School reunions are funny places. The adolescent nicknames reborn over tepid buffets, the standard platitudes (“You haven’t changed a bit!”), the shock at the domestication of the surly malcontent you once had a crush on.

Most of us are keen to find out what became of the school standout, the person voted “Most Likely to Succeed”. Is their research published in peer-reviewed journals? Are they climbing the corporate ladder? Have they developed an app?

Sometimes the high achievers go on to fruitful and varied careers, but sometimes their light burns out early. Stories filter back of how they “lost it” at university. Not used to studying in an unstructured environment, they gulped down their freedom too quickly and greedily, and the last anyone saw of them was a chance encounter at a pool hall somewhere up the coast Dream beauty pro.

Often it’s the rebel who takes everyone by surprise. They’ve got four side hustles, three books to their name, and a reliable stream of passive income. While you have spent a fortune to come to the reunion, they’re making money off their online deals website while chatting over canapés.

As the nation’s most recent school leavers contemplate their futures — whether to take a gap year, whether to do the law degree their parents are hoping for — it’s important to remember that school marks are not the only predictors of achievement.

They’re important, of course, especially in gaining entry to tough courses, but the more you pull away from formalised learning and move into the workforce, the more vital other skills become.

US psychologist Angela Duckworth studies what makes people successful. In her bestseller, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, Duckworth argued that the prime indicator of achievement isn’t IQ or talent, but the possession of “grit”, the ability to dig in and keep going despite the headwinds.

It’s what educators also refer to as resilience, and yet some school leavers appear to have slipped through the cracks. A study last year by Headspace of Australian university and Tafe students found that close to 70% rated their mental health as poor or fair, and two-thirds reported high or very high psychological distress over the previous 12 months. Headspace CEO Jason Trethowan said the results were “alarming, but not surprising” as school leavers faced a range of new adult responsibilities that many were struggling to cope with Dream beauty pro.

Of course, some of the university students’ problems are due to tough circumstances that cannot be fixed by deploying grit alone, but the better equipped students are to handle adversity, the more likely they will go on to achieve the goals closest to their hearts.

The World Economic Forum’s 2016 The Future of Jobs report emphasised the importance of emotional and social skills for employees of the future, a high-tech landscape they referred to as “the fourth industrial revolution”.

The report states that by 2020, on average more than one-third of the desired core skill sets of most occupations will be social skills, such as persuasion, emotional intelligence and teaching others — skills that robots and forms of artificial intelligence cannot easily replicate Dream beauty pro.

My own work life has certainly included the gentle art of persuasion. I was a dedicated swot at school, earning a university scholarship and later a traineeship in journalism. But after almost 20 years in the workforce, I look back and notice a common thread: many of the job opportunities and highlights have not been the ones I formerly applied for. They were things I blagged my way into, opportunities I convinced someone to give me. When I arrived jobless in London in 2006, I phoned and emailed the daily Fleet Street papers until I was given a chance.

A very accomplished poet friend of mine displayed impressive dedication to her craft even when she was in her early 20s. She kept a hand-written list next to her home computer outlining the literary journals to submit work to, the dates they were due, and a marker next to submissions denoting whether they had been accepted.

I remember thinking that anyone with that kind of list in their life, whether it be for literary submissions or scholarship applications, was already half-way there, destined not only for great things, but also possessing the crucial inner resources to handle life’s inevitable headwinds,Reckoned as one of the top design universities with diversity of programmes, polyu fashion and textile, as well as applied science programme, which is committed to be a hub for innovative design education in Hong Kong.