Our society communicates that education is the path to social mobility. Want to move up the career latter? Get a bachelors degree. Or a Masters. Or a PhD. Want to invest in the next Uber? Take the series 63. Want to make a career pivot? Do a coding bootcamp. Yet on my nearly 30 years on earth, I’ve learned that knowing someone can always beat knowing something, but knowing something rarely beats knowing someone. We don’t get the job because we have a degree, we get the job because we got a referral. We don’t invest in the next Uber because we are an accredited investor, we invest in the next Uber because we know the next Travis Kalanick. We don’t change our career by throwing a Hail Mary, we change our career by relying on our network who has context on us to help us find the next thing relative to our journey.

The people we know, and the trust we have built with them, is the asset to be obtained. Education? It matters a lot. A base level is needed for every human on earth. I just truly believe it matters less than the people you surround yourself with. And I think most people would agree. We tell our kids that they need to pay an arm and a leg for education. Get straight A’s. Focus on learning, even if it means sacrificing meeting new people. But the world rewards access. In 2023, it’s about people. It always has been. If this is the case, we have lost the plot as a society. And we must correct our course before it is too late.

If you liked this post, you’ll love this one. Also, check out my solution to solve the world’s access problem, Seedscout. Thanks for reading :)