Do Degrees Matter (or The Art of Dunking Cookies).

I dunked a biscuit in my coffee today. It is an act that may seem trivial but it is the reason for the act that matters rather than the actual earth shattering news that I placed the end of a cookie into a piping hot beverage. My dunking endeavour was inspired by the glorious description of the experience in the film 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel', a wonderful movie depicting the trials of a group of elderly British pensioners in India. The dunking description scene takes place as Evelyn, superbly portrayed by Judi Dench, attempts to get a job at a call centre. It is pointed out to her that the group of young people busy fielding and making calls are all university graduates. That point hit home more than the bit about tea and biscuits. A group of university graduates and the best they can manage is a job answering the phone and making scripted sales calls. Apologies to call centre workers everywhere, but it does not take a degree to answer the phone when all you need is common sense and a good take on the language being spoken.

More people than ever are pursuing a university or college career. More and more places are demanding paper behind your name before they will employ you. More and more people are looking at the letters after your name as a sign of your credibility. But is it really all worth it? Does a university degree set you up for success, especially when there is a glut of university graduates on the market?

There is a very powerful statistic bandied about showing that, as recently as 2009, income levels were strongly correlated with education level in the USA. However, as many analysts are quick to point out, correlation does not equal causation. It could just be that the drive and work ethic required to get a degree is the same work ethic that gets you to a place of success in life. I know a number of recent graduates from college both locally and overseas who cannot obtain a job in today's crunch economy.

People who are quick to promote the 'no-degree' path eagerly point out a long list of successful college dropouts who went on to make it big, including people like Bill Gates. What you may miss is that Bill Gates dropped out with the idea to start a company, he already had the idea and a fair amount of the skills, and was positioned at the right place and time to achieve the success he did. I also know a few people locally who have managed just fine without completing a tertiary education. It has not been easy for them; they still needed a vision, strong work ethic and desire to succeed.

The style of education offered in the USA and UK is so expensive that you can graduate with a massive debt hanging over your head that will take you a lifetime to pay off. Yes your degree may get you earning more, it also has you paying off more to the people who funded your degree. At the end of ten years I am not sure if the person who has a four year start on the working pathway will be any worse off than the post-graduate. Fortunately tertiary education in Zimbabwe is still cheaper than most, for now.

I would like to introduce you to the idea of Full Sail University. Specialising in entertainment industry education (think music, film, computer game design), they operate modular, full-time, online and classroom based education. When I say full-time I mean 24-7 operation with two weeks off for good behaviour over Christmas. You graduate with a degree after 2 years of hard work with eight hours of lectures a day. None of this summer break nonsense for three months, you do not get that in the working world so why get it at University.

The world is in a state of flux. Economies are under strain, the corporate system is under criticism, connections and relationships are coming to the fore. With this change comes great opportunity and a need to adapt. Education styles are shifting (or should be) to compensate for the new ways of obtaining information.

So where does the answer lie? Perhaps the answer lies in more thinktank, mentorship style practical programs akin to the apprentice system. Perhaps universities need to rethink their current options. Ultimately education should teach you how to think, how to obtain and process information, how to problem solve based on first principles. For some there will always be a need for skill acquisition, doctors for example will need to practice surgery somewhere. More than skills though it is the impartation of an attitude that will set you on the path to success. It matters not so much whether you get a degree or not, nor how you get it, but hard work will always be required to obtain success. Hiring for attitude is way more important than hiring for qualification. You can have a nice set of letters after your name, but if you are basically lazy or unwilling to serve clients I am not interested in employing you. If your degree has meant that you have spent the last three years of your life attending four lectures a day and doing little else constructive I may worry, just a little, that you expect the working world to be that easy.

