kartooner

What kind of world do we live in where an indi­vid­ual with a qual­i­fied Mas­ters degree ends up work­ing at a low-paying job with sub-standard ben­e­fits, as opposed to some­one with­out qual­i­fi­ca­tions ends up mak­ing $80 to 90-thousand dol­lars a year with solid ben­e­fits? It seems to me that cer­tain aspects of cul­ture can incur back­wards results.

This thought spurred from con­ver­sa­tions I’ve had with peo­ple who’ve earned their degrees and yet either haven’t applied them­selves, or their luck hasn’t struck a suc­cess­ful chord. It’s an inter­est­ing conun­drum and cer­tainly mer­its an expla­na­tion. As I’ve got­ten older and wiser I’m begin­ning to notice the whole pic­ture (or the whole enchi­lada), details start to emerge and expla­na­tions for cer­tain unex­plain­able events surface.

In this instance it seems that for most of the pop­u­la­tion “suc­cess” is mea­sured by who you know. More­over the con­nec­tions you form and how they work for you in the busi­ness world, which as a result can lead you to a high pay­ing posi­tion, if that’s what you’re look­ing for that is. For some, suc­cess might have dif­fer­ent cono­ta­tions and while hav­ing a high-paying cor­po­rate job is the ideal dream, for many hav­ing a degree (be it an Asso­ciates, Bach­e­lors, Mas­ters, etc.) doesn’t nec­es­sar­ily pave the way for your success.

Get­ting the degree is the first step, apply­ing your skills and your­self is the most impor­tant in this process. From those I’ve talked to, this can be dif­fi­cult and because of age restraints in the busi­ness world, you’re guar­an­teed to lose a lucra­tive posi­tion to a younger per­son who equals your qual­i­fi­ca­tions. It’s a sad fact but it is real­ity, and many times as I’ve men­tioned, it’s who you know and not just what you know.

There are no magic beans. You can’t always expect a beanstalk to grow and lead you to higher ground. How­ever, what you can do is believe in your­self and improve your skills on a daily basis — refrain from becom­ing stale — and watch as new oppor­tu­ni­ties lay them­selves before you. Just remem­ber one thing; do this for yourself.

As Bill Cosby once said:

I don’t know the keys to suc­cess, but the first step to fail­ure is try­ing to please everyone.