(This is a re-post from 3 years ago:)
I was recently re-reading one of the first success books ever written, "Think and Grow Rich," by Napoleon Hill. Like many success books old and new, the book places tremendous emphasis on the importance of desire as the starting point for success.
So here’s my question: since "desire" is so important to success, shouldn’t the development of "desire" be an essential element of any education program? I’m starting to wonder, if perhaps the entire approach to elementary and secondary education should not be revamped to be based on what virtually every single success book preaches, which is, to explore, discover, develop, and persistently act upon your desire.
When I went to public school, most of what I learned was actually how to suppress desire, and how to defer to the desires of others in positions of authority. I was told "it is good for you" to learn how to go without instant gratification, it was good for me to not immediately get the things that I wanted, and that it was good discipline to learn how to not immediately act on one’s desires. There was many a sunny afternoon that I sat in a study hall, when I would have much preferred to have been running around outside kicking a ball with my friends.
But that is only half the story. When I was a sophomore in high school I went from that poor school system, where they taught us to suppress desire, to the rich kids' private school. In private school, personal desire was dealt with in a much much different way: it was not suppressed, it was encouraged. There were no study halls, so if you weren’t in a class, you actually had to think of things to do. And of course if you wanted to, you could in fact go outside and kick a ball with your friends. Individual projects were highly encouraged, so much so that I ended up teaching a credit course in my senior year. There were just far, far more choices in general, and in this rich kid culture, one was constantly converting desire into action rather than merely suppressing desire into inaction.
While there are endless variations on what different school systems offer, and some are more repressive than others, the vast majority of them are not concerned about desire at all, up or down. Instead, they are usually based on a cookie cutter model of every kid acquiring the same basic skills, whether they want to learn them or not. Every single kid takes the exact same classes through elementary school. In high school, you start to be allowed more and more choices in terms of what basic skills you want to acquire, but there are still classes in "core curricula" that every student must learn, and every kid has to prep for the same achievement test, no matter what their unique life goals may be. Individual desire is simply not part of the equation.
So where, in all these many required classes and standardized tests, is the one thing that every success books says leads to success, which is learning about the amazing power of the relentless persistent application of desire? Does anyone teach a class in this at any high school you have ever heard of? Is there any minimum standard for desire to be met in order to graduate? Of course not. In fact, how often do you hear teachers and school administrators complaining that the children are showing up with no desire to learn and succeed? They are expecting someone else to put it there. I think the schools should consider how it can be done in-house. As it is, right now, like lunch, you have to bring your own.
Everyone agrees that the children do much better if their parents have instilled desire in them, even in a lousy school system. So why not incorporate that development of desire, now done only sporadically by parents, into the whole educational system itself, instead of crossing fingers and hoping that somehow someday more parents will teach their kids something so essential, when all too often the parents themselves were taught nothing about it?
When I mentioned this to a friend who is a public school teacher, she asked me, "well, don’t they need to learn basic skills?" I would agree, that certain basic skills should of course be taught. But the students in those classes would, I think, have a much different attitude and approach and focus if those basic skills were being taught as something essential to their realizing their own desires, instead of just being forced to do it whether they want to or not. If one argues that we should not rely upon first-graders to know what they want, well then, at what age do we switch from actively teaching passive obedience to then reversing that now ground-in attitude, and begin trying to retroactively instill personal initiative? I am open to suggestions. In the current system, it never happens, except on an individual rebellious basis. Little kids have lots of desire to learn and explore the world, but boring classes eventually wear it down.
When you look at this at the college level, the one thing that the better colleges always ask about each applicant is, "does this kid have individual drive? Will this kid succeed after he graduates? Is this kid motivated? (And will they make lots of money and donate it to us when they die?) " So if your goal in secondary school is to get into college, take heed of the importance of developing and displaying unique desire.
Of course, grades and skills are important, but if you have lots of skills and no desire, even if you go to college, you are far less likely to succeed than someone who has no skills but lots of desire. Bill Gates is a college dropout.
I have come to the belief that education by itself is virtually meaningless. It's like a car without a steering wheel. Henry Ford had almost no education. But he had desire. Need I say more?
And this brings us to one last point, which is you, right now. Were you clever enough to select parents who nurtured your unique ambitions and desires, or are you one the many folks who have been led to believe that everything will somehow magically happen for you someday soon if you just go along with the program?
When I give talks to people about success in the performing arts world, and how to transfer that skill set to other businesses, I always emphasize that it’s not about talent. It’s always about the manifestation of unique desire. Success emanates, not from acquiring more and more skills and hoping thatsomeone else who has desire will put you to work, but from cultivating the desire within yourself. As more and more people become independent contractors, it is this different dimension of skill, to act upon your unique ideas and harness the power of the emotion of desire, that will make the difference.
In the view of a bureaucrat, your unique desire makes you a troublemaker, and so many people are taught to feel bad about their unique differences and personal desires that create conflict with higher authority. But in this new world order, your unique desire is not a liability. It is a goldmine over which you hold monopoly ownership.
©Justin Locke
Justin Locke is an entertaining speaker. Call him at 781-330-8143 to discuss having him appear at your next event.
