It's no secret. I hate college.
In less than a month I will be giving a speech to high school seniors in my area (who are choosing not to go to college) about what options they have and how to grasp their full potential.
For these kids and nearly all Americans, the indoctrination of "you have to go to college" starts when the kids are just 12 or 13. My first experience was when a school councilor came into my class to talk about preparing for college. I was in 7th grade.
Why go to college?
So I can get a good job.
I want to be educated.
I am expected to by not only my family, but society.
I want to make a lot of money.
Destroying your thoughts #1: So I can get a good job:
Despite what you have been promised since day one, a college education does not promise you a "good job." It is no single person's responsibility in society who's official title is "job creator." The next time you're in Target, Best Buy, or a restaurant and see someone who looks like they're old enough to have a degree, ask them what degree they got. They'll probably tell you. I'm pretty sure I could walk in to any three of those places and land that same job without spending four years of my life and $100,000 to become edumacated.
Destroying your thoughts #2: I want to be educated:
Take a good hard look in the mirror and ask yourself if you're goal is to get a piece of paper that says you are smart or if you are actually yearning for the knowledge behind it. K-12 education should be teaching students how to learn and how to find out what they want and need to know. Instead of preparing students to do this, research classes are taught to prep you how to use these skills for college papers, not for real life. Public educators are convincing students every day that the only way to learn something new is by going to school and taking a class for it. Rather than being focused on freeing people from school, they are breeding students to become dependent on it. Do you feel empowered now?:smilielol:
So what are you going to get when you get to college? For the first two years, you'll be completing under-grad courses that are no more difficult than what you took in high school. You'll be shoved in a room with 400 people learning from a 23 year old guy who touts his double majors and vast life experience. Do the math on what you're paying for, and you'll find out that at a common four year university, you'll be paying about $35 per hour for that course. 400 people x $35 / hour = $14,000 to have a 23 year old grad student teach you about starting a successful business. Congrats.
Don't worry though, the 23 year old grad isn't actually going to be teaching from his vast knowledge of experience of 0 days outside of his college frat house, but they will have you purchase a book from their book store which will be the sole source of knowledge. How do you think this book is chosen? By the credentials, authority, and experience of the author? Or the person and publishing company that gives the school the best deal? Yes, it is number two. Integrity fail, but at least you get a good school discounted price right? No.
Nearly every single book is double the price of what you would pay if you were to do your own research on purchasing the book and found it on Amazon. So I'll just borrow my friends book right? No. They update the books with a single change every semester and tell their students they have to have the newest one for this course. But don't worry, you'll be able to sell it back to the bookstore after your one quarter or semester class, for 5% the price.
The last time I checked, libraries were free. In an age where knowledge has never been more accessible to an individual, it is surprising how incapable the average person is from taking advantage of it. I have access to more information from the touch interface of my phone than my parents had in the entire libraries of both of their colleges combined and yet our new generation still gives the excuse that they can't learn something until they go to school.
Libraries used to be centers for intellectuals. People flocked to them to not only gain knowledge, but also to create new knowledge. If you can't even hold yourself responsible for finding knowledge (and have to pay someone who's under qualified to do it for you), then how do you ever expect to add to the human knowledge base. Who are the "knowledge creators?" Could Bill Gates have gone to school and learned to do what his company produced? Or was he one of these knowledge creators?
Destroying your thoughts #3: I am expected to by not only my family, but society:
Great! So you've decided you want to be a millionaire and are interested in the fastlane. The best people to learn from are the people that epitomize what and who you want to become. Since your parents and every single person in society is a millionaire with a successful business, who better to listen to. #sarcasm. Why on earth would you listen to somebody's advice who hasn't done it and proved it's success? The all mighty irony of people who say that TMF taught them more in 300 pages than their business degree did, is that one was taught by people who regurgitate information for $100,000, and the other cost $7 and was written by a guy who actually did it. Choose who you listen to. Read voraciously and always desire to learn more, but research who it is you are learning from. Rather than go to class and read what the guy who's never started a business in the front of the room wants you to read... read the book cover to cover from the guy who actually did what's in his book. If you want to strive above the average of society, why take their path knowing where it leads to?
