Re:
Having attended and paid for college myself, this post compels me to comment on what I've seen and experienced.
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I finished HS in the top 20 out of 800. Took AP classes. Even classes at college, too. I'm visual, so whatever I see, I remember on a test. Basically, I'd see the page and remember it verbatim on the test. Math wasn't the same, because math isn't memorization, it's learning skills and tools to solve regular problems. Like learning to use a hammer or screwdriver in multiple places. It may not be the EXACT same nail or screw, but by and large you lear HOW to use it. So Math was a wee bit different than say, Biology, English or History. But college for me was as easy, too.
Lacking a father or mother figure who said..."here's what we know of being 'successful'" (as they are blue collar and hard-busting their ace workers themselves), going to college was to say the least, unique for me. I was oldest of the old. Cousins. Grandchildren. Children. First of most, except a few uncles, twice my age who were engineers. And to engineers...Education = $$$$. I had one "business" oriented uncle, and he never finished college. He attended 3 years of medical school, dropped out to 2 work at 2 gas stations while living with 2 women, both of which he banged and knocked up, then went to work in sales at his father's company, without his father's approval. Eventually, they got over their differences and he became CEO and president making 700k+. In Boston, that isn't big time, but it's enough to make your own schedule and get in at some nice spots.
So after I realized ANYONE could get 4.0, I realized there HAD to be another way. And that was when, with the assistance of "self help" books, Jim Rohn, Brian Tracey, and company, and I chose my own path. I chose a few mentors who wanted to mentor. They care about my success. I love my family, but there's a difference between EFFECTIVE and EFFICIENT, as well as productive in the direction of success.
So my journey began when my frustration turned to action and motivation. Sometimes frustration, actually, most of the time, it's a great thing. It gets you amped up. Emotional. Even pissed. People who never savor that, never hit bottom. They're always CAUGHT by something and someone, so they're never self-motivated. That's why I don't believe in much help for anyone. They need to see the Abyss. Without doing so, they can never know how bad it can be, they can't learn to appreciate anything and won't learn how strong they COULD be.
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When you examine college, its a sham. I mean come on. All the people PUSHING college, haven't invested in anything more than their homes as such a sum. College, at the cheapeast, is 10k, and that's assuming you attend a local community college. A premier education si 150k, plus, not including miscellaneous items, opportunity cost of NOT actually investing that money, interest on loans, and time in between where other expenses are incurred. Your brain is worth that, but is your spirit, your will enough to make it grow better than a 5% cd compounded???
For most, the answer is actually No.
They wouldn't accept hearing such hogwash, but it's true. And think of it. A foreigner would think our system is awesome, and relative to other countries, it is awesome. But we are BUYING our jobs. Education in the sense college is pitched is not education. It's not awareness, it's technical skills, polishing students to be the best cogs in the machines. And how do you get to be a better cog? Go to the better schools and KNOW people in the KNOW.
You have to look at what makes money. Look at all the students spending FOUR FREAKING years learning something, anything. Now, if you spent that SAME amount of time learning say...real estate, sales, stock market investing, or any other actual, known money making business, where would you be? And during that SAME time, could you not take the same class you'd have taken during college? Yes.
The Kids I've seen do TRUELY awesome...
- would have had the drive with or without college.
- had contents, and the degree only 'certified' them to whom ever it concerned that they were educated, they fit a mold and could now do whatever was asked of them.
I've never seen some idiot magically get IT and become wealthy. Even close friends who did OK in their respective studiets, 3.0 or better, aren't make BANK. They just have ACCESS to jobs they otherwise wouldn't have. Is that what they hoped with a degree? Probably not. They probably saw all the glitz and glamor a bright eyed kid has.
I was at a financial conference over the weekend, and many of the up and comers were 29, and banking 300k plus, and growing. What separates them from say...a near Doctorate in any other field? Desire. Passion. Will. Not education. You can cram anything upstairs. What makes the TOP schools different isn't a harder class; you can find that anywhere. It's the INtangibles. Connections. Reputations. Job opportunities. Notorious speakers, alma mata, and professors. The mode of thinking, not the quality of the text book.
Results MAKE money. Education she be geared toward that end, and that end alone. Great effectiveness, not efficiency. You could be efficient at making a problem worse, or effective at making things go right. There's a difference. For instance, cold calling isn't the most EFFECTIVE way to make more sales. If all you need is say, 5 sales in a week to be a TOP sales person, and you spend the MAJORITY of your time calling NON-prospects, you're not effective. It might be EFFICIENT relative to knocking on doors, but it isn't effective at getting you closer to the target market that will get you 5 sales in a week. That's why...who cares about the DNC list? Anyone NOT on it isn't a worthwhile prospect ANYWAYS.
Say with lifting. You do what you do to get results. What you're doing might build the base of a results ladder, or be directly responsible for the result. No matter what it is, you do it because it gets you closer to what you want and not further.
Is college constructed that way?
-take 4 years to learn a broad range of information, when you're hired for very specific tasks.
-costs a lot of money relative to the time put forth, and far more than the effort most give it.
- the money invested is NOT guaranteed, unlike the loans, or if you'd put it in a house or CD. here 150k dropped in some kids brain, encompasses "finding themselves" on 4-8% interest rates. you want to find yourself? do it when the bank clock is NOT ticking!
- are you learning from people who have been there, or are they just great at assigning homework, correcting papers, reiterating textbooks, and public speaking? who are your professors? life long students or people who have BEEN THERE, DONE THAT types?
I never see the point in DRAGGING out finance classes, when I blasted through as many finance books and pages in a month or less!
I think college is the BIGGEST c0ckblock to success. I can't say for ALL people, but people who attribute COLLEGE to their success, were already successful. End of story. It may have awakened a latent giant, but nonetheless, it wasn't the REASON for it. Even when you have the degree...you still have to apply for jobs, work the job, look good in the interview, invest/save the money and so on. It isn't like College = Riches. You are better than a FAILED athlete with nothing to fall back on, but it isn't the GOLDEN WONKA ticket kids are lead to believe.
"I'm studying so and so, I'm going to make bank." Well, hopefully its b/c they are confident and hard-working, NOT b/c the degree does it. A degree in ANYTHING can make you money IF you work at it. There's various WAYS to make money in different fields. So the degree is very generic. In medical, you could be a PA, a DR, or even in Pharma sales or Medical devices sales. Maybe even research? Perhaps you break off and invent a new field.
People have to snap the umbilical cord that traps their mind and free thought.
College is a stepping in life. It's like a SLIGHTLY longer book that you may purchase from B&N, but it isn't an Auto Pilot that grants you eternal life and wealth.
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