ST JAMES, Jamaica — Founder and CEO of Goffah Global, Odetta Rockhead Kerr, a woman who dropped out of high school with two children and later graduated from university, is encouraging young people to debunk and dismiss a common notion that they can still be billionaires without a formal education.

“Thumbs down and I am not saying that you are not going to be the next greatest. I am not saying if you don’t go to school, that is impossible in this world. What I am saying is that the probability of you achieving even greater success is even significantly more when you have an education because Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon) and Oprah Winfrey (American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, businesswoman and philanthropist) who are two of the richest people in the world are scholarship awardees,” stressed Rockhead Kerr.

“So, Jay-z (an American rapper, songwriter, record executive, businessman, and media proprietor) and Richard Branson (an English investor and author and business magnate who owns Virgin Mobile and Virgin Airlines), yes, they are billionaires too but look at the difference in the billions. Yes, if I don’t go to school, I might get something but if I do, it prepares me better to claim what it is that I want out of this life,” the CEO encouraged.

Rockhead Kerr, who was the first local to manage a business process outsourcing (BPO) unit in Jamaica, further gave statistics to support her argument during her address to youths at the now-concluded third staging of Outsource 2 Jamaica conference — exhibition — career summit 2021 on Saturday. The two-day conference was held virtually from a location in Montego Bay.

“Seventy point one per cent of billionaires around the world have at least a bachelor’s degree, take note. Of the 275 billionaires in all the world, less than 20 that I have researched are actually high school dropouts. That is less than one per cent.”

“Why are you basing your destiny on a statistic that has a probability that is lower than one per cent? And it is significantly lower as well,” added Rockhead Kerr.

“Of the 7.9 billion people on earth, less than 20 are billionaires who did not finish high school. Only 934 of 7.9 billion are billionaires that have a college degree. The number of billionaires that actually have a college degree is plenty. It is not 964. So, let’s stop basing our outcome on the improbable outcome,” said Rockhead Kerr.

She noted that education is key to developing critical solving skills. In addition, she said it allows for critical, strategic and logical thinking, among other things.

Anthony Lewis