The school season has started and I am grateful for my school and graduation years. I have seen people asking graduates this common question, “If you studied this then why are you doing this?’ or “Why did you choose a particular stream if you eventually wanted to join your family business?”

I think the goal of education should be to empower individuals to become lifelong learners who can adapt to an ever-changing world, embrace diversity, and work towards a more just and sustainable future.

I think Neil deGrasse Tyson explains it very well in a famous interview. He says “People think that when they take math in school, there is a common response like I will never use this theorem in my life as they learn trigonometry identity or whatever it is that we remember learning feeling pretty sure that it won’t show up again. But that misses something important. It misses the fact that the act of learning how to do the math establishes a new kind of brain wiring in your mind. A kind of problem-solving brain wiring. So it’s not about what you learn. It’s about what methods, tools , techniques you developed in order to solve the problem that you may never see in your life but you will see other problems where these tools will become immensely valuable to you…..your choice of words to communicate an idea. A fresh idea on top known ideas…..How equipped you are to expose the world on your own .”

I think that education helps us by changing our approach to doing things that are hard or valuable.

Steve Jobs said in his famous Stanford speech that you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backward. The phrase highlights the need to trust that the dots will somehow connect in the future, even if the path is not clear at the time.

If we know how to connect education with business or entrepreneurship there is this magic spark that happens which helps in solving problems. James Clear relates both(education and entrepreneurship) very aptly in his recent blog post that,

“Education teaches you to analyze. Entrepreneurship teaches you to create.

The educated mindset is great at dissecting and criticizing. What did Shakespeare mean here? What were the major forces of this historical period? What is the limiting reagent in this chemical reaction?

The entrepreneurial mindset is great at building and improving. Design a better product. Craft a new marketing plan. Stop talking about what’s wrong and make something better.

The trick is to keep learning, but to never lose your ability to build.”

Let’s stop asking why someone didn’t follow a “linear path” from degree to career. The world is dynamic. The real win is learning how to think, solve, and build in any direction life takes you.