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People often like to tell themselves stories of people who rose from nothing, reached overnight success, and built their own business empires. We’re here to break the bad news – although such examples, by all means, do exist, they are few and incredibly far in between.
In a vast majority of cases, the success of present-day entrepreneurs and CEOs is built upon years of hard work, commitment, and persistence. Also, we would like to point out recent research saying that as many as 98% of active CEOs hold at least a Bachelor’s degree, and 64% have earned a Master’s degree.
So, the road to success is long and hard but it is, at least, very easy to hard where it usually starts. Let us take a more in-depth look at how important is education for future entrepreneurs and business owners.
Access to systemized and curated knowledge
One of the biggest arguments against formal education is that pretty much all information is publically available so there is no reason for enrolling in a long, tiresome education process where you can easily learn vital things on your own. This might be partially true but this freedom also entails a lot of time you need to spend on independent research and, even worse, leaves you open to all sorts of misinformation. Formal education, on the other hand, exposes students to carefully selected and curated lessons that are necessary for developing skills in the specific industry where you want to start your career.
Getting a firm grip on professionalism
Any kind of independent, personal effort is built entirely on will and internal drive both have a very bad habit of burning out as time goes by. That, in turn, usually leads to procrastination and seriously undermines everything you have tried to accomplish so far. Universities and colleges don’t rely so much on your personal commitment but instead put you into a well-paced system where you are forced to work on a tight schedule, attend lectures, stay engaged throughout the year, and develop a great sense of responsibility and professionalism. These traits may one day prove to be critical for your career.
Learning how to learn efficiently
In this case, we need to get one thing straight – no school or university will ever teach you all the things you need to have a successful career. Life is a journey of constant learning and, if you want to be successful, you need to be prepared to expand your knowledge and skills on a daily basis. Formal education helps this process in two ways. First, you pick up on valuable learning resources like the Australian WSU study guide which stores hundreds of thousands of notes and assignments on countless topics. Second, you are forced to develop time management and effective learning skills you can easily utilize later in your career.
Developing a set of incredibly valuable soft skills
Speaking of time management and effective learning, they are only some of the dozens of valuable soft skills you need to have a successful career as an entrepreneur or CEO. Here lies one of the greatest perks of enrolling in formal education. Namely, not only you are able to learn tons of things that are absolutely necessary for professional growth, but you also get an opportunity to demonstrate this knowledge through group activities, research projects, and other. All these things help students to ramp up their leadership and communication skills, critical thinking, and countless other important soft skills.
Expanding personal horizons
Another common criticism that is usually associated with formal education is that the students need to tackle a lot of classes like literature, arts, math, and history that are not vital for their future careers. This claim couldn’t be more wrong since, even though they are not tied to some specific profession, they teach students a sense of ethics and esthetics, give the world around them much better context, encourage them to think in a more critical but also creative manner and make them more worldly persons. Also, universities are melting pots of different ideas and backgrounds that can only make one student better.
Excellent networking opportunities
Last but not least, let us quickly circle back to one thing we have briefly mentioned in the introduction – a vast majority (98%) of active SEOs hold at least a Bachelor’s degree. That means that aside from getting an opportunity to hang out with countless interesting people your college or university years will also get you in touch with some of the future industry leaders. Not only that – you will share all the same trials and tribulations and the bonds forged in that way have a tendency of lasting for a lifetime. Once you get a degree, you will already have a developed professional network you can use to get your gig going.
We hope these few examples gave you a general idea about just how important formal education can be for your future career as an entrepreneur or CEO. Of course, this is only the tip of the iceberg and we could spend much more time about the things you are getting by earning some sort of degree. But, you get the point even from this brief outlook. Sure, there are chances that you will be able to have a career even on your own, but one of the greatest traits of great entrepreneurs is that they know to recognize the path that gives them the greatest chance for success.
