Asking the right question(s) leads you to the right answers.
a.) How many people do we know who match the likes of dhirubhai ambani ? A handful !? .. so the sample size to derive any co-relation is close to zilch.
b.) Of the people who studied at the top universities in the world, how many are fairly successful; heading organisations and leading innovations? A huge sample size with a good success ratio
I think that it is other way round
There are thousands of people that are 'World Famous' (not just you and me know them but the whole world knows them) in what they are doing but do not have a graduation degree (or their degree doesn't matter in what they are doing). I am quoting some of the names at the end of this post
And, there are handful of people who are 'well educated' and successful as well.
c.) When we say success, what do we imply.. monetary? mental? .... what businesses are we taking into consideration ?
Theoretically, Success means 'Profitable Growth' which is higher than the average market growth rate.
That means a successful person should be earning more money than most of the people are earning in his field. And/Or his Goodwill should be higher than the people in his field (his name itself should be a 'Brand') ... preferably in a good way.
If you think that the people who are at good position, in a good company and earning good salary are successful then I think you are aiming really low. This is what is difference between people like us and people like Ambani and bill gates. Their aims are very higher than we can think of.. and this is the main formula for their success. For them even sky is not the limit.
And, regarding your last question, even I have the same question "what businesses are we taking into consideration ?"
If we are talking about all the businesses then everyone will agree that success and education are not related.
If it is in field of sports - Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil dev, Steffi graph, Federer... i can take thousands of name... who cares about their education.. it is just their
dedication and
passion for what they do have made them successful.
If it is field of entertainment - again i can take thousands of names .. and their education doesnt matter.. but still they are SUCCESSFUL.
if it field of science (pure science) - take any scientist - einstien, edison, ramanujan.... they got their Phds only after their inventions became famous.. and it was not other way round. I dont think they were extraordinary or had some super-natural power that we dont have. Their main quality was
perseverance - inspite of thousands of unsuccessful experiments, they still
believed in what they were doing... even if world did not believe in them. Again i think this is the most essential ingredient for SUCCESS.
NEVER QUIT.. if you truely believe in yourself.
If it is field of Business - Jamsetji Tata, Dhirubhai Ambani, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs.. I can list many more .. they all were pioneer entrepreneurs.. They had vision.. they only want to be the BEST and nothing less than that. They never cared if they are less educated... but still they always have hunger for knowledge.
i would like to share a video in which Steve job is giving commencement speech at stanford univ graduation ceremony 2005.
He gave mantra for success as
'Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish'.
You got to see it to understand this... very good.. very enlightening speech -
YouTube - Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005
After this you can decide, if education and success are related.
Regards,
Samir