Regardless of your education, if you think that you can set up a company and just walk away without attending to it on a frequent basis then you are either gifted or seriously deluded. Growing a vision into reality, building a reputation, setting up systems, monitoring and correction all take an effort that stems from the right attitude. Sure you can buy a 'kombi' and set it on the street with the demand for a hundred dollars a day from the driver and have it run around without you thinking about it till day end and call it a business. All you have to do is take a ride on the joke of a public transport system we have in Harare to realise the result of an uncontrolled system. All it will take is a well operated, friendly, reliable system that cares about its travellers to be introduced and bang will go the kombi business (of course it is easy to write that, the reality is much harder). Attitude matters.

Learning should be a lifestyle regardless of formal or on-the-job training. Read. Write. Debate. Learn to argue a point. Learn to question the status quo, to explore and come up with alternatives. If the only job you can get with your degree is a call centre operative it better be a stepping stone for you to greater things, not the final destination.

Expand your business by being an access point

Africa is poised to grow at a rate of 5% per year. The World Economic Forum discussed it in great length in Cape-town, where I was honoured to be one of the moderators. “Can Africa live up to it’s promise?’ It’s the question in the room at the moment. What does this boil down to; lots and lots of opportunity needs lots and lots of cooperation and trust. Many times at the WEF the talks were about spring board platforms for talent and new ideas. Such platforms need cooperation and trust. Does politics or economics drive Africa?

In the past Africa has had a reputation of being “difficult.” I’m not just talking about local laws or government policies but the overall supportive culture of BIG ideas.

Are there opportunities in Africa? Yes massive ones and it’s no secret, but the better question is “Where are the access points?”

There are opportunities in China right now that will blow your mind. There are opportunities in Tete, Mozambique, the fastest growing city in the world. There are opportunities in Ethiopia, the Sudan, and Bolivia-and you probably know of a few more. We’ve had the conversations and they go like this… “You know what city is absolutely booming with opportunity…” Then it goes into a long story that you heard from some guy, that CNN picked up and did a short story on and so on. The only problem is you have no idea how to get involved or how to reach there.

We all know there’s opportunity, but not all of us have the access. You might be someone that has an “access point’ and not even know it? Do you have a good reputation in your city, a positive stream of endorsements, and do you trust yourself with people and introductions? Do you relate well with people, are you trustworthy, can you keep a secret if you need? If the answer is yes you could very well be an owner of an “access point.” If you don’t have a good reputation then you might want to start mending the bridges, repaying your debts, and start being this link for people who know there’s opportunity but can’t get to them.

How to be an access point:

People will pay a lot for trust - be honest and trustworthy.

Trust is earned over time. If you are willing to breach contracts, sell out to a higher bidder when you already gave your word, or just blatantly lie, then forget being trusted, and do not expect to be an access point.

Be accessible.

Nothing is worse then having an access point that you can’t access. Answer your phone, answer emails, create a good reputation when it comes to communication.

Connect people up even when you don’t get paid.

It’ll add to your reputation which will in the end lead you to more opportunities. Be a networker of ideas. Think about how you heard about your current mechanic, your current doctor, your accountant, your lawyer. Chances are it was through word of mouth. Someone connected you with them. Now take that concept and expand it beyond the sharing of professional services to connecting people in different spheres, different parts of the world.

Open up your world.

There might not be an immediate opportunity but if you’ve met someone with confidence and high values then finding a connection point might be around the corner. Be attentive to conversation. It will be in the seeming random, non-formal communication that you can pick up people are looking for. Some of the greatest opportunities may lie waiting at the office coffee dispenser. Many times we focus on where we are at and what we’re doing and by default only see opportunities where we are looking. Lift up your head from your desk and look around you. See what is available.

Churchill said 'You make a living by what you get, but you create a life by what you give'.

Being an access point often means being a giver. Connecting people is at its core an act of giving, you are giving away an opportunity that you may not be able to take advantage of on your own. But the result is so much bigger than anything that you could do individually that it is too good not to. Remember the hosepipe, that as it connects the tap to the plants, it too gets wet.

