Excuses are a dime a dozen, and when a person is looking for a good excuse to “hang his hat on”…to use to either justify his choices and/or actions, or to use as his basis for not doing something important that would require some extra work,…then any excuse you come up with will work.  Just always remember that if you fail to perform any given task and your failure to perform robs you of a great and wonderful reward that could have benefitted you and your family,…whatever excuse you used to satisfy yourself that the reward wasn’t big enough doesn’t really make any difference.  Lost benefits and rewards are just that…LOST!  You are never going to get them back.

Here is a fact of life.  Advanced higher education is always an added benefit and qualification,…BUT…it is never required for a person to become a serious leader of other people. 

Pull out your common sense hat and put it on and think about what I just said.  The facts are that for thousands of years great generations and civilizations have produced leaders, good leaders, and even great leaders,…all of whom did not have an MBA college degree, let alone an undergraduate degree.  

You cannot frame leadership ability and hang it on your office wall.  Most leaders, to my knowledge, do not wear “Mortar Board” hats to work.  Advanced education is a good and wonderful thing to possess.  However it  certainly is not required for a person to become highly successful.  In reality most all of the super wealthy and successful people in our nation today are not highly and formally educated.

The facts are pretty simple.  Real true success as exists in our world today is going to be achieved through working with other people, helping them use their muscle and brains, and by you guiding and directing their energy and efforts.  A combined team effort to accomplish your mission and goals is the manner and way the vast majority of accomplishment occurs in America today.

Formal higher education has been greatly over marketed and over sold.  While it is a good idea to have as good a formal education as is possible for you to obtain, that in itself is not enough.  You are going to need more and more training and experience in learning and developing sound people skills, communication skills, and just plain common sense “street smarts.”

All too often formal higher education gives a person a false sense of superiority, especially over the undereducated masses.  God designed and equipped you for the great plan He has prepared in advance of your coming on the scene by your birth.  I have never read a birth announcement acknowledging the birth of a new child 6 pounds 9 ounces, with a fistful of $100 bills and a Master’s Degree for the University of Brilliance.

If God has a great plan for your life, then for certain He has already given you all that you will ever need to accomplish His plan for you.

Formal education has been totally created by man and his flesh.  It is a good thing and provides a tremendous blessing and benefit to those who have it,…BUT…it is not a requirement for a person to become a leader.  All too often higher education fails to teach and instruct students the really important things that successful people know to be needed.

Formal education fails to teach its students how to be a good, moral, and integrity-filled man or woman.  It fails to teach its students how to become good, loving, responsible, and caring mothers and fathers.  It provides no instruction and guidance as to how a person is to live and conduct themselves as a good husband or wife.  Formal education does not teach its students how to own, operate, and produce a profit from a business of their own.  Higher education does not teach the Principles of Success, nor does it teach God’s Laws of Success.  Consequently, formal education fails to teach young minds how to properly and morally handle, invest, and wisely use money.  Lastly, and most importantly, all formal education fails to teach its students how to become good, honest, and productive Americans.

These shortcomings of our formal learning and education are what comprises the real drawbacks to people’s qualifications for success.  In far too many circumstances and situations, too much unimportant education can teach the common sense right out the hearts and minds of the students who are learning data that they will never need, use, or have  cause to implement.  One needs to learn about and know that which is important and will enable him to live, earn, produce, contribute, and therefore succeed. 

One seeking to become a leader needs to learn well how to interact and communicate with other people.  One needs to know how to function together with their fellow man by helping and serving him.  Unimportant, side data, details and laundry-list fact sheets about items or areas that do not exist or are only hypothetical and unproven, or some intellectual’s personal opinion or understanding need not be taught to all students because such dribble only confuses and halts important productive activity by the student.  Anything taught that recommends violating God’s Laws of the Universe, all found in the Holy Bible, should never be exposed to young and easily influenced human minds.  To do so is only setting the learner up for great misery, suffering, and failure in the years ahead.

Success is defined by highly successful people as the “progressive realization of a worthwhile dream or goal.”  Nowhere in that definition does there appear the words college education, advanced degree,…or any type of formal education.  What is also really interesting about this definition is that the word “employee” does not appear in  it. 

Your ability to lead and to succeed is going to be directly related to your ability to relate to and positively influence other human beings.  Communication in all of its forms is key to your ability to properly impact and influence other people.  Therefore the most important aspect of your formal education needs to be gaining a very good and thorough understanding of the English language both verbal and written.  Good and proper use of English sets you far ahead of the masses of this country.  Good speech properly punctuated and enunciated using proper grammar, diction, voice inflection, and timing catapults you miles ahead of your peers.  Communicating in full sentences is a must if you plan to get the attention of the higher levels of society.

Good and proper social graces, behavior, and manners,…table and social etiquette,…and personal hygiene and grooming are vital to relating to other people.  Remember the old adage, “You attract what you are,…not what you want!”  It is just as true today as it was when it was coined.

If you know how to properly treat other human beings, which all begins by your properly treating and taking care of yourself,…and you can learn and then put into practice what is called The Golden Rule wherein God instructs you “to do unto others as ye would have them to do unto you,” then you just need to start to kindly and gently love and care for other people.  Simply treat them with love and respect and help them whenever and wherever you are allowed to help and assist them.  God will handle and take care of all of the rest.  It all just takes time.  That is why personal patience is so critical for you to develop.

So back to the original question asked in the title to this discussion.  You don’t need to have earned a college degree to become a leader of people.  BUT…you do have to work hard and long to develop your God-given leadership skills.  Do not be afraid of stretching yourself into a higher level of living.  In the long run, you will always be glad that you stretched yourself out of your own “comfort zone.”

A closing thought…Whenever you help, assist, and lift someone else up to a higher level of living,…you always raise yourself to a higher level in the process.

Leaders Gotta Lead……………..