Translator: Jane Roffe Reviewer: Ariana Bleau Lugo
I've got a question for you.
How many of you were always top of the class?
All your life, top of the class?
Right.
– Liar (Laughter)
Well, in precisely 9 minutes and 30 seconds, I'm going to make you proud
that you weren't always top of the class.
(Applause)
You're going to go home tonight and tell your partner, your children,
your friends and relatives:
"Hallelujah, thank God, I wasn't always top of my class!"
In 2007, when I started my blog, I began studying the lives of several people
who were successful in their lives.
And each of them was successful in their field, each one succeeded in a different way.
But there was one thing all these people shared, just one thing
which intrigued me, and this was the fact
that these people, these characters -- none of them had been really successful at school.
Some of them had even cut short their education
and others didn't even make it to school
for long periods of time.
So this was a little worrying and frustrating for me when I remembered
all those years in which parents and teachers
told us, you must work hard, you must get the best marks,
you must be one of the best to get into the best universities
and in the end, I note that the reality is this:
not all those who have been successful at the school of life
were necessarily those who were top of the class.
So this meant we needed an answer to the following question:
Why isn't it necessary to succeed at school in order to be successful in life?
Or even: why is there no direct link between success at school
and success in life?
Because – to mention people you know very well – such as Steve Jobs
or Bill Gates who have businesses – they employ people who were top of the class.
But when did they leave school?
They both dropped out
during their fresher year at university.
So how come, then, that we, who try to be top of the class
end up working in businesses for people who
perhaps don't even know how to read and write?
So that's when I started looking, and luckily
I took the right approach right from the start, so I couldn't – or I didn't have to – look very hard.
I started looking by identifying the qualities these people share
which have allowed them to be successful in life.
And I found 5 of these.
Next, I tried to see these qualities in the education system
all over the world, how are these qualities developed?
Or at least appreciated or accommodated in the education system?
I was shocked to find I had discovered that these qualities –
not only are they not developed within the education system,
but they are even punished in the education system.
In other words, if you are unlucky enough to possess one or even several of these qualities
you can be absolutely sure that you will be unable to succeed in the education system.
And when you get to the workplace, you will be needing these qualities.
So the first of these qualities is about being passionate.
Just imagine this discussion with Einstein:
you meet Einstein and you say to him:
"Now, Einstein, it seems that you love physics, right?"
And he says to you: "No, I hate physics. You know, I'm only doing physics
because my parents made me do it.
I hate it...but hey, Hamdullah, I've been lucky,
I've discovered a few theories, got a Nobel prize, and all that...well, I've been lucky."
Or you could talk to Bill Gates, and so you say to him:
"So, Bill Gates, it seems that computers are what turn you on?"
And he says: "Nah, it's just destiny that pushed me to get into computers.
Well Hamdullah, it's really taken off!"
Can you imagine this type of discussion?
It's impossible because we know that these people are passionately enthusiastic.
So, what is passion?
Passion means having an emotional and sentimental approach
to a job.
And if you are unfortunate enough to have this quality at school, you are going to fall in love
with certain subjects, and you will work hard on those.
And you'll hate the other subjects, and you won't work as hard on them.
As soon as you get to secondary school, you'll discover what we call the subject weightings.
The subject weightings - the head will never come to you at the beginning of the year and say:
"So, what do you like? You like maths? Ah! Let's raise its weighting.
You don't like physics? We'll bring it down."
It will never ever happen like that.
The weighting is already set.
If you're good at maths, physics and languages, we take the highest weighting.
If you like geography and history, and you work hard at those but you hate maths
then you'll never get a good mark, or never the top mark, in the exam.
Which means you'll be hearing this sort of thing all the time:
"He's a hard worker, in certain subjects, he really is very, very good.
But in other subjects, he really could do better."
That's what they're passionate about at school: it's someone who could always do better.
And that's why those at the top of the class have no feelings.
They have no passion. They work at everything!
They work hard in every subject!
And they are good at all the subjects.
