Knowledge is a mystery. To have it is to fundamentally change. Some knowledge is beneficial to the learner, some detrimental. One thing is for certain though, the pursuit of knowledge is quite literally never ending. How do I know? How can we know for certain what is in every corner of this vast universe without having physically traveled there to visit? With that in mind, how big is the universe? I can’t say with any certainty, and neither can you as neither you or I have ever visited the edge of the universe to report back. And that’s just this universe – who’s to say God hasn’t created many more. The pursuit of knowledge can’t end until everything has been learned, which doesn’t look too likely at this point.

Stanford. MIT. Kellogg. Wharton. Oxford. The cream of the crop. Talk about a narrow road – the acceptance rate to Harvard Business School’s MBA program in 2006 was 12.6 percent. That means that out of 7,100 applicants only 895 students were deemed worthy enough to don crimson and become a part of one of the most powerful business networks on the planet. So what does life after Harvard look like? HBS alumni include some of the world’s most respected business leaders including Jack Brennan (Vanguard) and Jeff Immelt (General Electric) for instance.

There is another school that is far grander than any of the previously mentioned. It’s name is Planet Earth. What? You didn’t know that Earth was a school? It most surely is. It’s where we humans have the chance to learn how to become successful in life – after Earth. So what is the curriculum? What can be learned here on the third rock from the sun that will be beneficial upon graduation? We are to learn the greatest lesson of all – to love. It takes a lifetime of learning and far too few will receive a diploma. Many fail for many reasons. Some have brought the wrong textbook to class while others simply don’t try. Many don’t listen to the Teacher, and most don’t do their assigned work.

So what does life after Earth look like? I hope to meet up with you for an Alumni event, perhaps in a galaxy far-far away, to discuss just that.