The inspiration for this article came from the late, great Jim Rohn.

“File:Jim rohn.jpg – Wikimedia Commons” from commons.wikimedia.org

The actual quote, according to a little red book sitting on my deskm for when I need an inspiration top up, is:

So let’s compare the two and see if you agree with my conclusions and experience.

Which is best? Formal education or self-education?

Here is a table comparing the pros and cons of formal education vs self-education:

In summary, formal education provides a structured path, accredited credentials, and access to resources, while self-education offers flexibility, customization, and the opportunity to develop self-discipline. The choice depends on individual learning preferences, goals, and circumstances[1][2][3][4][5].

Citations:
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/education/comments/w8piod/selfeducation_vs_formal_education/
[2] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/formal-education-vs-self-taught-learningwhich-best-you-basel-farag
[3] https://mytutorsource.com/blog/pros-and-cons-of-formal-informal-learning/
[4] https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2010/02/24/self-education-failings/
[5] https://altruwisdom.com/self-education-vs-formal-education/

Personal Experience of Formal Education

My own formal education

• I went the conventional route, encouraged by my very loving parents, who despite me wanting to follow them into the family business, advised (strongly!) that I should get a ‘proper job’. I shocked ‘the establishment’ when I refused to go to University as I wanted to start earning right away with a career in computer programming.
• That was at the time when you could start as a computer programmer without a degree. Then it changed, and to move into my next job on the career ladder, with a larger company, I needed a University degree. So I spent about 3 years home-studying, alongside working, funding my own course, to get that elusive qualification and proudly presented myself for interview for my dream job.
• No interest in me. They wanted a qualification from a red brick university, and weren’t interested in my 6 years of on-the-job experience and part-time study.

Disillusioned, I gave up hopes of that ‘dream job’ and started a computing business with my husband, who was in pretty much the same situation as I was. Self taught on the job, and University degree self-funded while working.

We didn’t make a fortune – but I earned a regular income from my best customer for 40 years. And most important to me was the freedom to continue my own career, alongside bringing up my family.

Talking of family….

My sons’ experience of formal education

You’d think I’d have learned from my own experience…. but I encouraged both my sons to go to University to get a formal qualification (having been rejected as I didn’t have one).

Both did that, at enormous expense, ending up with student loans.

• My elder son got an excellent conventional job, earning enough to pay of his student loan very quickly. Then his employer out-sourced his position to freelancers overseas, and he was made redundant. By then he was considered ‘over-skilled’ to start again with the same job, and other employers had learned that it was so much cheaper to out-source the job overseas. He threw in the towel with employment and started his own business in a totally unrelated industry in Spain, Covid put paid to that, and he’s now freelancing (and happily working just 6m of the year) in something that he enjoys but with zero use of that formal qualification.
• My younger son tried three formal positions during holidays and as the ‘sandwich’ part of his uni qualification: working at an investment bank, at a financial advisor’s and at an accountant. None of them inspired him. Then one day he sat me down (with a drink!!) and told me he didn’t want to do any of those jobs. He wanted to work for himself renovating properties and selling them on. He has been doing that for about 20 years now, moving to bigger and better projects. Hard work, but he keeps coming back for me.

All three of us are using our brains, and are happy with our chosen lives, but are not using our formal qualifications.

Self Education Can Make You A Fortune

What changed for me – rather late in life – was when I started on a program of self-education.

I had read motivational books and enjoyed them, and had developed my own side-hustles alongside my extremely busy offline businesses, but it was only when I finally retired from ‘self-employment’ supporting a client for 40 years, that I was able to devote more time to an online business. (I put ‘self-employment’ in quotes, because it was more ‘tying’ than ’employment’ with no paid holidays, no paid sick leave.)

With more time to work for myself, I had experienced online success with an affiliate marketing program, and had risen to the VIP level. But then it went the route of social media marketing – which I found too time-consuming and didn’t enjoy. My skills and pleasure come from email marketing and blogging.

As part of the VIP level in that program was mindset training, and I realised that the skills I had learned in that excellent training could be transferred to build other affiliate marketing programs, which is what I have done.

However, it saddened me that the mindset training I had benefited from was part of the VIP program, which many people cannot afford.

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