build your beautiful self

As I drive around going from project to project, meeting to meeting, I am bombarded with stickers, license plate covers, and people hurrying from one place to another for their jobs (I assume). I see all the people who are super proud to be an alumni from the institution that charges them a fortune to learn things that may or may not be applicable in the real world.

I have a degree, I went to college, but what saddens me is I am not even using my degree in my business life. Even when I was working in the field that I went to school for, I only used a limited amount of the knowledge that I learned in school in my daily activities. Everything I learned, I learned on the job.

As it sits today, my son is at a college age, but I have not once pressured him to go to school. I always tell him that if he wants to learn a trade, he should find the school that offers the education he needs to learn the skill and focus on learning the trade with a job that is in the industry that he wants to be in.

I hear people talk about their prerequisite classes like English and business writing. What a waste of money!If you know the English language and took English classes throughout your school career, why would you need to take English in college? What benefit does it offer to your career path? Humanities? If you are a decent human being, you should be a humanitarian. Thousands of dollars people spend on these types of classes so they can get to the portion of their degree training that actually applies to what they are going to do for a career.

I listen to so many wealthy, successful people speak, and what those people have written and a strong majority of them never went to college, hated school when they were younger, and have grown to become very successful. I believe the common theme with them all is that they skipped something they didn’t like doing and used that to an advantage to generate their own business model. They were forced to start their own companies because they focused on their strengths and since most fortune 500 companies and corporate structures require expensive degrees to excel in life and work. I have spoken to so many groups of people who all say the same thing. I want to get into real estate because I am at the top of my pay scale. If I want to do more or earn more I have to go back to school and get another degree. When people get to that point in their career, they truly evaluate where their life is and what they want to do with it.

Coaching people through this type of decision making process is my passion! Not everyone is meant for the entrepreneurial life but those who are driven can make it! It is all about the decisions you make and the perseverance you have.

I thought I had really made it in life when I graduated with honors from college and landed my corporate job. I was loving life! Truly successful in the eyes of the world. It wasn’t until the economy turned upside down that I realized, I chose a very difficult path. $1000 and a few weeks of classes later, I was living a life by my own design. I am still paying my loans off 10 years later, but hey, I had some great experiences.

To those who are doing what you love and it came from a college degree, I commend you. You have made it in your own way! To those who seek a different way of things, look into yourself and figure out what you think will be a great fit for you. Save yourself thousands of dollars and pave your own way. College is not for everyone and the wave of the future is to encourage your children to utilize strengths in the way that is the most harmonious with their personality. Maybe going to college is the way for them and we still need educated professionals in the world curing diseases and healing people, working with the IRS and protecting your investments. If you have the entrepreneurial spirit, find a mentor or coach and go for it!