This is one of the most powerful quotes I’ve ever read. It was one of the first quotes I remember actively making me want to start learning on a more consistent basis.

Most people say they want to change the world but usually don’t have the right tools to make it happen.

Here’s how you can add the powerful tool of education to your arsenal so you can help change your life and the rest of the world.

Formal Education Isn’t Changing

I was listening to a Jay Samit podcast when I heard him saying something super powerful. “If someone that died 200 years ago came back to this world, they’d only recognize one thing, our education system.”

Think about that, everything has changed in the world. Technology, transportation, space exploration, literally everything except our education system.

Whether you agree or disagree on if it’s outdated, it’s hard to admit that formal education isn’t a measure of success. The average 2018 graduate now has $37,000+ of student loan debt to climb out of after graduating. And getting a high paying career straight out of college is far from a guarantee.

The Biggest Downside of Formal Education

In my opinion, the biggest downside of the current education system is that it forces students to learn. And for a lot of people, it ruins learning in general. This leads to so many people not actively learning in the future.

It’s the reason that the average Amercian reads one book per year and watches 5 hours of TV per day!

Self Education vs. Formal Education

As Nelson Mandela said, education is the most powerful weapon to change the world. But if you want to change the world you need to start by changing yourself. And that usually begins by self-education.

As the great motivational speaker Jim Rohn said, “Formal education will make you a living, self-education will make you a fortune.” And he’s right. Some of the wealthiest people in the world are college dropouts.

The problem for most people is that self-education is entirely up to you. There aren’t any professors telling you what to do anymore. It’s much easier to watch Netflix than buy a book or attend a seminar. But it can be done:

• Replace one hour a day of TV with reading a book
• Listen to one new podcast on your commute
• Attend one event each quarter instead of having a lazy weekend on the couch

Set Self Education Goals

In 2016 I made it a goal to read one book per month. Now I’m reading one per week and the only reason is that I set a goal in 2016 and started to learn the value of reading.

You should always set goals for yourself. Whether it’s reading one book a month, listening to three inspirational podcasts each week or attending one seminar per quarter. Setting goals makes it easy to stay accountable.

Find Accountability

Another great way to stay on top of your self-education is to surround yourself with people who are doing the same. If all of your friends talk about fantasy football it’s hard to have a great conversation with them about Think and Grow Rich.

Instead, try to find people who are actively doing this already or find a meetup or club of people who are starting. Accountability plays a huge role in making sure you never stop learning.

Remember, education can change the world. But you must have the right education as well.

Start investing in yourself so you can start changing the direction of your life and the people closest to you.

The post Why Formal Education is Failing Society & How You Can Still Get Ahead appeared first on Fearless Motivation - Motivational Videos & Music.

Rick Rigsby was ready to give up, merely existing day to day.

But then he remembered the lessons his father taught him years before.

Dr. Rigsby recalled these lessons as he delivered a powerfully moving graduation speech at California State University Maritime Academy.

Rigsby spoke about his late father, who despite being a third grade dropout, was regarded as the smartest person that Rigsby knew.

Dr. Rigsby guides us through the practical knowledge that his late father shared with him, which guided him through the most difficult times of his life.

Lessons From A Third Grade Dropout | Dr. Rick Rigsby

Full Transcript | Speaker: Dr. Rick Rigsby

The wisest person I ever met in my life, a third grade dropout.

Wisest and dropout in the same sentence is rather moronic, like jumbo shrimp.. like fun run, ain’t nothing fun about it.. like Microsoft works, ya’ll don’t hear me. I used to say like country music but I’ve lived in Texas so long I love country music now, I hunt, I fish, I have cowboy boots, ya’ll im a blackneck redneck. Do you hear what I’m saying to you? No longer oxymoronic for me to say country music. And it’s not oxymoronic for me to say third grade and dropout.

That third grade dropout, the wisest person I ever met in my life, who taught me to combine knowledge and wisdom to make an impact, was my father.

A simple cook. Wisest man I ever met in my life. Just a simple cook. Left school in the third grade to help out on the family farm but just because he left school doesn’t mean his education stopped.

Mark Twain once said, “I’ve never allowed my schooling to get in the way of my education.”

My father taught himself how to read, taught himself how to write. Decided in the midst of Jim Crowism, as America was breathing the last gasp of the Civil War, my father decided he was going to stand and be a man, not a black man, not a brown man, not a white man, but a man.

He literally challenged himself to be the best that he could all the days of his life.

I have four degrees, my brother is a judge. We’re not the smartest ones in our family. It’s a third grade dropout daddy, a third grade dropout daddy who was quoting Michelangelo, saying to us, “Boys, I won’t have a problem if you aim high and miss but I’m going to have a real issue if you aim low and hit.”

A country mother quoting Henry Ford, saying, “If you think you can or if you think you can’t, you’re right.” I learned that from a third grade dropout, simple lessons. Lessons like these. “Son, you’d rather be an hour early than a minute late.” We never knew what time it was at my house ’cause the clocks were always ahead. My mother said for nearly 30 years, my father left the house at 3:45 in the morning. One day she asked him, “Why, Daddy?”

