Why Self-Education Is The Only Way Out Of The Rat Race

Let me start off by quoting Jim Rohn who said that:

“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune”.

I know the title may sound a bit harsh (Why Self-Education Is The Only Way Out Of The Rat Race) but the truth is that self-education is the ONLY key to getting out of the rat race that has got the best of many us who are merely surviving rather than truly living.

Although self-education has the ability to give us all a life full of financial freedom, millions of people if not billions live a life which at best would be called a rat race simply because they opt to bury their heads in the sand and hope that the financial hurricanes will go away instead of confronting them and looking for a way out.

It’s a very small fraction of the population that uses self-education to benefit themselves and their families. It’s because of the power that lies in self-education that this small fraction of the population owns more assets than the majority.

I hope that we’ll all become like the latter and get to learn a thing or two about the importance of self-education.

Let’s begin by looking at what is Self-Education and what is a Rat Race.

Self-Education: What Is Self-Education?

Self-education otherwise known as autodidacticism is self-initiated learning that is directed towards gaining specific knowledge from a specific field or niche e.g. internet marketing, athletics, sports, business and the like.

Unlike formal education where there exists a syllabus, tests, grades and teachers, self-education only requires the student to have a hunger and willingness to learn a specific set of skills which they can use to better their livelihood e.g. If you desire to be a successful entrepreneur, then you need to start a business and get first-hand experience of what it really feels like to be an entrepreneur.

It would be beneficial to note that self-education is one of the purest forms of learning since the student is always willing and ready to learn about what can help them better the quality of their lives.

Self-Education: What is A Rat Race?                                                                                 

A rat race is a lifestyle whereby an individual keeps going around a circle just to make ends meet. It’s a sort of a pointless pursuit which despite being filled with a lot of activity produces nothing much in the end; it only produces just enough for one to survive.

Let’s now see what the benefits of self-education are and how it’s the ticket out of a rat-race.

Benefits Of Self-Education- Why Self-Education Is The Only Way Out Of The Rat Race

1. You acquire a new set of practical skills-One of the major benefits of carrying out self-education is that you automatically acquire a new set of skills which work and which you can use to become successful in the field you chose e.g. If you want to be a professional soccer player then you need to start self-educating yourself on what it takes to be the best soccer player.

“Success is dependent on effort”-Sophocles

2. You get to learn from your mistakes and this makes you sharper-Although self-education brings along with it a load of “tests and challenges” which at times can be quite costly, in the end these tests sharpen your understanding of that particular subject and this makes you stronger and better informed resulting in you becoming the best at it.

“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed”-Michael Jordan

3. You become an authority in your respective niche-When you master something as a result of self-education, you’ll automatically become the “Go to guy” for anyone interested in becoming as successful as you and this results in you becoming an authority in that niche e.g. The likes of Michael Dunlop, Jeremy Schomaker, Zac Johnson and John Chow just to mention a few are authorities when it comes to internet marketing.

“You were born to win but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win and expect to win”-Zig Ziglar

4. You enjoy what you do-The fact that you’ve undertaken self-education means that you’re interested in learning something you love and this results in you enjoying every part of it.

“To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business and your business in your heart”-Thomas J. Watson

But Does Self-Education Really Work?

To best answer the question on whether self-education really works, let me give you a few real life examples of people who self-educated themselves and how they turned out:

• Michael Dell (Dell Computers)- He decided to follow his dream of selling computers.
• Bill Gates (Microsoft Co-Founder and Chairman + Philanthropist)- A Harvard drop-out who together with Paul Allen came up Microsoft which is the world’s largest software maker.
• Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook co-founder + Philanthropist)-Facebook co-founder who’s also a Harvard drop-out. Facebook now has over one billion active monthly users.
• Jeremy Schomaker (Super Affiliate)- At 14 years he weighed 300 pounds and had lost all hope with the world but he went ahead to do what he loves best and in August 2005, he posted a cheque worth $132,994.97 from Google which was his Google AdSense Income. Jeremy’s cheque happens to be the Top AdSense Income Cheque Ever Made Public.
• Mark Cuban (Owner of the Dallas Mavericks + Shark Tank Investor + Entrepreneur) -From selling garbage bags door to door when he was 12 to selling his Broadcast.com company in 1999 to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in stock.
• Richard Branson (Founder and Chairman of the Virgin Group)- Never finished high school but instead decided to get first hand business experience.

We could go on and on with the list of people who embraced self-education but I’m sure by now you’ve got my point.

How To Start Self-Educating Yourself

The best way to self educate yourself is to find the most successful people in the field you want to succeed in and follow what they do.

However, there’s just one the catch; once you get to know their secret to success, perfect them so that you perform better than them.

Warning: Don’t self-educate yourself in a niche that you’re not really passionate about because even if you succeed, you’ll never be happy.

“Every single person I know who is successful at what they do is successful because they love doing it”-Joe Penna

Let me finish off by saying that whereas formal education is good since it opens up the mind and makes it receptive towards new ideas, self-education is even better and we all need to invest a lot more into it since it gives us specific sets of practical skills which can make us become the best at what we love doing.

“If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success”-John D. Rockefeller

Let us know what you think of the above post on Why Self-Education Is The Only Way Out Of The Rat Race, I’d love to hear from you!