It is familiar to everyone that our society imposes a need for us to seek the highest education possible. It is believed that the more academically educated you are, the more money you will earn. This society’s maxim becomes an acceptance to all parents. Doing well in school becomes a must and parents often send their kids for enrichment or tuition classes in order to put them ahead of their peers. “Study hard and get good grades, so that you will not suffer in the future” and other statements in similar veins are common and familiar. While they chase after education, the ultra rich people in the world are not graduates or I would dare to say their education did not play a big part to their success.
The truth is or at least I believe is that the more educated you are, the more you are trapped. Trapped in the rat race.
Think about the difference between a Diploma holder and a Degree holder. Who will have a greater opportunity to give up one’s potential income to take all the risks to start a business? A typical Diploma holder gets an entry salary of $1600 and a Degree holder about $2600. The Degree holder will have more to lose than the Diploma holder. It is thus likely that the Degree holder will stick to a job as he has a bigger comfort zone to overcome. He will less likely to strike it out on his own as he has a lot (high salary) to lose if his endeavor fails. That is why, in my opinion, why most millionaires/billionaires are not graduates.
If you also noticed, most of the richest people in the world are business owners. They took the route of uncertainty and are rewarded many times more than the risk they took. What is the difference between a job and a business, besides the amount of reward? The advantage of getting paid without you working in the business is more important than the amount of wealth that a business can promise. It is something that you cannot do it in a job. You need to work to get paid. You need to exchange your life for money. This is what I mean by trapped – the moment you stop working, you do not get paid, so you have to keep working and working and working.
But maybe the point is not everyone wants to be an entrepreneur or an owner of a business. Some people are happy being an employee, earn enough money and spend within limits. Fair enough, but why most people are complaining about their work? Are people afraid of taking the risk and making through the uncertainty when starting a business? Such that staying in the comfort of a job is relatively a safer choice, which offers greater certainty of a pay check every month. People are naturally lazy as they want the easy way out. They want to be rich with the minimal effort. That is why most people only dream about being rich and complain about their present circumstances. They also tend to find all excuses to support the notion they have not done anything about getting rich.
If you think that entrepreneurship is driven by profits and greed, you will never come to peace with it. Without entrepreneurs, there will never be jobs and the economy will never grow. I feel that entrepreneurship should be embraced more positively by people, educated or not. Singapore needs more entrepreneurs. We need more people to strike out to create and innovate things to propel our society. To create value in our lives, as well as provide jobs for the rest of the people. The more you are dependent on your academic qualification, the more you will be trapped in certainty.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi,
My thoughts perfectly.
I think there are other factors to consider, like peace of mind being an employee (retrenchment) RELATIVE to a business owner ( variable/no income).
I guess it all boils down to the Reward-Risk ratio.
Cheers, u are right bro.
Stephen
Good to hear we share the same sentiment!