I've never let schooling get in the way of my education.
- Mark Twain
...a quote that Manoj Bhargava gave in his interview on NDTV (see video below).
I have always had a niggling concern about being educated by people who have studied and have qualifications but have never really applied their studies and qualifications for others and themselves in the "real world".
I prefer learning from someone who as substantial experience even if they do not have formal qualifications as I believe experience, and the desire to learn, is somewhat the only qualification that is required.
For example, I formally and formerly studied graphic design and do not remember asking my tutors how much experience they had in the subject and since qualifying with the BA Honours Degree I have never really done much graphic design in the traditional understanding of the subject.
I however was fortunate to have a computer of my own and a keen interest in creating computer graphics and especially animation. I created my own little computer toys which did little interactive things on the televisions screen but these toys were never full blown games as we all know them but I somewhat started my career in computer games before I finished my degree.
I met a few people whilst doing my degree who created full blown computer games and were primarily programmers and they saw what I did and asked me to create graphics for a game which I was paid for and quite well.
Also before I completed the degree, I was asked to come and see a company for a job interview by one of the programmers who had since started working for the company.
I showed the company what I did and they offered me a job within days but as I wanted to complete the degree, I worked in spare time to help fulfil the company's requirements, finished the degree and then went into full time employment with the company.
Towards the end of the final year of the degree I was in a meeting with a few of my tutors and was asked what I had planned after finishing the degree and I told them that I had already been offered a job. The tutors asked me how much salary I would be getting and when I told them they were quite surprised and said the figure I mentioned was the highest salary anyone was paid after leaving the course in the last fifteen years.
I was actually quite surprised but in a different way and probably seemed a bit arrogant in not acting surprised at the salary level as I knew that if I had more time to put into my vocation of computer graphics and a bit more real world experience I probably could have got a higher paid job and perhaps in a larger or better company.
Anyway, the point of giving an insight into my past is to demonstrate that I was not offered a job due to the formal qualification of graphic design which had not yet even been completed, but more so for the experience I had in creating computer graphics and animation. In addition, and to date as far as I am aware, the only check that anyone has done on my education and qualifications is in which school I went to as an employer did not believe that I went to a grammar school.
Since then I have been asked to help entirely due to my experience and from referrals.
I have also changed how and what I do from studying what I have done in the past and the experience I and clients have had, so that I can improve on my services.
And so with the experience I have , I can say that the best education and qualification is experience and the best study is done after and from experience and not before and representing real world experience.
Hence that is why I have always believed that you cannot learn from anyone who has no substantial real world experience (positive or negative) in the subject they teach, no matter what qualifications they have.
And here's an interesting question from Manoj Bhargava from the video below:
Would you be willing to be operated by a surgeon who was taught by somebody who never did surgery?
And that is the basis behind why I have been researching personal & business growth and spiritual experiences now for about 7 years to understand how and why realities fall apart (as it happened with me) and how people become at best unhappy or at worst ill with what they thought was wanted, and what to do about it. Anyway, that's more personal growth studies, but watch the interview at the link below for more straight up business advice from Manoj Bhargava.
http://youtu.be/kJzFLAjfx0g
Click here for another excellent video with Manoj Bhargava on the subject of business.