According to a study of 700 American millionaires found that their average Grade Point Average (GPA) was just 2.9. A Boston University researcher followed valedictorians and salutatorians into adulthood. Although the researcher found that most did achieve traditional markers of success, none of these students who graduate at the top of their high-school class revolutionized the world.
Accordingly, these academic high achievers - everyone who graduated from college with an average GPA of 3.6 - went on to earn a graduate degree in most cases and half them landed in top-tier professional jobs.
But how many of these number on high-school performers go on to change the world, run the world, or impress the world? The answer seems to be clear: zero, said Eric Barker in his book Barking Up the Wrong Tree, where he cites the Boston University research.
While these top students generally become successful, they rarely achieve the kind of success that alters the course of History. Students who struggle with formal education, however, are more likely to get there. To be clear, a study of 700 American millionaires found that their average GPA was just 2.9.
According to Barker, this phenomenon is due to two different factors. The first one is that while schools reward students who consistently do what they are told, life rewards people who shake things up.
The Boston University researcher, Karen Arnold, explained: Essentially, we are rewarding conformity and the willingness to go along with the system. Top students basically found out what the teachers were after and delivered it consistently, but they didn't search their own way.
While top students are used to playing by the rules, world's most influential thinkers and leaders have come up with an out-of-the-box solution to some political or scientific issue. Being an expert on something that is already working well never made anybody famous. Instead, leaders have come up with a new approach or a new invention that has revolutionized the world, not to conform with what is already there.
According to Barker, in school, rules are very clear. In life, rules are not so clear. So a certain amount of not playing by the rules is advantageous once you get out of a closed system like education.
The other reason is that while schools reward being a generalist, the real world rewards passion and expertise. Barkers explains that although you might be fascinated in some particular subject in high school, eventually you'll have to move on to another subject. On the contrary, things work differently in the career world. There you have to focus on one particular domain and you are expected to excel at it.
As high school doesn't allow intellectual students who enjoy learning to follow their passions, that is why the struggle with the education system. One successful entrepreneur once said, if I had a 4.0 at graduation, it stood for the number of parties I went to the night before rather than my GPA. Instead of trying to please other people, entrepreneurs follow their passion or look for something that fascinates them and then focus on that opportunity. That explains the high dropout rates among entrepreneurs.
According to Barker, Valedictorians often go on to be the people who support the system - they become a part of the system - but they don't change the system or overthrow the system.
This study doesn't meant that if you were a top student, you won't achieve big time success. What you might learn from this study is that following rules doesn't work in the real world the way it does in high school. To be able to succeed, you have to take risks and persevere. While entrepreneurs love risks, they like to control the outcome. Great entrepreneurs focus on removing as much risk from their endeavor as possible and they only take risks that are worth it, where they feel they have an advantage and they can influence the outcome. You need to bet to win, not to take unnecessary risks. It's not about a leap of faith or the thrill of gambling, but of investing in something new that is calculated to get good results.
Although entrepreneurs must have self-discipline to maximize their resources, entrepreneurs must challenge the system but they need to do this with excellent execution skills.