Ivy League Schools Have No Rank in the Global Village

Mainstream colleges and universities have little or no value in the Global Village.

Photo by Jorge Fernández Salas on Unsplash

In the Industrial Park, these institutions had the luxury of long lead times. They could teach the skills valued by emerging high-tech and low tech corporations. Most were staffed by Instructors who had pioneered the latest technology. By default, their certification was earned the old-fashioned way; on the job experience.

This is not the scenario in the Global Village. Here, ad hoc “non-degree schools” are available 24/7 via the WWW. Some require tuition payments. Others are offered free to those who agree to promote products of the sponsor. They have the support of tech titans like Alphabet Inc (Google). And they are not dependent on Endowment Funds or Benefactors for their survival. Nearly everyone who bothers to master the skills or actionable knowledge offered by these ad hoc schools will be prepared to meet a need in the Global Village.But how do Residents know what skills are likely to be in demand at the time they are prepared to apply them?

There are four rules used by successful Residents who wish to learn the skills that will be in demand in the near future:

1. Be the first to learn a valuable skill. Track emerging science, technologies, apps, tools, industries, and fields. When ones are growing exponentially, spend a few hours exploring them to see if it’s worth putting in more time. It helps you try new things without wasting your time on things that turn into duds.
2. Learn valuable skills that are difficult. Be willing to invest in areas that are taboo, aren’t super sexy, time-consuming, strenuous, appear risky or are super technical or academic.
3. Learn valuable skills with hidden benefits. Humans have value blind spots. They under-estimate skills with abstract, long-term payoffs; micro-skills; skills from other disciplines; and classic ideas that have been forgotten.
4. Redefine value better than the consensus. In our careers, we use our skills to serve someone else. Regardless of social status, level of education, or economic background, every Resident of the Global Village is both a producer and a consumer. Whether they be a customer, a boss, a fan, a recruiter, or prospect, if you can better understand the unmet needs of the people you’re serving better than others, you will be able to meet those needs better. That will give you a competitive advantage that is not easy to emulate.

For example: the Global Village resident who finds a quick and accurate way to test blood supplies for the presence of the COVID-19 virus will win the Medical Research equivalent of a Gold Medal. This is not something one can learn how to do in an Ivy League University. Nor can it be “developed” in traditional research laboratories. But there are currently thousands of residents of the Global Village working on this problem. One of them is likely to find the solution within the next few months. If that solution proves to be accurate and viable, the person holding IP rights to it will never have to work again. They will be free to pursue any interest they wish in the Global Village.