Destroying your thoughts #4: I want to make a lot of money:
Define "a lot." Do you define wealth in the amount of money you have or the freedom that you have in your life? Do you think about how that money is acquired or are you so anxious that you take the immediate route of what will get you it here and now because society said so?
It takes money to make money. The irony of listening to entrepreneur's in school talk about how hard it is to start up a company with no funds is that they're spending thousands on their edumacation every year which could be put towards starting a business.
One of the things I will be talking to the high school seniors about is debt. When you hear about predatory loan practices, student loans never seem to come up. Kids are forced into a situation where they are led to believe that the people they are listening to are giving them the best possible advice. They can't be steered wrong. For the school councilor that is make $40,000 a year and still paying off his student loans from 12 years ago, he's probably not the guy I want to be listening to about how to properly provide myself with a skill set to start a multi-million dollar company. High school students are led to take on 6 figures of crippling debt with the promise of a better tomorrow. Think about what you could do with $100,000 in business.
Unlike your college professor, I am taking the advice I have just given. I quit school three years ago, have read hundreds of books on my own, started several successful businesses, learned what I want and what I don't want out of life, became a professional programmer, worked at Microsoft as a software dev before CS majors even graduated, have more money in the bank than most of the guys my age have in debt after college, and still know that I am in the absolute infant stages of my journey and have so so so incredibly much more to learn. I am not saying to take my advice... I am NOT the person who has been there, done that, and has the life that you want to live. I urge you to find those people for what you want to learn and listen to them. Get out of the student-teacher relationship and get into the mentor-apprentice. Become an apprentice by reading material of the people you want to listen to. You don't have to have direct communication to have a mentor. Last but not least, if you choose this route, don't expect anybody to agree with you. Like I said, your parents and society are expecting you to do one thing, but you don't want what "everyone" has. You want more. It's a lonely road, but you have to take actions that few do to live like few can.
In less than a month I will be giving a speech to high school seniors in my area (who are choosing not to go to college) about what options they have and how to grasp their full potential.
For these kids and nearly all Americans, the indoctrination of "you have to go to college" starts when the kids are just 12 or 13. My first experience was when a school councilor came into my class to talk about preparing for college. I was in 7th grade.
Why go to college?
So I can get a good job.
I want to be educated.
I am expected to by not only my family, but society.
I want to make a lot of money.
Destroying your thoughts #1: So I can get a good job:
Despite what you have been promised since day one, a college education does not promise you a "good job." It is no single person's responsibility in society who's official title is "job creator." The next time you're in Target, Best Buy, or a restaurant and see someone who looks like they're old enough to have a degree, ask them what degree they got. They'll probably tell you. I'm pretty sure I could walk in to any three of those places and land that same job without spending four years of my life and $100,000 to become edumacated.
Destroying your thoughts #2: I want to be educated:
Take a good hard look in the mirror and ask yourself if you're goal is to get a piece of paper that says you are smart or if you are actually yearning for the knowledge behind it. K-12 education should be teaching students how to learn and how to find out what they want and need to know. Instead of preparing students to do this, research classes are taught to prep you how to use these skills for college papers, not for real life. Public educators are convincing students every day that the only way to learn something new is by going to school and taking a class for it. Rather than being focused on freeing people from school, they are breeding students to become dependent on it. Do you feel empowered now?:smilielol:
So what are you going to get when you get to college? For the first two years, you'll be completing under-grad courses that are no more difficult than what you took in high school. You'll be shoved in a room with 400 people learning from a 23 year old guy who touts his double majors and vast life experience. Do the math on what you're paying for, and you'll find out that at a common four year university, you'll be paying about $35 per hour for that course. 400 people x $35 / hour = $14,000 to have a 23 year old grad student teach you about starting a successful business. Congrats.
