Convenience stores

 

Everyone wants their children to be successful, but some people misunderstand what successful is.

It is not just graduating from high school, or making, a lot of money.

It is not just hanging a piece of paper on the wall that says you attended a university, or college.

It is being able to take care of yourself and others. It is knowing how to tell the truth from the propaganda. It is doing the work to learn how to be whatever it is you wanna be.

If your mother does your school work, or writes your college papers, she is not helping you. If you buy an education, you are not educated. If you pay someone to do the work, they are reaping the benefits.

Pretty soon universities that can be bought will no longer be accredited. They will become convenience stores for the rich and famous.

I had a kidney doctor once, who I believe probably bought his degree. It didn't take me long to figure out how well dressed and dumb he was. (And that may have been why they were asking everyone to fill out forms about what they thought about him.)

Bricklayers apprentice for three to four years. Master Chefs start out in school for several years before honing in on the finest points. A chess master may take twenty years. There is a reason it takes time to become good at things. 

When we go to people for help, we don't want someone who is skilled in cheating, or buying fake degrees. We want someone with the experience and background to actually accomplish what we are hiring them for.

Today we have a president who only knows how to hire "yes men." That is one of the most expensive ways I know to be eternally ignorant.

Don't fall into that trap. As Douglas Malloch wrote:

If you can't be a pine on the top of the hill

Be a scrub in the valley--but be

The best little scrub by the side of the rill;

Be a bush if you can't be a tree.

But whatever you decide to be, really be it.