Self Education Vs Formal Education: Why I Like The Former?

One of the most trending debates right now is the topic of formal vs self education.

So I’m here to give my opinion on this topic – since l was privileged enough to explore both of them.

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Formal education is designed to make you part of the system i.e. go to school, get good grades, find a good job – then work for 3 - 4 decades of your life.

In other words, it's designed to create ‘employees’ – so that the elite can continue growing their companies through leveraging human labour.

If we trace back to history, we discover that the capitalists who owned big companies wanted labour for their companies – so that they can produce goods and services at larger scale.

But it was difficult to convince people – because most people were aware of ‘slavery'.

So what did those capitalists do?

They found a way to modernise slavery – through promoting some specific skills which are related to their companies.

For example, if someone owned a clothing factory, he/she would preach all the good things about being a tailor – and they would offer to ‘teach’ people about that skill – promising to offer them a place to work after completing the training.

Over time, most people started to believe that you should have a ‘certificate’ in order to be recognised in the society.

But the truth is, it's still a form of slavery – but it's been modernised because most people are now slaving in suits and ties.

Thus, formal education is designed to make you part of the system i.e. go to school, work for the elites – so as to help them grow their companies.

Self education on the other hand is designed to make you a fortune.

The reason being that, self education doesn't have boundaries i.e. you can learn a lot of staff which are meant to improve your overall well-being.

Self education doesn't end because life is the classroom – unlike formal education which ends soon after you leave the school gates.

Self education is key to innovation because it allows you to think outside the box – unlike formal education which teaches you to cram concepts – so that you can just take the test.

That's a bar right there!

Formal education rewards people who’re good at memorising/remembering staff – because they want you to memorise your employer's instructions when you finally go to work.

In other words, it's not designed to create critical thinkers who can make decisions on their own (you should come to work at 9, finish these reports by 11, attend this meeting by this time, bla bla bla – NO QUESTIONS ASKED!) – which is not the case with self education.

If you look at most successful people in history, they're self educated people – because if you embark on a self education journey, you'll be able to come up with some few innovative ideas e.g. Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Elon Mask, Steve Jobs.

Of course, these people might have been formally educated as well – but they went an extra mile to educate themselves in order to come up with great business ideas.

Formal education is for people who want ‘limited risk' i.e. ‘I want a secure job'.

That's why the formally educated people work for self educated people – because the latter are willing to take risks of starting businesses – whilst the former are too scared to start their own hustles.

But the problem is that, you'll get paid less than what you're actually contributing to the company – because most company owners doesn't start their companies to make you rich – they try by all means to minimise costs & keep most of the profits to themselves.

And do you know what's one of the major costs in business?

It's labour cost!

If you're getting paid a certain salary, just know that you're bringing more value to the company – than what you're actually getting paid.

Another important thing to mention is that, self education makes you stronger – because if you go through the journey, you're forced to grow as a person in order to overcome the obstacles & challenges involved along the journey.

It also makes you more fulfilled because it forces you to create a product/service/content which adds value to other people's lives – and in return, people will compensate you with money – because your product/service/content will be impacting their lives (in a good way).

NB: These people constitute only 1% of the population & they create products/services/content that serves the majority 99% (in one way or the other).

That's why these people have high chances of becoming rich.

With formal education, you can't grow that much because you're just programmed to do certain tasks – and you wont be able to explore other great things.

It's also less fulfilling because it's difficult to add value to most people's lives.

I understand that you might be contributing a lot of value to the company's output – but at the end, the credit goes to the company – not you!

Now let's discuss about the last point.

In most cases, formal education is for people who just want to get-by i.e.

‘Go to school, cram the concepts – so that you can pass the test > just to get-by.

‘Work a 9 to 5 job – so that you can pay your monthly bills > just to get-by.

And if you're not careful, you'll live a life of just ‘getting by' – since you'll always be waiting for the next pay check just to cover the next bills – till retirement.

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Before l wrap up, let me leave you with this;

‘Get a good job with a steady pay check so that you can pay your bills. If you have some extra money, take your family out for dinner – but you shouldn't order that extra thing because it's too expensive for your salary – and it'll get you out of budget'.

‘If Monday is the worst day of your life, then something is wrong'.

‘If you're looking to Friday every single week, then something is wrong'.

‘You should set an alarm by choice, not by default'.

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