Tech gets all the attention. We talk about self-taught programmers and dropout entrepreneurs because the tech industry is visible. But the pattern we’re seeing in tech isn’t unique to tech. It’s everywhere.
The real world doesn’t care about your credentials. It cares about what you can do.
Trades: The Untold Success Story
Start with trades. Electricians, plumbers, carpenters. For decades, these fields have been hiring based on apprenticeships and demonstrated skill, not credentials.
A master electrician didn’t become excellent by sitting in a classroom learning circuit theory. They became excellent by working alongside someone who knew, making mistakes on real jobs, and learning to fix them. They learned by doing.
And you know what? The system works better than it does in fields obsessed with credentials. A licensed electrician can do the job because they’ve actually done thousands of jobs. Not because they memorized a test.
The irony is that trades have figured out the learning model that actually works. Apprenticeship. Hands-on experience. Real feedback. But we don’t call it prestigious. So nobody talks about it as a success story.
Sales and Business: Credential-Agnostic Results
Move to sales and business. A salesperson’s success is measured by one thing: results. Revenue. Closed deals. Your degree doesn’t matter. Your track record does.
I’ve known high school dropouts who became top sales performers at major companies. Not because they snuck in and got lucky. But because they were relentless learners. They studied the market, learned their product, understood customer psychology, and practiced constantly.
A business owner doesn’t care if their head of operations has an MBA. They care if operations run well. If revenue is growing. If the team is executing.
In these fields, credentials can actually be a liability. They can make you overconfident, make you think you understand something you haven’t actually done. Practical results are the only credential that matters.
Design and Creative Fields: Portfolio Over Pedigree
Graphic designers. UX designers. Content creators. These fields have never really cared about credentials in the traditional sense.
What matters? Your portfolio. What you’ve actually made. Can you solve design problems? Can you think visually? Do your solutions work?
A designer with a portfolio of beautiful, functional work will get hired before a designer with a fancy degree and a weak portfolio. Every time.
These fields figured it out early: the best credential is demonstrated capability. Show what you can do, and you don’t need much else.
Medicine and Specialized Fields: The Exception That Proves the Rule
Now, before someone says “but what about doctors?” let me address it.
Yes, you need credentials to be a doctor. You need to pass licensing exams. You need years of training. But here’s the thing: those credentials exist for good reason. They’re measuring something real. When you get a diagnosis from a licensed physician, you know they’ve been through rigorous training and testing.
The difference is that medical credentials actually correlate with competence because the training is brutally practical. You don’t just sit in lectures and pass tests. You work in hospitals. You see patients. You make decisions with feedback. You learn by doing under supervision.
So medical credentials are actually different. They’re not credentials that measure memorization. They’re credentials that measure demonstrated capability under real conditions.
The problem is that most credentials aren’t like that. Most credentials measure something that has nothing to do with actual competence. But we’ve convinced ourselves they do.
The Pattern Across Domains
Here’s what I notice: in every field where results are immediately visible and measurable, credentials matter less. Sales results are obvious. Design work is obvious. A building either stands or it doesn’t. Code either works or it doesn’t.
In fields where results are ambiguous or long-term, credentials matter more. You can’t immediately see if an economics degree made someone a better economist. So we use the credential as a proxy.
But that’s backwards. That’s exactly when credentials matter least. When results are ambiguous, that’s when you need to assess actual competence, not just check a box.
Why This Matters
The broader point: practical skills matter everywhere. Not just in tech. Not just in trades. Everywhere.
A teacher doesn’t become great because they have an education degree. They become great by teaching, getting feedback, learning from their mistakes, iterating. By doing the actual work.
A writer doesn’t become great by studying creative writing. They become great by writing, reading feedback, rewriting, shipping work, and doing it again.
A leader doesn’t become great by taking leadership courses. They become great by leading, making mistakes, learning from teams, adapting, and leading again.
The pattern is universal: competence comes from doing the work and learning from it. Not from sitting through a program and collecting a credential.
Yet we keep using credentials as if they measure competence. We keep hiring based on them. We keep believing that someone with the right degree will be good at the job.
The real world keeps proving us wrong. And we keep ignoring it.
The Missing Conversation
What’s fascinating is how few people talk about this. We see the pattern everywhere, but we don’t name it. We see that practical skills matter more than credentials, but we keep investing in credentials anyway.
Sales teams don’t care about your degree. Construction companies don’t care about your degree. Startups don’t care about your degree. But ask someone where they should go after high school, and the answer is still: “Get a degree.”
The disconnect is stunning. We know credentials don’t predict success. We know practical skills do. But we’ve built an entire system around the opposite.
Tomorrow, we dig into what that system is actually teaching. And why what it’s teaching is so often useless.
