Excellence

"Commit first to excellence, and everything else will follow"

I took interest in a post I stumbled upon on Telegram, captioned "How I got 4 Ph.D. offers in the US with a CGPA of 2.79." Hmm, this will be an intriguing read, I said! I was curious so I decided to read through. According to the narrator, his grade was one of the lowest grades in his graduating class. So I wanted to know how he did it.

Incidentally, I don't think there is a more contentious argument than the one on First Class graduates being smarter than graduates of other classes of degree. This has always been a hot zone. "Who First Class help?", you hear them say. To this I've always reacted: everyone is smart, you can't take that away. However, I won't succumb to defend the fact that those who graduated with good grades put in a lot of effort in their study, minus other external uncontrollable factors. Affirmatively, they did, and they deserve the credit!

Skimming through this post to check the tips to achieve such feat, I was inundated to read his first tip: "Do not get low grades". Like, really! This is paradoxical, isn't it? I was expecting otherwise. I was expecting he would say something like getting good grades does not matter. You see, this a great message being passed here.

Perhaps, you have heard of the anecdote that Bill Gates did not finish school and still became rich that made and still making some fools to drop out of college? Tell them to continue. Have you ever wonder why the same Bill Gates used his hard-earned to fund research and education that he didn't finish? If it was not important, why would he do that? Do not be deceived. You have no excuse not to take your studies seriously. Not having terrible grades is going to help you a lot

If you're still a student, I will advise you to flee from those who make flippant and downplay working hard to have good grades. Your grade may not literally mirror how smart you are, like I said everyone is smart, but it does determine, most times, the doors that be open to you or shut at you. Your success in life may be attached to your grade, while others won't. You just don't know how God plans your own journey to success.

If at all there is something that will contend with your time for a good grade in school, let it be something worthwhile. Like participating in extracurricular research or campus journalism will often come at the expense of your grades. You have to make educated risk on how many grades you would sacrifice for these and not for clubbing, absenteeism, truancy, or partying.

In a nutshell, graduating with good grades is good while having a Third class is also not a death sentence. It means you may just need to work harder in this intense and competitive labour market we are.

#peptalktoday