How you behave in high school affects your career growth

Scientists have confirmed what discipline masters have always suspected; that a student’s future success is directly linked to how they behave in high school.

A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology has found that students who are engaged and interested, who do their homework and are obedient are far more likely to achieve future career and academic success, even if their IQ level are low.

It also does not matter if their parents are rich or poor.

Success has for a long time been thought to be a consequence of how intelligent a person is, or what their socio-economic status is, but this study argues that soft skills, usually a product of emotional intelligence, are even more essential to future success.

“Adolescence is the age at which a person’s personality and identity are formed.

"It therefore makes sense that if a teenager learns a good work ethic at this point in their lives, they are likely to carry it with them for the rest of their lives,” Prof Catherine Gachutha, a counselling psychologist, said.

"Teenagers who get into bad behaviour during those formative years and lack guidance to steer them back onto the straight and narrow are setting themselves up for failure later in life.”

CAREER
But scientific theory is one thing, and reality another thing altogether.

If you had asked 30-year-old Boniface Ochieng’ what he would become when he grew up, his answer would be nothing like his present reality.

Ochieng’ is a boda boda operator, a job he has done for the past three and a half years.

In secondary school, he dreamed of a career in communications, and worked hard towards it.

“I grew up in a slum in Kisumu and I knew that the only way to make it was by excelling in school and getting a good job,” he said.

EMPLOYMENT
Ochieng’ was the top Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) candidate in his school and earned a place at Masinde Muliro University to study Communications, Public Relations and Marketing, just as he had planned.

He graduated with a Second Class Upper Honours degree and eagerly entered the job market. It was there that his seemingly bright star started to dim.

“At the lowest moment of my job search, someone offered me a job as a watchman. It was at that point that I knew I had to go back to Kisumu,” he said.

In Kisumu, Ochieng’ got a loan from his father and got into the boda boda business. He has been at it since then.

“I did everything right. I was studious, responsible, engaged in class and I passed. And yet…” he said.

BILL GATES
Psychology, even by the best scientists, can be an imprecise science and there is always the danger of painting a caricature to advance the study of the day.

Truth is, for everyone who was rebellious and has paid for it in adulthood, there are others whose rebellion has not hindered them from being high-achieving adults.

A good example is Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, and one of the richest people on earth.

In a 2009 interview with The Wall Street Journal, Gates’ parents said that he had been a difficult child who got into shouting matches with them and disagreed about everything.

One day, things got so heated that his dad, Bill Gates Sr, threw a glass of water on junior’s face to shut him up.

UNRULY
If a boy that disagreeable grew up to become one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs on earth, who is to say that a little streak of rebelliousness isn’t the magic formula to success?

There is a scientific study that says exactly this.

The study, published in Developmental Psychology in 2015, says that being disagreeable and willing to break the rules could be an indicator of future career success.

“Such individuals value competition more than interpersonal relations and therefore want to advance their interests relative to others,” the report said.

For instance, a person who is not afraid to disagree with figures of authority might be a better negotiator for salaries.

In addition, such a person might be more willing to take risks that could pay off handsomely.

BEHAVIOUR
Ochieng’ and Gates are outliers, of course. They lie on two extreme ends of a spectrum that takes only one aspect of their character — how well-behaved they were as teenagers — and ignores other overlying circumstances that might influence the outcomes of their lives.

The jury remains out on what type of behaviour will send your teenager to the heights of career success.

In trying to answer this, Angela Duckworth, an American psychologist, has perhaps the most seminal body of work concerning how exactly success can be achieved.

Duckworth studied successful individuals across many different fields as well as students who performed best in school.

“One characteristic emerged as a significant predictor of success. It was not social standing, good looks, physical health or IQ.

"It was grit — passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is stamina, the ability to stick with a task until the end. Grit is living life like a marathon, not a sprint,” she said.