An Inconvenient Truth

'For every dollar you spend, 10c will go to poor starving children somewhere in the world.' 'Shoes, let's give shoes to the poor children in Africa so they can walk to school.' 'Our product comes from sustainably harvested forests where we pour back into local communities every time you buy a bag of our over priced offering.' Corporate social responsibility has invoked some of the biggest load of marketing hogwash ever dreamed up by Wall Street spin doctors. It is another layer of gloss in the facade dreamed up to help you not think that your brand new jersey might just have paid the annual wage for some poor barefoot machinist in a Bangladesh sweatshop. Hey wait a minute, we live in Africa, surely we are immune to the fabrications and machinations of Big Brother capitalist empires. Nah not really. If anything we are to be pitied all the more for allowing ourselves to be made into the unwilling victim in grandiose schemes, created to placate to consciences of the stupid consumer elsewhere.

Now that I have stood on a few toes I can see people perking up and going, 'Wait a minute do not these community schemes work? Are not the recipients of all this aid, welfare, and exchange better off than they were before we got involved in their lives?' Perhaps. But why do you have the need to broadcast your philanthropy to the world? Could you not just do the work, engage in the schemes anyway, and if the occasional discerning patron inquires then you can point out that 'hey we really are doing some good work in the world.'

My problem with corporate social programs is that I wonder if, more often than not, they are motivated by what they can get out of the deal rather than what they can give. That this is not charitable work at all but simply another transaction to be benefited from and marketed to the level of stupidity. Why should we invite the local politician to the opening of a new borehole in a rural community? Is it in the hope of currying favour with his party by giving him a soapbox to stand on? What ever happened to the idea of seeing a need and filling it, without any extra reward, thanks, or gratification, apart from the knowing in your soul that you changed lives today.

I question whether sometimes the 'we give back' slogans are not just a way of tapping into the emotions of a client who gets a little buzz every time he buys the product. That you are selling a convenient form of giving that makes a customer feel better because he no longer has to think about making a real difference in his community because 'I gave to Africa today'. And that 'little buzz' is capitalised on to make him keep buying the product. I question if we have got it all wrong.

That the wrongness stems from the very start of our companies, from the very core of our being. We all have dreams. That is Lesson One from any book on self actualisation that 'You Have a BIG Dream that YOU can Achieve.' Then we spend the next twenty five chapters learning how to make OUR dream become a reality, a reality that benefits US. That our visions for our company, for our lives ignore the real needs of those around us. Because we are so focused on ourselves when a need comes along we immediately view it through the tinted glasses of 'how WE can benefit from our own act of charity'. That the prosperity gospel often comes across as 'Give so YOU can receive'. That the focus of our giving becomes about us and what we can get, not about the recipient, forgetting that in any harvest part of the harvest is sown again to perpetuate the cycle.

Vision is not a bad thing. Dreams are not a bad thing. But they should be tools rather than the real end goal. What point is there in building a great company but failing to build a great nation in the process? At the end of your career how different will the housing that your workers live in be compared to now? What would it take to improve the lives of those that work for you, and in a manner that does not result in them being in indebted servitude to you, but in a way that equips them to get up the rung one extra step? Housing is one example, but there is electricity, sanitation, education, health care. Then there is the non-humanitarian aspect of the planet we live in; our wildlife, flora, and aquatic systems.

Our giving back needs to be part of who we are and what we do. It does not need to be publicised or advertised. It should be done in a manner that allows maximum benefit (think above 90 percent of the proceeds) to reach the intended target, not wasted on advertising, fancy stage hire, or salaries of executives managing the process. It should be well targeted; take care of your own community. Where is the benefit of building a rural education centre if your own staff cannot afford to send their own children to school?

There will always be need. While no one person can solve every problem or give to every need, there is something each of us can do. With pure motives and sucking up the inconvenience of the actions, we can all find a way to quietly and genuinely help with no obvious reward.

Make things better. Not for the pomp and circumstance but because it is the right thing to do.