How often have you encountered a real-life situation where you had to use the Pythagorean theorem to solve it? Or the periodic table? Remember the times you cried your heart out for not being able to answer anything in your interview, did ‘the value of x’ help you deal with it?
Imagine sitting in a room full of people who appear smarter than you. You’re sitting all alone and feeling extremely nervous. You’re sweating extensively, your mouth is dry, and a sudden darkness fills your eyes. Scary right?
Take a moment and think if you have learned this skill of dealing with anxiety in school. Ask a 22-year-old how to manage stress, pay rent, manage finances, or negotiate rent. And after spending so many years in school, if these questions still haunt you like nightmares, then my friend, you are no different.
The fact is, school gives you a degree, but life demands direction. Juggling between classes, we miss out on lessons that shape our lives.
A Real-Life Wake-Up Call
I remember a good friend of mine, who had excellent grades, topped all his classes, favourite to all teachers, and landed in his dream college. But when he moved out, he couldn’t even make basic food, handle his finances, read electricity bills, or handle stress.
It wasn’t his fault.
He aced the system.
He had molded himself according to the system.
But the system failed him.
That moment hit me hard. So, I have made a list of life-changing lessons they don’t teach at school, but we all should’ve learned.
1. How to Manage Finances (And Not Go Broke)
‘Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.” – Will Rogers
Finance should be an important part of the school curriculum, but the only thing we learn in school about money is that we need to earn it.
Schools teach us how to make ledgers, but don’t teach budgeting, avoiding debt, or growing savings.
Here’s what you should know:
I. Create a monthly budget
Firstly, track all your income and expenses. To start with, use the 50/30/20 rule.
- 50% for needs (rent, groceries, bills)
- 30% for wants (shopping, eating out)
- 20% for savings or debt repayment
If you want to dig deeper into the personal finance world, check my blog on 5 smart budgeting hacks to save money fast.
II. Credit score matters
Having a good credit score helps you in getting loans for a house, a car, or even a mobile phone. The hack here is to pay all your EMIs on time, not to max out all your cards, and keep track of your credit scores regularly.
III. Start investing early
There’s no right time to start investing. Always keep a part of your salary for your savings. Even with ₹500/month in SIPs can help you grow massively after a decade. The key isn’t to invest more, it is to stay consistent.
2. How to Handle Failure (Without Falling Apart)
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
The thing with life is, it will punch you in the face. It will keep punching you till you get knocked down.
School only teaches you to embrace success, but what about failure? If you don’t accept your failures gracefully, you’ll end up avoiding risks.
Just remember:
- If you aren’t failing at something, you aren’t trying enough.
- Failures don’t define your self-worth. Your learning does.
- Be consistent and stay true to yourself. Eventually, you will get success.
3. Time & Project Management
“You either run the day, or the day runs you.” – Jim Rohn
Everyone gets the same 24 hours, but how you manage those 24 hours is solely decided by you.
In school, your timetable decides how your day will go, but in life, you won’t find any guidance. You need to learn to manage your time to achieve your work goals.
Here are some things you can follow for better time management:
I. Create a to-do list first thing in the morning. Prioritize what’s important, not urgent.
II. Use tools like Google Calendar and Todoist to structure your day and block your calendar.
III. Break complex or time-draining tasks into simpler, attainable steps.
4. Negotiation & Sales Skills
“You don’t get what you deserve. You get what you negotiate.” – Chester L. Karrass
Let’s be real. You might be the most talented, hard-working, and the most deserving person in the room, but if you don’t know how to speak up for your worth, you’ll frequently leave feeling underpaid, underappreciated, and unheard.
You know what the worst part is, school taught us to find ‘value of x’, but didn’t teach us ‘how to define your value’.
They taught us grammar, but not how to pitch an idea that gets funded.
And that’s where sales and negotiating come in. To do it with confidence and clarity, learn these things:
I. Communicate your value:
Don’t just say what you do. Say why it matters. Because people don’t pay for effort, they pay for the impact you create.
II. Ask for money, respectfully
The next time they offer you less, try saying, ‘Based on my experience and what I bring to the table, is there scope to revisit the numbers?’ And trust me, you’ll be amazed how often the answer will be yes, just because you dared to ask.
III. Why ‘No’ is not the end
If you’re afraid of hearing “no,” you’ll never hear “yes.” Be confident in what you are offering, even when others don’t.
5. How to Speak, Pitch, & Present Confidently
“Public speaking is the #1 skill that will boost your career by 50%.” – Warren Buffett
You can be sitting on million-dollar ideas, but if you can’t present them clearly, confidently, and compellingly, they die unheard.
At school, you weren’t taught ‘how to speak’, instead you were asked to ‘keep quiet’. But now in real life, your growth and success depend on how well you speak.
If public speaking scares the life out of you, below are some lessons you can try to go from an awkward rambler to a confident speaker.
I. The Start is always scary
Start practicing daily. Record yourself for 1 minute and watch it carefully. Fix your mistakes, improve your tone, and clarity.
II. Practice Like a TED Talker
Watch famous speakers you admire. Study them properly. Read their tone, pace, style, and storytelling. Eventually, you’ll also improve.
III. Don’t aim for Perfection
You aren’t AI, so don’t try to be one. Tell real experiences that come from your heart. People connect emotions, energy, and honesty.
Final Thought
This is not too hard to say that schools trained our minds, but lacked training our mindset. It taught us that mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell, not how to study the power bills.
But the real-life syllabus lies in the rent slips, EMI notifications, job interviews, 2 am anxiety attacks, and first heartbreaks.
Unfortunately, no school, no education system, prepares you for these final exams. But here’s the catch: these answers lie within you.
“Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.” – Albert Einstein
Take this as a wake-up call and start following these life-changing lessons today. Because the biggest investment you’ll ever make isn’t in stocks or real estate, it’s in yourself.
