Hajra Naz
For a career, Ph.D. is a basic requirement as it is an introduction to the world of independent research. It is a kind of intellectual masterpiece that is created by an apprentice in close collaboration with a supervisor. Many parents think that the only way to ensure that their kids could have a secure future is by pushing them to get more education. With more education, they have higher chances of earning a healthy living standard.
It is commonly believed that higher education correlates to lower unemployment, better health, as well as longer lives. These things sound great for your children but one thing that is common among Ph.D. students is dissatisfaction because it is a kind of slave labor that involves working for seven days a week, ten-hour days, reduced income, and uncertain prospects.
The prospects of getting a professorship or working in a lab as a high-level researcher seem bleak for most Ph.D. holders and those who stop early in their careers; their potential salary floor is lower.
But for the person who pursues the Ph.D., the ceiling of possibilities is much lower as compared to people who don’t have the degree. It is because, without the higher floors beneath them, people with less education pursue different options such as starting a business that could in time help them earn billions. These are the skills that make people with less education, more entrepreneurial and help them earn more.
What you can learn from here is that if your children come up with the idea of dropping out of college or university in order to start their own business, don’t push them not to do so. It is because if they have the right idea and understanding of which market to tap into properly, the student might be living a much better life as compared to pursuing just higher education.
I have to agree with Jim on this, We might be pushing our kids in the wrong direction.
