Do You Need a College Degree to be Successful?

Some 5 years ago, there was a trending news about one Ruth Omopariola-Bolarinwa who was formerly answering Ruth Idi Okpoto and had graduated from University of Ilorin as the best student in her faculty in 2009. She had lamented about her joblessness despite being the best graduating student and stated in her mail to Education Review that she'd tried every way possible to get a job, but all had yielded futile results. She had also cried out to the government to help her out seeing the setbacks that her joblessness had brought to her family.?

Even in current times, there are several other best graduating students like Ms. Ruth whose certificates has brought no good fortune to them. Shall we talk about how some Nigerian Universities gift their best graduating students with a tuber of yam and a life chicken, while some others give out audio monetary gifts to their best graduating students most of whom eventually give up on getting the money after several checkbacks and reminders? That's a shame, don't you think?

And that brings us to this ironic question: why should anyone spend hundreds of thousands of naira on getting a degree if at the end of the day, all they'll get for a job well done is a paper that can't ascertain their employability at any high-paying company/organization/firm that would strengthen their skills in the field where they got their degrees and ultimately make them successful in their chosen career path?

Without further ado, I think it's safe to infer that getting a bachelors, masters or such other degrees is not and may never solely be what makes someone successful. Getting a tertiary education is certainly not as important as our society today has made it to be. As Erika Anderson observed in a much-discussed 2012 article in Forbes, "a college degree doesn't guarantee success, and not getting a college degree doesn't guarantee failure." I strongly acquiesce to that, if you ask me. Being formally educated isn't a prerequisite to being successful. At this point, I should stress that 'success' itself does not come in a one-size-fits-all package as it means different things to different people.

"Success is simply when YOU achieve a quality of life that YOU want for yourself. It doesn’t have to be money, but money can be part of it. It doesn’t have to be material things, but material things can be part of it." - Earl Nightingale        

Consequently, you can't measure up a person and conclude that (s)he is (un)successful based on your own metrics. With that being said, let's get back to the topic of discussion.

While some professions require that you have a degree or certificatation that proves that you have been exposed to some level of study and achieved some level of proficiency in a particular subject, several others do not. Hence, to live a successful adult life, a college degree may not be worth the cost because most times, graduates do not even get a job in their field of study (I am a perfect example, and I feel like you are too).?

So do you - really - need a college degree to be successful?

Yes...and...No!

Yes, because life-long learning is very important, and getting a formal education or attending college is one of the bases of launching this process.?Experience, sentiments, meaning and purpose to life are also few of the importance of college. Because of these highlighted?reasons, people who haven't attended a college may think of themselves badly because too much emphasis is being placed on degrees. The lack of self-confidence can impede their success, only the dogged ones would be left on the path to attaining infinite success.

No, because wisdom, insight and intelligence aren't a function of how many years a person spent in school and so attending college may not necessarily be a determinant of one's success. College will only teach you how to learn but not how to apply what has been learnt, that is, learning is good but doing is better. If, for instance, a degree holder doesn't work in his/her field of study, then he/she is as good as not attending an institution of learning at all. (I'm sitting comfortably on this table. Hehehe!)

Apparently, illiteracy or lack of formal education is not an insurmountable barrier to success. Take your time to study some renowned and reputable people in Africa and the world at large, you'll see that not all of them did get a first degree not to talk of attaining second or third degrees. One of the world's richest men, Bill Gates, was reported to have dropped out of Harvard University to co-found Microsoft; Nigeria's Seun Osewa, owner of Nairaland, was said to have never concluded his studies at Obafemi Awolowo University; hip-hop star Eminem, dropped out of high school at the age of 17 and never attended college; Cosmos Maduka, founder of Coscharis Group - the sole distributor of BMW in Nigeria, dropped out of elementary school and didn't have a college degree at the time he started his company. This is not to rule out the fact that these individuals may have gone back to school or taken a short course AFTER they had already achieved success without a degree being in the picture at the time.

So, my conclusion is, go to college if you can and if you want to do something that requires the kind of learning to be acquired in school. But if you can't afford college, don't beat yourself up over it. You can still learn, grow and create a great life for yourself and can be an inspiration to those around you.