教育已经成为我们社会里最主要的个人机会供应者

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13. Education has definitely become the main provider of individual opportunity and has now become the element that most ensures success in life in our society.

 

If we define success in life as having the ability to pursue life in a way of our choice, then success can be achieved by birth, by marriage, by sheer luck, by exceptional talent, by professional achievement, by entrepreneurial activities, or by combinations of the above. Education may not play an important role in success through birth, marriage or luck, but it can be pivotal in success through talent development, professional training, or entrepreneurial pursuits. Most basically, Movie and TV talents need the ability to read scripts before they can act. Even basketball players in the NBA need a minimum education to get them eligible for drafting, and hopefully that education has also taught them how to behave on and off the court. In the old days, when knowledge was not a critical element for wealth creation, money and property were once the keys to success. They still are. But in today's knowledge society, we need to be educated to acquire a proper knowledge base to build the capabilities to innovate and problem-solve. And the individual well-educated to innovate and problem-solve often provides the missing link to wealth creation. If we accept that any major success in the modern world requires the convergence of the right talent, capital, and opportunity, then the well-educated individual will have an edge in developing that talent well, finding the right capital, and identifying that opportunity. In a way, the right education becomes the single most-basic surmountable barrier to success, when everything else is equal.

 

You may acquire formal education in institutions like schools and universities. There are also venues like open universities, distance-learning, part-time curriculums, and continuing education programs that provide flexibilities to suit individual preferences and constraints. But you may also educate yourself informally in private. All you need is a commitment to life-long learning, and you may learn so much through reading and on the Internet. In our modern society, we not only acquire the knowledge base for innovation and problem-solving via good education, but we also learn to take calculated risks with an educated mind. A well-educated individual willing to take calculated risks are doubly-blessed for having sowed the seeds for professional and/or entrepreneurial success.

 

Education also gets you accepted by society at large. It is the passport to respect by most people. It allows you to build up your social capital as well. A lot of people go to name schools not only for a dependable education, but also for the valuable networking. Bill Gates and Paul Allen, who started Microsoft together, were good friends at Seattle's Lakeside School. Your wealth may evaporate overnight in a tumultuous environment, but your education and network are yours to keep. Those are the dependable elements that give you the and resilient capital to rebound to success again.

 

Success through birth, marriage or luck is not generally available to any individual. But unlike some less fortunate societies in the world, in our society, the opportunity to a good education is practically accessible to everyone with a will to better himself or herself. If we look at educating ourselves as building up our human capital and also our social capital, then we can identify education as the element that most ensures success in life.

 

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