Graduation vs. Innovation

If I were asked to speak to graduates (yeah right) I would give them one idea to take away; our economic society rewards innovation, not graduation. Now I’m not down on education. I’m not down on graduation from high school or college or professional school. Good education is a good thing. It gives you a basic core of general knowledge which is useful in life and it can teach you to think. There is no doubt that the more graduation you have under your belt the more probable it is that you will earn a bit more in the job market than people without some education. But don’t construe that to mean that higher education will automatically lead to wealth, freedom of time, happiness and satisfaction and the creation of a life legacy. Education may give you a marginal advantage at the starting line but by no means guarantees a top finish at the tape. If you don’t take what you have learned and then innovate you will probably settle for a mediocre job with a mediocre income and a mediocre life. You will trade the great life for the good life, which is OK if that’s all you want. Sadly many graduates think that their diploma guarantees them an exceptional income, a big new house, racy cars, fancy clothes and jewelry and glamorous vacations. And it all comes immediately upon graduation. That is a fantasy, sheer nonsense. What is more scary is that easy credit attacks kids right out of school and sucks them in with the ‘you deserve it, you deserve it now and you can have it now,’ mentality. All for easy monthly payments. Forever. These youngsters start living the good life on credit right out of school and think they have the world by the tail. For a while. Then reality sets in. The bills start coming and the payments get bigger and bigger every month. All of a sudden those houses and cars aren’t nearly as glamorous as they originally looked. Maybe our grandparents did know something after all. When they got out of school they rented a small house or apartment, bought a small used car for cash and then worked hard and SAVED their money, living well below their means for many years. And mostly the women didn’t work; they stayed home and took care of the kids. And yet with modest jobs they finished life owning their homes and cars outright with no personal debt and hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank. Ah, the magic of compounding. Many had boats and summer cabins that they owned free and clear. There were no credit cards when they started their adult lives and when they did arrive on the scene they thought that such things were from the devil. Their philosophy was if you can’t afford it with cash don’t buy it! Save up for a while if you want it and pay cash or forget it, but don’t buy things on credit. Hmmm, wish they could run for public office!

So if you really want to succeed then what is this innovation thing all about? Well, if you look at people that really seem to have succeeded in life (and I’m talking primarily economically right now) most of them have done so by creating a product or service or business that meets a need in society. The more unique and innovative and widely needed it is then generally the more successful that individual will be. You can look at big examples like Henry Ford, Sam Walton, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, but there are untold thousands who succeed quite handsomely that you never hear about. You don’t have to succeed to the level of one of the giants to live an exceptional life. But you do have to go beyond mere graduation and a mediocre job. And you need to stay out of personal debt. It’s hard to innovate when you can’t pay your bills. So, to be trite; to innovate you are going to have to think outside of the box. Maybe design a new box. And most likely the answer is something outside of your current job if you are employed somewhere. You will probably have to launch out on your own. This is where you will probably be surprised to find that many successful people who own their own businesses may not have much formal education. The old saw that B students wind up working for C students and A students teach is pretty accurate. Many times the C students are more motivated to innovate and launch out on their own because they can’t get a ‘well-paying’ job and if they want to really succeed they have to start their own businesses. With a bit of innovation and long hours of hard work they develop a successful business. They hire B students to work in and run their businesses, but pay them a lot less than they, the entrepreneurial business owner earns. The tables are turned. The A students become tenured professors making a modest income teaching about how to start and run businesses out of textbook theory since they have never really done it. Now of course this is a generalization, but there is a lot of truth in it. Just go out and talk to a lot of business owners. The A and B students can avoid falling into this trap if they understand the concept of innovation. Take what they have learned and go beyond merely looking for a ‘good’ job and innovate and launch a business of their own. Invent something! Then work hard. But remember, hard work alone is not enough. If it was, every maid in every hotel in town would be a millionaire. Hard work must be smart work. It’s not just doing the task right, but doing the right task. Innovate or stagnate!

So, congratulations on graduating. But remember, the world doesn’t owe you anything. You haven’t contributed anything to the world yet. You can’t make a withdrawal until you make a lot of deposits. You may know something now, but you haven’t done anything. And if you don’t you won’t get anything. And you wouldn’t deserve to. Now get out of here and think hard and work hard and innovate; and hopefully you will enjoy the great life!