Teen anxiety is at an all-time high right now. It’s the time of year that high school seniors are learning where they will (or won’t) spend their next four’ish years. Parents and kids know that their future success hinges on a single decision by a group of total strangers. Or does it? The simple truth is that getting into the right college has little to do with your future success in life. Why? Because most of the advice on success is logical, well-meaning and, well, totally wrong.
So, what does predict success? According to Eric Barker, author of Barking Up the Wrong Tree, it has very little to do with grades or getting into your dream school. These five observations from his book will blow your mind, especially if you’re waiting for a decision.
1. Valedictorians Rarely Become Millionaires
Okay, I’m gonna ask you to bear with me. Being a millionaire is not the only indicator of success. But I bet you thought the Valedictorian of your high school class would end up crazy rich. Well, Karen Arnold, a researcher at Boston College wanted to see what becomes of high school Valedictorians and Salutatorians. Of the 95 percent who graduated college, most of them went on to lead productive lives. But did they change the world? Did they go on to become titans of industry? Nope. But, why? Because most Valedictorians are rule followers and not rule breakers. And playing by the rules never leads to outsized results. According to Dr. Arnold, “they settle into the system rather than transform it.”
2. Grades Don’t Matter
Our parents always taught us that getting good grades is the key to success. But the average GPA of millionaires is a paltry 2.9. So, how come the impulsive kids who barely paid attention in school ended up more successful than the whiz kids? Because, focusing obsessively on grades and performance at the expense of free-spirit creativity is limiting. Those C-students at the back of the classroom weren’t even paying attention. They weren’t encumbered by the expectation of becoming a rocket scientist, either. Their parents were just praying to see them graduate from high school and not end up with an inmate number before their 21st birthday. All that freedom from academics gave them extra time to try other things. You know, creative stuff like music, acting, writing, programming and the like. Things the whiz kids had no time for. That free-spirit approach allowed them to explore different disciplines, perhaps some outside the confines of traditional education. They were able to find something they were truly passionate about and exploit that passion.
3. College Doesn’t Matter
So, if playing by the rules isn’t the secret to success, what is? Apple founder Steve Jobs never graduated college, but he turned out okay. You can add Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Dell, Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey and Ellen Degeneres to the list. They’re all college dropouts and they’re all visionaries. Elon Musk earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania but dropped out of a Stanford University Ph.D. program. Today he is worth close to a trillion dollars. I think Elon had a 2.9 Grade Point Average. Okay, maybe not.
According to Barker, “58 members of the Fortune 400 richest Americans either avoided college or never graduated.” Their average net worth is $4.8 billion. That’s twice the average net worth of those Fortune 400 members who attended Ivy League Schools. (Again, it’s not all about money. I’m just trying to make a point. Bear with me.) In addition, some of America’s biggest brands are rethinking the need for a college education. Companies like Dell Computer, IBM and Google are reducing educational requirements for certain positions.
4. Your Performance is (Almost) Irrelevant
Surprisingly, your performance on the job is not always the best indicator of success. According to Jennifer Chapman, a researcher at University of California at Berkeley, the single best predictor of success is sucking up to your boss, not performance. Yup, old-fashioned bootlicking can’t completely save you from poor performance, but it is clearly correlated with higher degrees of success.
5. The School of Hard Knocks Beats the Ivy League
Would you be surprised to learn that fifteen British Prime Ministers were orphans? It’s true. See, many times it’s life’s tragedies that serve as the rocket fuel for success. Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, suffered from severe and debilitating bouts of depression. So did Sir Winston Churchill, Sigmund Freud and Princess Diana. Successful folks like Oprah Winfrey, Ralph Lauren and Elvis Presley share the humblest of beginnings. They weren’t just poor, they were hungry, abused and afraid. Elon Musk’s father emotionally and psychologically abused him. But, that kind of upbringing can be a stronger motivating force than any Ivy League education. Once you’ve been hungry, cold or abused you never forget it, and you never want to go back there.
So, what does matter? It’s simple: break a few rules, try a lot of different things you find interesting, be open to alternative forms of education, suck up a bit and take advantage of what drives you—even if it isn’t your proudest moments. So, for those of you hitting refresh on your email in-box incessantly maybe just step away for a few hours. Because I can guarantee you that it’s all going to work out for you. And what college you go to doesn’t really matter in the long run.
