A 2019 Harvard Business Review study found that traits like curiosity, resilience, and adaptability predict long-term career success better than formal credentials. The Kaufman Foundation’s research on entrepreneurship shows that the majority of successful entrepreneurs do not have degrees directly related to their ventures, but they succeed through persistence, learning by doing, and responding to necessity. Psychologist Angela Duckworth’s work on “grit” (passion + perseverance) consistently links it more closely to achievement than IQ or formal education. 🔹 2. Trial and error builds real-world intelligence. Degrees provide theory; experience provides feedback. When you learn through failure, constraint, or necessity, your brain develops adaptive problem-solving skills that no classroom can fully replicate. That’s why many successful founders, inventors, and leaders—think Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, or Aliko Dangote—credit their real-world lessons more than any formal schooling. 🔹 3. Passion sustains effort when credentials can’t. Passion fuels resilience—the will to keep going when results lag or systems fail. It also drives continuous learning, which keeps people evolving long after formal education ends. 🔹 4. Degrees open doors—but drive keeps them open. Formal education can create opportunities and networks, but those advantages fade without execution, character, and vision. Life experience develops all three.