After years of being at school, I cannot wait to graduate in a few months’ time. Looking back at my academic career so far, even though schools offer some values, most of the courses can now be learned online provided that one has the will and the discipline to learn. What stands out more to me is what schools don’t teach. Here are some lessons that I feel are missing at schools, but play an important role in one’s life and career

Personal finance

I cannot stress enough how important this is. I have seen and known people get thousands of dollars in student loans for education. Then, get more debt in car loans to buy that new car that will be worth significantly less a few years from now. When a new car arrives in your home, it comes with parking fees, gas expenses and insurance. Consequently, monthly expenses rise and savings become even smaller.

On top of that, some gather whatever savings are left to make a down payment for a house and will still have to make installments on a regular basis. A monthly paycheck, after tax, will be used to pay for critical expenses such as rent, food and gas. What is left is used to pay for interests and some outstanding debt. In the end, there is almost no savings. I once read a report recently that many Americans cannot make a $400 emergency payment. Here is a simple breakdown of monthly income and expenses. It is for illustration purpose only. The relative size of the components is different in reality.

I didn’t take into account expenses such as bars, celebrations, birthday gifts, wedding gifts, books, travel, shopping, that broken Macbook charger, that flat tire, that media subscription you appreciate so much and others that add values to our lives.

What if something terrible happens and you are hospitalized? How will you pay for the hefty medical bills? It is impossible to assume that you won’t get sick even once for years. It’s practically unsustainable to cross-finger and hope that no severe accident such as car accidents will not happen ever. One of my classmates was hit in a car accident through no fault of her own simply because a person ran the red lights to make it to a Black Friday sale!

There is no shortage of studies and media coverage on pay day loans – a quick way to get your hands on cash, but at the expense of extremely high interest. Life will quickly become just a constant loop of being stuck to your job and paying off debts. If you don’t like the current job, you won’t be able to change jobs or quit because of the debt burden. You don’t have much margin of error or freedom to enjoy life. The lack of freedom to make choices is highly devastating.

Communication

Too cliché? Nah, it is really relevant based on what I have seen so far. . I have seen a lot of PowerPoint decks made by experienced professionals that are littered with text without visuals. As data is taking the world by storm, the ability to convey insights from data is important as well. How could anyone understand anything from highly complex Excel sheets?

The ability to present and communicate effectively is very crucial in one’s career. However, I think that point is missing at schools.

Writing is thinking

It’s easy to sit down, think of an idea and feel that it’s the best idea that has ever been thought of. Unfortunately, it is not true, most of the time. There are a lot of gaps in our thinking unless we write it down on a Word document or a sheet of paper. When we write, we can think more about the points being made, the gaps in logic, evidence to back the logic up and the way to present it. It’s true that students have to write a lot of papers. They; however, have little idea on WHY they have to write papers except for grades.

Reading

It’s all in the books. I am not in a position to tell what one should read. One should just read to see where it is going and what areas one is interested in. Let’s say if a person reads constantly and improves by 1% every month, starting from a base ability value of 100, here is how the person will grow after a while

After 4 years, you’ll grow by more than 50% and become twice as good as when you started after 7 years.

Titles, fame or wealth doesn’t always equal to being right

Being logical and having a good idea are not exclusive to fame, authority, fame or wealth. CEOs make mistakes and are dismissed all the time. Crypto fans would be happy to recall that Jamie Dimon – CEO of JP Morgan – dismissed the value of cryptocurrency at first and made a 180 turn to embrace it. I once heard a classmate publicly claim in class that he regretted not mirroring Warren Buffett’s investments. He is a legendary investor, but he is not immune to mistakes nor he is right all the time.

My point is that it’s important to stay vigilant and look at ideas for their merits, not for the fame, titles or wealth of the person who proposed them.

I believe that graduates would be much better prepared for life and career post education if these lessons were emphasized more at school.