This is the time when thousands of students will graduate from high school and college. It is a great achievement for both students and parents.
Our society depends on successive generations developing the skills to carry on our society. This is no easy task.
For the parents, it is the fruition of the hard and expensive work of raising a child. Each child is different and they don’t come with instructions. Parenthood requires an extreme amount of hard work, dedication, love and patience. Congratulations.
The same is true of students. Sitting for hours and hours in class paying attention is not an easy thing to do, especially in our age of endless distractions. Learning discipline and perseverance is critical to becoming a successful adult. Congratulations.
No doubt, many students felt at times that what they were learning was of no significance to success. To be sure, our education system needs to do a better job of changing curriculum to maintain relevance in an ever-changing society.
That said, there is a basic foundation of knowledge that is necessary if each generation is to advance beyond the previous one. It’s not perfect, but the knowledge you have learned will continue to serve you in the future in ways that may not have been readily apparent while sitting in a classroom or memorizing answers from a textbook.
Just a hundred years ago, books were scarce. Expensive libraries were a critical resource. This is still true today, but technology has now put the world’s knowledge at the fingertips of anyone with a smartphone. The magnitude of this advance is almost impossible to overestimate.
But a mountain of data is of little use if a person lacks the ability to sift through the noise and find true knowledge. So many young people today use their smartphones to read superficial garbage.
Your education is a foundation of relevant knowledge that will help you sift the wheat from the chaff. In school, you learned to cite legitimate sources for your studies and research papers. That skill is crucial in today’s world of fake news and bogus web sites. Judgement is more important today than ever before.
Students graduating today face a world of relentless change like nothing we have ever experienced. Think about the rapid advances of the last 200 years. Considering the 1,000-fold increase in the speed of communication and knowledge, the change of the next 200 years will be mind boggling.
As you move on to college, graduate school or the work world, judgment, adaptability, hard work and perseverance are the key skills you will need to succeed.
Judgement is increasingly important because as the mountain of information grows daily, one’s ability to parse through the data and find critical knowledge is more challenging and critical than ever before.
Adaptability is important because change is now relentlessly increasing. In previous generations, one picked a career and mastered it. Careers lasted a lifetime. Not so today. Entire industries and careers are wiped out and created within the span of a few decades, even years. As the economy changes, so must you.
Hard work has always been and still is a critical asset. There are millions of smart people with good ideas. But it is hard work that turns those good ideas into business and professional success. Without the ability to apply yourself, you will stall. Those who have the ability to resist temptations and work hard will have a huge advantage.
Perseverance goes hand in hand with hard work. Despite hard work, you will encounter setbacks and failures. It is the nature of the beast. Perseverance is the skill that allows you to overcome adversity and setbacks and keep on plugging. Hard work is a sprint, but perseverance is the marathon. The old tale about the tortoise and the hare is as true today as it ever was.
It’s important to pursue a career that doesn’t make you miserable, but remember there is a reason they call it work. Don’t expect to have a blast every day. Even the most exciting jobs can become routine. But do expect a job in which you can grow and develop.
Now it’s your turn. You can do it!