He said, “Maybe one of my boys will catch me in the act of excellence.”

I want to share two things with you, Aristotle said, you are what you repeatedly do therefore excellence ought to be a habit not an act. Don’t ever forget that.

I know you’re tough but always remember to be kind. Always. Don’t ever forget that. Never embarrass momma. Yeah if momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. If daddy ain’t happy, don’t nobody care but you know..

Next lesson, lesson from a cook over there in the galley. Son, make sure your servant’s towel is bigger than your ego.

Ego is the anaesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity. Ya’ll might have a relative in mind you want to send that to.

Let me say it again. Ego is the anaesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity. Pride is the burden of a foolish person.

John Wooden coached basketball in UCLA for a living but his calling was to impact people. And with all those national championships, guess what he was found doing in the middle of the week? Going into the cupboard, grabbing a broom and swiping his own gym floor.

You want to make an impact? Find your broom.

Every day of your life, you find your broom. You grow your influence that way. That way you’re attracting people so that you can impact them.

Final lesson. “Son, you’re going to do a job, do it right.” I’ve always been told how average I can be. Always been criticized about being average but I want to tell you something. I stand here before you, before all of these people not listening to those words but telling myself every single day to shoot for the stars, to be the best that I can be. Good enough isn’t good enough if it can be better. And better isn’t good enough if it can be best.

Let me close with a very personal story that I think will bring all this into focus.

Wisdom will come to you in the unlikeliest of sources. A lot of times through failure. When you hit rock bottom remember this, while you’re struggling, rock bottom can also be a great foundation on which to build and on which to grow. I’m not worried that you’ll be successful. I’m worried that you won’t fail from time to time.

A person that gets up off the canvas and keeps growing, thats the person that will continue to grow their influence.

Back in the 70’s, to help me make this point, let me introduce you to someone. I met the finest woman I’d ever met in my life. Back in my day we’d have called her a brick house. This woman was the finest woman I’d ever seen in my life. There’s just one little problem. Back then ladies didn’t like big old line men. The blindside hadn’t come out yet.. They liked quarterback and running backs.

We’re at this dance and I find out her name is Trina Williams from Lompoc, California.

We were all dancing and we’re just excited and I decide in the middle of dancing with her that I would ask her for her phone number. She, Trina was the first one, Trina was the only woman in college who gave me her real telephone number. The next day we walked to Baskin and Robbins ice cream parlor. My friends couldn’t believe it. This has been 40 years ago and my friends still can’t believe it. We go on a second date and a third date and a fourth date. We drive from Chico to Vallejo so that she could meet my parents. My father meets her. My daddy, my hero, he meets her, pulls me to the side and says, “Is she psycho?” But anyway..

We go together for a year, two years, threee years, four years by now Trina’s a senior in college. I’m still a freshman but I’m working some things out. I’m so glad I graduated in four terms. Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan.

So now it’s time to propose. So I talked her girlfriends and it’s California, it’s the ’70s. It has to be outside, have to have a candle and you have to have, some chocolate. Listen, I’m from the hood. I had a bottle of Boone’s Farm wine. That’s what I had.

She said yes!

She said yes! That was the key. I married the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen in my life, ya’ll ever been to a wedding  and even before the wedding starts you hear this.. “How in the world?” And it was coming from my side of the family!

We get married, we have a few children. Our lives are great.

One day Trina finds a lump in her left breast. Breast cancer.

Six years after that diagnosis, me and my two little boys walked up to mommy’s casket and for two years my heart didn’t beat.

If it wasn’t for my faith in God, I wouldn’t be standing here today. If it wasn’t for those two little boys, there’s of been no reason for which to go on. I was completely lost. That was rock bottom.

You know what sustained me? The wisdom of a third grade dropout. The wisdom of a simple cook.

We’re at the casket. I’d never seen my dad cry but this time I saw my dad cry.

That was his daughter. Trina was his daughter not his daughter-in-law. And I’m right behind my father about to see her for the last time on this Earth and my father shared three words with me that changed my life right there at the casket.

It would be the last lesson he would ever teach me.

He said “Son,

“Just stand. You keep standing. You keep standing. No matter how rough the sea, you keep standing.“

And I’m not talking about just water. “You keep standing. No matter what, you don’t give up.”

As clearly as I’m talking to you today, these were some of her last words to me. She looked me in the eye and she said, “It doesn’t matter to me any longer how long I live. What matters to me most, is how I live.”

I ask you all one question, a question that I was asked all my life by a third grade dropout. “How you livin’?” Every day ask yourself that question. How you livin’?

Here’s what a cook would suggest you to live, this way..

That you would not judge, that you would show up early, that you’d be kind, that you’d make sure that that servant’s towel is huge and used, that if you’re going to do something, you do it the right way.

That cook would tell you this, that it’s never wrong to do the right thing, that how you do anything is how you do everything.

And in that way you will grow your influence to make an impact.

In that way you will honor all those who have gone before you, who have invested in you.

Look in those unlikeliest places for wisdom. Enhance your life every day by seeking that wisdom and asking yourself every night.. “How am I living?”

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