“Success is not found by forcing everyone onto the same road. It is found by helping each person discover the work they are meant to do.” – MJ Martin
The Myth of the Straight Line
Modern life is often presented as a straight road. We are told to move step by step from school to graduation, from graduation to university, from university to a profession, and from that profession to success. This pathway is so deeply repeated that it begins to sound like a law of nature. Yet human life does not usually unfold in such a neat and orderly manner. Life is not a ruler. It is more like a river, sometimes calm, sometimes turbulent, sometimes moving quickly, and sometimes slowing almost to a stop.
The problem with the linear model is that it assumes one destination is suitable for everyone. It imagines that university is the natural and necessary goal for all capable people. This belief is not only limiting, it is unrealistic. University can be a powerful and valuable experience, but it is not the only pathway to intelligence, dignity, income, contribution, or purpose. A society that treats one route as superior misunderstands the true complexity of human talent.
The Nonlinear Nature of Life
Real life moves in fits and starts. People discover interests late. People change direction. People fail at one thing and flourish at another. Some individuals learn best through books and lectures, while others learn through tools, machines, materials, customers, weather, emergencies, and practical problem solving. These forms of learning are not lesser forms of intelligence. They are simply different expressions of intelligence.
A person who can diagnose an electrical fault, repair a water main, weld a pressure pipe, operate heavy equipment, install a heating system, or maintain a fleet of vehicles is solving real problems under real conditions. These are not abstract contributions. They are the services that allow homes to function, cities to operate, industries to produce, and communities to remain safe.
The Essential Value of Trades
Society desperately needs trades. It needs plumbers, electricians, carpenters, mechanics, welders, machinists, masons, technicians, operators, installers, and service specialists. It needs people who can build, repair, maintain, test, inspect, and respond. These occupations require judgment, discipline, technical skill, physical competence, and responsibility. They also require pride.
Many of the most important services in society cannot be provided by university graduates alone. A graduate may design a building, but someone must construct it. A policy may call for clean water, but someone must install and maintain the infrastructure that delivers it. A technology company may design a smart meter, but trained field professionals must safely install it, commission it, and ensure it works in the real world. The practical world always requires practical experts.
Rethinking Success
The assumption that academic education will solve all outcomes is flawed. Education matters deeply, but education is broader than university. Apprenticeship is education. Technical college is education. Field experience is education. Mentorship is education. A lifetime of skilled work is education. The question should not be whether a person followed the expected path. The better question is whether that person found a path where their abilities can grow and contribute.
A healthy society does not need everyone to be the same. It needs variety. It needs thinkers and builders, planners and operators, researchers and repairers, designers and installers. It needs people who can imagine the future and people who can make that future function.
Embracing Diverse Possibilities
Society must learn to make sense of a nonlinear world. It must stop treating alternative pathways as second choices and start recognizing them as essential choices. The goal should not be to push every young person toward the same destination. The goal should be to help each person discover where their talents, interests, and discipline can create genuine value.
A diverse society requires a diversity of services. It requires many kinds of knowledge, many kinds of skill, and many kinds of excellence. When we honour only one path, we weaken the whole community. When we honour many paths, we build a society that is stronger, fairer, more capable, and more human.
About the Author:
Michael Martin is the Vice President of Technology with Metercor Inc., a Smart Meter, IoT, and Smart City systems integrator based in Canada. He has more than 40 years of experience in systems design for applications that use broadband networks, optical fibre, wireless, and digital communications technologies. He is a business and technology consultant. He was a senior executive consultant for 15 years with IBM, where he worked in the GBS Global Center of Competency for Energy and Utilities and the GTS Global Center of Excellence for Energy and Utilities. He is a founding partner and President of MICAN Communications and before that was President of Comlink Systems Limited and Ensat Broadcast Services, Inc., both divisions of Cygnal Technologies Corporation (CYN: TSX).
Martin served on the Board of Directors for TeraGo Inc (TGO: TSX) and on the Board of Directors for Avante Logixx Inc. (XX: TSX.V). He has served as a Member, SCC ISO-IEC JTC 1/SC-41 – Internet of Things and related technologies, ISO – International Organization for Standardization, and as a member of the NIST SP 500-325 Fog Computing Conceptual Model, National Institute of Standards and Technology. He served on the Board of Governors of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) [now Ontario Tech University] and on the Board of Advisers of five different Colleges in Ontario – Centennial College, Humber College, George Brown College, Durham College, Ryerson Polytechnic University [now Toronto Metropolitan University]. For 16 years he served on the Board of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), Toronto Section.
He holds three master’s degrees – in business (MBA), communication (MA), and education (MEd). As well, he has three undergraduate diplomas and seven certifications in business, computer programming, internetworking, project management, media, photography, and communication technology. He has completed over 80 next generation MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) [aka Micro Learning] continuous education programs in a wide variety of topics, including: Economics, Python Programming, Internet of Things, Cloud, Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive systems, Blockchain, Agile, Big Data, Design Thinking, Security, Indigenous Canada awareness, and more.