The rules of the game have changed and financial stability, safety and success aren’t what they used to be during the industrial age.
But we’re still playing by the old rules.
Our education system is built to produce “factory” workers. In fact, historically that’s the only reason mass school was invented. School used to be a place where uneducated, illiterate people got drilled to sit still, follow instructions and learn to be able to work in factories.
Mass education was always intended to be an industrial machine. A machine that produces exactly the kind of adults it needed to work productively.
That’s fine with me, if it were 1950 or even 1970.
But it’s 2017 now and the economy has transformed.
Our education system is outdated and tailored to the rules of the industrial age. However, as Seth Godin points out in some of his books like the “Icarus Deception” and “Linchpin”, we live in a post-industrial age where creative and emotional work is more needed than factory work. And this is what’s most rewarded financially.
However, our school system is still producing factory workers (and I don’t mean assembly line workers, I talk about factory in a broad sense as a place where replaceable, cheap labour is needed).
McDonalds is a factors, Starbucks is a factory and many other places, too. But at the same time irreplaceable, unique, artistic-like skills are in high demand right now. And that’s the new safe and secure path to go. Because factory workers are continuously being replaced by cheaper labour, outsourced or replaced by machines and robots.
I’m not saying you are useless or bad if you’re a “factory” worker.
All I’m saying is that it’s not financially safe anymore to be a factory worker. And that you’re on a one-way road heading downhill.
Eventually, you will be replaced by the next cheaper one.
The only way to protect yourself financially, and to have safety and security, is to learn skills that 1) can’t be performed by a machine 2) are irreplaceable because you are creating “art” and not just work.
Marketing is a really good example of this.
If you go to business school or collect marketing degrees and certificates, it doesn’t make you a good marketer at all. You are collecting papers, but not the ones with Benjamin Franklin on them. See, institutionalised marketing education is always outdated because the world is changing too fast to institutionalise it.
Once a new curriculum is approved, the rules of marketing have already changed which means you’re always learning outdated or abstract stuff because practical and real-life learning is impossible.
That’s why some of the highest paid marketers are mostly self-taught and have no background in marketing. That’s also why many of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs are college drop outs, too. The skills to succeed in business can’t be taught in school.
Interconnected, independent self-education is the solution to most of these problems: Learning from mentors, masterminds, independent teachers, innovative and cutting edge courses and practicing what you learn in real-life situations is what’s going to do the job. Although it doesn’t “feel” safe to you, that’s the safest thing to do right now.
What’s the price of not doing it?
Financial instability, inability to be competitive, getting fired or replaced at your job, getting paid less and a lack of options.
Our parents and older generations keep telling us that going to school, getting a college degree and having a job is the safe thing to do. And that was true 30-100 years ago, but it just isn’t anymore.
Most parents and older people don’t understand the transition away from the industrial age that happened because of the Internet.
It used to be financially safe to go to school. Or even college. Get a well-paid job for the rest of your life and enjoy a nice rent when you’re older. In the industrial age this was the most secure option for almost everyone, and everyone is still “programmed” to think this old way.
But in reality this old way of thinking of education and jobs is a sure-fire way to financial instability and lots of problems in your life.
As I said, the rules of the game have changed.
Being entrepreneurial, educating yourself, having mentors, finding independent teachers, using the Internet to find and use information, and making yourself irreplaceable are the new security and safety in the post-industrial era. Stop following instructions and flying low and instead be creative, solve problems and acquire real-word skills.
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