk or reading a book about success without having the determination and the desire to change their lifes. There is a reason (in fact three) why people can't become successful. I won't discuss them here today. My point is that if people dun wanna change for the better, it doesn't matter how much talks or books they attend or read. It doesn't matter how good the speaker or writer is. They just won't get anything out of it. In particular, good success speakers and writers have been there done that, so they do have the credentials to talk about success. Books, such as Think and Grow rich by Napoleon Hill, do study the common qualities of successful personals. In essence, Napoleon Hill, from his studies of 507 successful entrepreneurs in 20 plus years, do recognise the common traits that are present in every successful person. So, I think there is something to learn about success from these people other than specialised knowledge which people nowadays have ready access to, courtesy of the internet. In all, the final determinat is really the human mind. As I have said earlier, it's really decisions and thought which makes us the persons we are today.

One reason why I would dispute the claim that getting degree would guarantee success in life is that today, degree is a commodity, something which we ought to have, or should at least have. Let me explain more:

The two things that human beings need to stay alive are basically water and air. But one thing which will allow us to survive is knowledge (in a very broad sense). This means that we ought to have talents in our society. Note that in my arguments, talents refer to people who possess the knowledge to survive and will definitely succeed. But then, to what extent do we define talents, or possession of survival knowledge? Let's look back in the 70s and 80s and I'll produce an equation:

Degree=talent => anyone who holds a degree will succeed in life (proven true in the time period we are looking at).

O'level-A'level=normal

PSLE and below='stupid'

But then, given the change of times where degree holders are saturating the employee market and stuff like that, the equation will look like this:

Diploma-Degree=normal =>it is normal to have a degree, no big deal

A'level and below='stupid'

So what defines a talent, the person who will surely succeed? Surely, today, it takes more than degree to succeed in life. That's why I dun agree with what my readings are telling me.... Period.

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