Learning Through Grit, Not Grades

I was blessed to be taught early on that working hard and being brave enough to take risks can bring a high level of reward. School? It mostly showed me how to “play the game”—memorize, pass, forget. I’d say most of what I learned there didn’t stick around longer than a year or so. The real stuff, the knowledge I still carry, came from a different place: wanting to do the work, figuring it out through sheer motivation, and grinding at it until I got better.

Now, don’t get me wrong—schooling should have some regard in our hearts. It’s got its place, laying a foundation or sparking a thought. But let’s be real: it’s not what educates or makes a person truly learned. That’s a heart issue, a desire issue. No teacher or textbook can force that into you—it’s got to come from within, a fire you stoke yourself.

For me, that fire looked like this:

• Reading books I thought were interesting, not just what was assigned.
• Watching others do the thing—learning by osmosis from people who’d been there.
• Formulating my own ideas and throwing them out there, even if they were half-baked.
• Doing enough to get caught being wrong—nothing teaches faster than screwing up in front of someone.
• Finding 100 ways how not to do something, each flop a step closer to getting it right.
• Facing external pressures that forced me to grow, whether I liked it or not.

That’s the messy, real-world education that stuck with me. School gave me a playbook, but life—and my own drive—taught me how to play. Risk, repetition, and a little stubbornness beat cramming for a test any day. What’s your version of this list look like?