The Prosperity Core: What I Wish 10 Years of Higher Education Had Taught Me

My formal education lasted from the time I was 5 until I turned 29 and earned me every one of the main academic credentials:  high school diploma, bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, doctor of philosophy.  Not only did I spend a long time in school, but they were also some of the best schools available, including Stanford and UCLA.  After all that, I still spent my thirties discovering that there were big gaps in my education.

I majored in physics the entire way, and, unsurprisingly, I learned a whole lot of physics.  Somewhat surprising in retrospect, however, is how few other truly important things I learned about prospering in the real world.   I took my general education requirements seriously, and read everything they told me to from ancient Egyptian literature to To the Lighthouse (OK, I might have bailed on To the Lighthouse part way through).  Despite my dedication, the general coursework taught me little about a variety of very important subjects.  I like to call these subjects the “prosperity core,” because thriving in life is hard with a working knowledge of them.  Here they are with some suggested coursework:

Handling People:

From what I have seen, it is very challenging to have a successful and prosperous career in any field without decent skill in dealing with people.  While not normally considered a strong suit of the average physicist, this skill is right up there with literacy and numeracy.  Poor people skills can not only hamper your career, they can actually destroy it.  I have personally witnessed at least four technically competent and productive physicists and engineers get themselves fired because they lacked fundamental interpersonal skills.

I have an affinity for classics that stand the test of time.  Consequently, I recommend How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie as a core textbook on dealing with people.  If you want a serious advantage in whatever career you choose, read this book and live the lessons it teaches.  I wish I had read it a decade or two earlier.  Now, I have laminated copies of the summary pages from the book that I pull out every few days to refresh my memory and reflect on how well my actual behaviour follows the principles. Getting interpersonal relations right does not come easily to me, or many others, but it makes an enormous positive impact in your career and life in general.

Money:

It appalls me how poor of a job our educational system does at teaching basic personal financial literacy.  I was lucky enough to grow up in a household that taught personal finance to a relatively high standard.  Most people are not so fortunate.  Again appealing to classics, The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason is an excellent place to start for a grounding in personal finance.  It is even an entertaining read since the lessons are all delivered in the form of stories.  I plan to start reading them to my son (now a toddler) as soon as he is old enough to start understanding.

Business:

It may be an unorthodox choice, but I recommend reading  Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki for a basic introduction to business.  Because Mr. Kiyosaki relates the lessons of his financial upbringing as a dichotomy between his own father who was a PhD academic and the entrepreneurial but poorly educated father of a friend (I will let you guess who was “Rich Dad” and “Poor Dad”), I felt this book is particularly relatable.  If nothing else, you will enjoy some of the stories he tells.  Perhaps most importantly, Kiyosaki reinforces the idea that, no matter what your profession, you need to “mind your own business.”  In other words, true prosperity requires taking charge of your own finances and running that part of your life as a business.  Fail to do this and you will spend your life subject to the whims of fortune and your patron.