Don't worry though, the 23 year old grad isn't actually going to be teaching from his vast knowledge of experience of 0 days outside of his college frat house, but they will have you purchase a book from their book store which will be the sole source of knowledge. How do you think this book is chosen? By the credentials, authority, and experience of the author? Or the person and publishing company that gives the school the best deal? Yes, it is number two. Integrity fail, but at least you get a good school discounted price right? No.
Nearly every single book is double the price of what you would pay if you were to do your own research on purchasing the book and found it on Amazon. So I'll just borrow my friends book right? No. They update the books with a single change every semester and tell their students they have to have the newest one for this course. But don't worry, you'll be able to sell it back to the bookstore after your one quarter or semester class, for 5% the price.The last time I checked, libraries were free. In an age where knowledge has never been more accessible to an individual, it is surprising how incapable the average person is from taking advantage of it. I have access to more information from the touch interface of my phone than my parents had in the entire libraries of both of their colleges combined and yet our new generation still gives the excuse that they can't learn something until they go to school.
Libraries used to be centers for intellectuals. People flocked to them to not only gain knowledge, but also to create new knowledge. If you can't even hold yourself responsible for finding knowledge (and have to pay someone who's under qualified to do it for you), then how do you ever expect to add to the human knowledge base. Who are the "knowledge creators?" Could Bill Gates have gone to school and learned to do what his company produced? Or was he one of these knowledge creators?
Destroying your thoughts #3: I am expected to by not only my family, but society:
Great! So you've decided you want to be a millionaire and are interested in the fastlane. The best people to learn from are the people that epitomize what and who you want to become. Since your parents and every single person in society is a millionaire with a successful business, who better to listen to. #sarcasm. Why on earth would you listen to somebody's advice who hasn't done it and proved it's success? The all mighty irony of people who say that TMF taught them more in 300 pages than their business degree did, is that one was taught by people who regurgitate information for $100,000, and the other cost $7 and was written by a guy who actually did it. Choose who you listen to. Read voraciously and always desire to learn more, but research who it is you are learning from. Rather than go to class and read what the guy who's never started a business in the front of the room wants you to read... read the book cover to cover from the guy who actually did what's in his book. If you want to strive above the average of society, why take their path knowing where it leads to?
Destroying your thoughts #4: I want to make a lot of money:
Define "a lot." Do you define wealth in the amount of money you have or the freedom that you have in your life? Do you think about how that money is acquired or are you so anxious that you take the immediate route of what will get you it here and now because society said so?
It takes money to make money. The irony of listening to entrepreneur's in school talk about how hard it is to start up a company with no funds is that they're spending thousands on their edumacation every year which could be put towards starting a business.
One of the things I will be talking to the high school seniors about is debt. When you hear about predatory loan practices, student loans never seem to come up. Kids are forced into a situation where they are led to believe that the people they are listening to are giving them the best possible advice. They can't be steered wrong. For the school councilor that is make $40,000 a year and still paying off his student loans from 12 years ago, he's probably not the guy I want to be listening to about how to properly provide myself with a skill set to start a multi-million dollar company. High school students are led to take on 6 figures of crippling debt with the promise of a better tomorrow. Think about what you could do with $100,000 in business.
Unlike your college professor, I am taking the advice I have just given. I quit school three years ago, have read hundreds of books on my own, started several successful businesses, learned what I want and what I don't want out of life, became a professional programmer, worked at Microsoft as a software dev before CS majors even graduated, have more money in the bank than most of the guys my age have in debt after college, and still know that I am in the absolute infant stages of my journey and have so so so incredibly much more to learn. I am not saying to take my advice... I am NOT the person who has been there, done that, and has the life that you want to live. I urge you to find those people for what you want to learn and listen to them. Get out of the student-teacher relationship and get into the mentor-apprentice. Become an apprentice by reading material of the people you want to listen to. You don't have to have direct communication to have a mentor. Last but not least, if you choose this route, don't expect anybody to agree with you. Like I said, your parents and society are expecting you to do one thing, but you don't want what "everyone" has. You want more. It's a lonely road, but you have to take actions that few do to live like few can.
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