More About "C Students"
Copyright © Scott Bradley
I just finished talking to my friend on facebook...one who I met using the tips and techniques that I talk about in Using Social Networking Sites Effectively.......he was talking to me about my previous post about how "The World Is Ruled by "C Students."
He shared these two quotes with me from the book he is reading called "Talent is Never Enough" by John Maxwell. I felt they were really interesting and wanted to share them with you all...
The quotes from the book were...
"More than 50 percent of all CEO's of Fortune 500 companies had C or C- averages in college."
"More than 50 percent of millionaire entrepreneurs never finished college!"
My friend also mentioned that..."This isn't to say, 'forget about education', but as John Maxwell says talent is really never enough. But for every mile of road, there are two miles of ditches. One of his counter examples to where talent is necessary, is an olympic level high-jumper that can jump 7 feet...in this situation you need 1 person that can high-jump 7 feet, not 7 people that can high-jump-1 foot!"
No matter what level student you are...A B C D or F....the essential lesson to this post...and the previous post...is to realize that you must have leverage...leverage where you are utilizing the talents of others who are smarter than you to synergistically create something that goes beyond what you could ever create yourself.
For me...I can work my butt off to get "A's" but really would rather be spending my time learning how I can leverage myself the best way in whatever I am doing, thinking of ideas to solve the world problems, and further spending time networking with awesome like minded people who share the same vision. As we all know...on your college diploma they don't put your GPA...So who really cares...its just a stupid number people put so much value on...when in reality it really doesn't matter...
What is so funny about the GPA argument is that I have gone to career fairs and talked with these "Executives" that know nothing better than the company they work at and I straight up ask them..."How Important is a GPA?"...They say...."It really doesn't matter what your GPA is or what you study....We look for people who can work well with people, who can communicate effectively, who can THINK, and who can learn quickly what we want them to know...
Even though you may have gotten A's in all of your classes....the corporation that you choose to work in...if you go down that route...is going to teach you how to "DO IT THEIR WAY" so all you really have to focus on is graduating and getting a degree if you choose to go to college...Even though it is not necessary to succeed in life...it just helps with the networking...from my experience.
Bottom Line...It's about knowing how to communicate effectively, build relationships and a network of like minded people in all industries, and truly understanding that you can't do everything on your own and because of that must know how to leverage the capital of people who are smarter than you to help you achieve your goal.
I would love your comments on this!
Best,
Scott Bradley
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3 comments:
Though it may be true that there are many 'C' students who successful (50% of CEOs and executives), I still think that marks have bearing on your odds of success. Here's why...
Consider the distribution of marks in a class in college. Generally, marks are in the shape of a bellcuve (normally distributed), with most people falling in the 'C' range and less students getting 'As' and 'Fs'. The majority of all students, in the history of all academia, have received C-average.
Therefore, since most people in the world are C-students, they have a greater pool of candidates. It makes sense that out of a greater pool of people, there will be a greater chance that there are a few successful people in that pool. I would, in fact, I would argue that A students have shown a better chance of being successful if you look at the ratio of successful people to A-students versus sucessful people to C-students.
It's all about probability.
I'd have to say that I agree with Scott on this one. Leveraging relationships is what wins it at the end of the day. Some people really never find their true calling in school anyway, so does GPA even matter there? Anyway, just thought I'd add my opinion. Good post.
Kyle
I know the Vice President of Motorola. So the guy comes up to our place starts rambling on about his stories, Superbowl this World Sernies that...all that crap. Then he wants to drink beer with us. OK so that happens, nice guy real goofy. Making tons of money over there in China with a very successful job. I go "where did you go to college?" He tells me he didnt go to college. Go figure!!
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