And this creates a big problem for those at the top of the class.
Because later on, they can apply to study medicine, law, and accountancy.
They can do it all.
At the outset, they are impressed by their abilities.
But later, when you get to work, they'll say to you:
"No, no, no: Stop!"
If you want to succeed, there are two things that are very important – primordial – in life.
If you want to achieve happiness and excellence, you must be passionate about what you do.
Without passion, you can't succeed at work, or even in your personal life.
Yet at school, we've always been forced to take compulsory subjects, rather than follow our passion.
Second quality: curiosity.
Curiosity is the foundation of all discovery. It's curiosity that allows each of us
to discover solutions to everyday problems.
So – how does curiosity manifest itself at school?
A curious pupil or student is someone who seeks to know more.
Such a student is more likely to read what is suggested in class, to carry out their own research,
to discover new ways of solving mathematical problems.
And because this student is very proud of what they do,
they are happy to have learned a lot, and will try to develop their own ideas in the exam.
And if the teacher doesn't understand what you are talking about,
you work really hard, you put in more energy than anyone else,
you hand in a really great, highly developed paper, your teacher doesn't get it,
and awards you a shockingly low mark, often accompanied by the remark: Off Topic.
This is why, in the education system, being top doesn't mean you are smart.
In the education system, the fact of being top
just means you have the ability to cram information and then regurgitate it –
just as it was, without developing it at all.
And then when you get to the world of work, you'll be told that no,
to be able to get the third ingredient of success, which is promotion at work,
each time you have to learn, train yourself, look further, know more,
never settle for the information you were given at school.
And you know what the difference is, between these people who didn't pass,
or who didn't complete their education system, in comparison with those who did graduate?
One small difference which changes life.
In fact, those who didn't graduate and who become entrepreneurs, heads of state,
or who take on big projects, they often have this worry about not having known enough.
So they are constantly searching, they are real self-starters.
Unlike those who sat at the top of the class and who, once they've got their qualification, get gifts
and they say to themselves: "I've finished my studies."
And this is where the catastrophe lies.
Third quality: being goal-oriented.
Peter Drucker, the father of management, taught us that ultimately, within companies,
it is essential to have annual, considered goals. It isn't about being efficient and effective
in the absolute, just effective and efficient enough to achieve your objectives.
Which is, incidentally, very intelligent, as well as being what the whole planet
is currently following as a managerial style.
Imagine a pupil who has the same state of mind, and is also highly intelligent.
This pupil is thinking about which job they would like to do.
Which career they'd like to pursue.
They look back on their time at school, deciding which marks they want to get,
what sort of work they want to do, what work they can do
in order to get where they want to be.
So you say: "Why don't you work enough? Why don't you try to be the best in the class?"
They reply: "But it's not necessary. Being top of the class doesn't meet my objectives."
And the school will be saying that this pupil lacks commitment.
Pupils who have insight, vision at school, appear as non-committed.
The school rewards only the act of mixing objective and tool.
It rewards the tool, which is the mark.
It never rewards pupils who come to say, at the end of the year:
"Here are my plans for a career. This is what I intend to do."
And here is the necessary energy I will deploy to achieve this objective.
And I will spend the rest of the time playing, because I want to play."
This is what is never rewarded at school.
The fourth quality is creativity.
Creativity is fundamental – yet it's the very first thing they take away from you at school.
A study has shown – I'm not sure of the figures – but it showed
that about 92% of the most creative people in the world are less than 5 years old.
7% or 8% of creative people are over 5.
So what happened?
School happened.
School prevents the pupil or child from thinking as they used to do,
working as they used to work or learn.
Now it has to be done in just one way, saying what has to be said,
thinking and drawing in just one way.
There are lines that must not be crossed at school.
So later on, in a working life, people say to you:
"No, you have to be creative, inventive, you must bring something new."
Even though at school, we have been taught the opposite.
You all have a sheet of paper.
You've got a blank sheet of paper.
