My Biggest Takeaway From College Wasn’t a Degree

I remember when it happened.

The biology test, bright red “62” beaming out in mockery, was crumbled up in my hand. I bit my lip, not sure if I was going to scream or cry.

How could this happen? I was a great high school student. I cruised through all my classes. I thought I couldn’t fail.

Until I did.

If I couldn’t get past that one stupid science, I wouldn’t be getting my degree. No matter how well I did in other classes.

At that moment, I started to realize the most important skill any person can accomplish.

I learned how to learn.

This is, far and away, the most important quality in a ambitious human being.

Think I’m exaggerating? Why don’t we go back in time and ask the first human beings what they did whenever they ran into these big, hairy things with horns on the end of them?

First it was terrifying.
Then it murdered people.
Then they learned how to deal with it.
Then it was the most bountiful source of food, clothing, shelter, fences, and God knows what else these people had ever seen.

See how that works?

If we look at the outliers of the human race, every single one of them learned how to use a new technology, idea, or movement quicker than the others.

Martin Luther King didn’t invent the theory of race equality, but he learned how to leverage it.

Bill Gates didn’t create the computer, he just learned how to use one and then built an empire on it.

Warren Buffet didn’t design investments, but he learned exactly where he should put his $700 dollars in 1956.

Strip away all the technology and the comfort, remove the gadgets and the safety nets and you’ll find one common trait in the most successful humans since the dawn of time:

Adaptability.

How do you adjust to your environment? How quickly can you make that happen? Will we figure out what to do with the “buffaloes” of this century — global warming, the resurgence of racism, the underlying knowledge that we have the weapons to wipe humanity off the planet at any moment?

The heroes of my generation will be the ones who can see what’s coming and learn what to do about it the quickest.

College students. Please hear this — if you are not learning how to learn, you are wasting your time. Doesn’t matter what degree or concept or “hard skill” you learn. Factory workers aren’t having much fun these days.

No job is safe for long.

Gadgets change.

Technology grows.

Humanity shifts.

Can you learn quickly enough to stay ahead of the curve?