Book smarts vs. street smarts

The third season of “The Apprentice” aired on Thursday and while I didn’t follow the second season, this third season will prove to be an exciting flair between books versus streets. Perhaps most of the DC readers will be rooting for one of the book guys to become the apprentice, perhaps to justify why you’re in school, but the facts given by the show were astounding. The street group has three times more money (their average net worth and assets) with only high school educations. The book group has college degrees from accredited universities, although I personally didn’t see anyone from “top-tier” schools, such as UT, Harvard, or Stanford. Nonetheless, this battle for the top slot proves interesting. As the season progresses, I’ll be rooting for the streets and here’s why:

The street group obviously has passion and desire to make it big. They weren’t confined to systematic approaches and don’t attempt to approach everything like a science problem that was given in the classroom. They operate by rules they learned on their own and gained experience that wasn’t provided by a formal education.

But why are all of us still in school? Personally, I think we’re not brilliant enough to cash-in on our smarts. Sure, we all do well in classes, recruiting or fundraising, but the real deal is that we’re just “normal” and not exceptional. Exceptional people identify practical experience as gold and go for it. Even our career advisors try to push us to find internships. But for every eight months we spend studying, the street guys learn more “tricks of the trade.”

However, there are plenty of “normal” people who don’t have a college education and still don’t do well. Well, since they are “normal,” if they don’t change their ways and approaches in life, they will remain normal.

I’ve always tried to gain practical experience in life. Like some of the street people, I’ve had many jobs since I was 15. I had jobs like selling handicraft, a waiter, a bellboy, a grocery supervisor, a stockbroker, most recently a cashier, a tutor and a lab assistant. I tried to be exceptional, but if I’m here I guess I’m just normal. But one thing is for sure, the experience I gained gives me a different and perhaps mature perspective in the way I see my textbooks. For all my peers who have jobs as waiters and such, I give my kudos to you. But word of the wise, don’t just treat your job as a job; look at the management approach, identify weaknesses and strengths and formulate solutions in your head. When you figure out the system and the tricks of trade, who knows, maybe one day you’ll have the opportunity to cash-in on your solutions.

Then why aren’t employers purely hiring street smart people? I think because there are too many normal street people and also because books, a.k.a. education, is an established institution while the streets are just a bunch of unorganized units of individuals. Therefore, in the battle between books versus streets, the books will win.