I'm asking you in 10 seconds, quickly, turn it into a flying object capable of flying
as effectively as possible.
10 seconds! The countdown has started.
Quick, quick, quick...
A flying object which can fly as effectively as possible.
Very good. Launch your planes, your flying objects.
Yes, that's great.
People will say they didn't like my talk.
Okay. I note that some people have done it.
Did I say make a plane?
No!
No, I said to make a flying object that can fly as effectively as possible.
But this flies better than that.
In other words school has prevented you from really thinking creatively.
How is creativity seen at school?
It's someone who draws. It's someone who always asks weird questions at school.
It's someone who's always at the back, it's someone who likes to address matters
that the teacher hasn't addressed.
So it's someone who is often distracted.
And this is why those at the top of the class always control their creativity.
To be top of the class, you have to kill your own creativity in this education system.
The final quality is being sociable.
The act of being sociable is typified at school by excessive chattering.
A pupil who is sociable, whose intelligence is sociable, cannot work all alone
and look at the teacher for a whole hour.
That pupil needs a certain ambience, needs to talk, needs to seek out the others beside them.
Because the absence of sociability is, for that pupil, a risk, an unbearable emptiness.
And the worst thing is that at school, those who are most sociable cheat in the exams.
Why?
Not because they want to cheat or because they have no morals.
It's because for them, it's a nice gesture to be sociable – even during exams.
They are unable to solve a problem all alone.
Sometimes, and we've noticed this many times, pupils finish their exam
and they wait to see if there are any friends in need of help.
They say to the others: "Do you need help?" (Applause)
And unfortunately, this is why today we have to do team building, synergy, and so on...
It is also why it doesn't work.
Because for years, the school has confused two notions: synergy, at school equals cheating.
Whereas it is in fact pure team building.
Once, a teacher caught me passing my work to a classmate.
And I tried to explain to the teacher, back then, that I was forced to cheat.
He said: "No, that's not good, you mustn't do it."
But I said: "But it's a friend. I can't say no to him."
He said: "No, I don't care, in the exam you have to solve your problem all alone."
I told him: "But you don't understand, I can't sacrifice this friendship."
He said: "Not even if it gets you a zero?"
I said: "Yes, even if I get a zero. He's a friend. And I can't sacrifice my reputation either."
It's important for anyone who is socially intelligent, capable of social reasoning.
And later on, in a working life, you are told: "You must do the opposite, you must never work alone."
You have to contribute to the others, give others what you know. Maintain your reputation.
So throughout your school career, you're prevented from doing this.
This is why nobody likes those who are top of the class.
(Applause)
This is why those who are top of the class have such difficulty integrating into the class.
This is why those who are top of the class are always unhappy.
This is why, the higher you climb in the company, the more team building you need to do.
Because the more these people are intelligent and best in the class, the more used they are
to working alone – and the more likely they are to be at war with themselves.
Why am I talking about all this?
For one very, very important reason.
Now, we are all familiar with all of these qualities, and we know that ultimately,
perhaps it's not so important in a school career.
But what is very dangerous as well as very important, is that when you are not successful at school,
you are condemned, each year, to sitting on a bench and applauding these classmates,
all the time hating them because they've got prizes, and I haven't.
And what's worst is that after a few years, all those who aren't top of the class
applaud these people all the time, all the time. And they end up with the idea
that ultimately, success isn't for me, perhaps I will never be successful in life.
Success is for others, it's for strange people who never help their friends, who have no feelings.
That's what success is. Sometimes, we are even afraid of success.
Because success is people who are too cold, too closed, and I end up putting myself among the failures.
All that changes as soon as I have my first interviews for joining a company,
when I join a company, that's it -- I've taken on the idea, I'm convinced that I am incapable of success
because for all these years, I've never been top of the class all the time.
So now, what you must bear in mind is that if you haven't succeeded,
if you haven't always been top of the class, there's only one reason for this:
it's because you are a strong candidate for being top in the school of life.
So turn the page, and begin a new life. Thank you.