Let me get this out of the way straight off the get-go, education is a good thing. Actually, it is a great thing. Woot, Woot to learning stuff! I am not opposed to traditional schooling by any means, but education can come in a variety of forms. A person can go to school for forever and not have the common sense that God gave a spoon and then another person who dropped out of high school can go on to be very successful.

Many of today’s most successful people were college drop-outs including Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs to name a few. This is using wealth and fame as the measuring stick to success, which seems to be the modern world’s way to measure success.

Traditional learning works for many but not everyone is such a linear learner. I believe that people learn from everything they do and that no learning is wasted information. I, personally, learn in a variety of ways and I love getting grades. I have (mostly) excelled scholastically and like it when I have a definitive number to tell me I am doing well. (I know, kind of weird, but where else do you get a pat on the back for things you have done right?). I wish I still got gold stars when I succeed; maybe I should ask the boss about that… (note from boss…that can be arranged…no guarantee of dollars being related to the number of gold stars though)

Historically, many of the people we now view as leaders in their fields of study had little formal education or did not excel scholastically.

Michael Faraday was an English scientist that lived from 1791-1867 and contributed greatly to the studies of electromagnetism and electrochemistry but he had very little formal education past the age of thirteen. And yet he was one of the most influential scientists in history. He was devoted to learning through experimentation and was famous for never giving up on his ideas. It was no accident that Albert Einstein kept a picture of him on his wall along with Isaac Newton and James Clerk Maxwell. What is a bigger endorsement than being respected by THE big Bertie E?

Nikola Tesla was an engineer and inventor who never finished university but went on to invent a huge number of devices in modern use. He worked tirelessly studying everything that he had an interest in; reportedly sleeping no more than two hours a night. He worked for a time with another school drop-out, Thomas Alva Edison, but the two did not get along too well with each other and he left to work for George Westinghouse where he devised an energy distribution system that used alternating current. Many stories have been circulating for years about his eccentricities including an affair of the heart with a rather beautiful pigeon. This has no bearing on his intelligence or his contribution to the world of engineering but is rather amusing.

Milton Hershey, (yes, that Hershey) had a very limited education with no formal schooling after the fourth grade. Being brought up on the family farm in Pennsylvania in 1857 instilled an appreciation of hard work in Hershey. He had many early failures when it came to business but he was not a man to work for others for very long. Finally, he had a thriving caramel company that was selling around the world but he became fascinated with the idea of mass production and distribution of chocolate. He sold the caramel business for very large sum of money and then opened the Hershey Chocolate Company. This company’s success far exceeded that of the previous business and the rest is history. I have personally been responsible for much of this company’s current success. (Small chocolate addiction here.)

So, as you can glean from this meandering blog, formal education is not the only way to be successful. With determination, hard work, and quite often, obsessive interest you too can succeed! Never stop learning even if it doesn’t end with a beautiful piece of paper to hang on your wall. You may want to add some personal oddity to the mix too so your biographers have something good to talk about when your time in this world has ended.

–Janice Willson

Note about the featured photo: this is a Tesla coil electrical arc in a Faraday Cage. If I had thrown in a chocolate bar, I would’ve had all my bases covered.

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