I see a plethora of threads or updates to long existing threads that are now starting to popup dealing with the question, should I go to college and continue on or not and should I quit my job. I wanted to write this thread to give my perspective to some one here who might be trying to get through this tough decision. Obviously every decision you make in life is unique to your own situation, so we cannot help everyone make it.
I'll start off with a short background on my past and my degree and hopefully someone can take something away from where I've been and where I'm at now. I went to a strictly Engineering School in Hoboken, NJ. The minimal female population we had went by a general quote since they were so outnumbered by guys it went "The odds are good, but the goods are odd." There wasn't really crazy major partying going on, but at times there was. It was probably 65% guys, 35% women when I went there.
Being at an engineering school filled with inventors who are your professors with major patents, you start to see what can be accomplished out there in the world, but still arent really thinking of going out on your own, as everyone in college is just trying to get the best grades they can get, to get good engineering jobs. From being in college, you really can see that everyone is just a cog in the wheel and wants nothing more than to land the good job and just go on with life. If you look outside this area, you realize its smarter to become an entrepreneur because there is actually less competition than for an actual job, that may have thousands of applicants for one position. The only problem is that your entrepreneurial competition is much smarter than the average worker that is not thinking outside of just their own environment.
I graduated in 5 years with a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering and then a Masters in Electrical Engineering. I left school with about $70,000 in debt. Realizing from an entry level engineering job alone it was going to take me forever to pay back this debt, I started thinking why is there no way I can control how much my job is giving me per year. There has to be another better way. I was talking to friends who were fed up with their massive college debt as well and this is when I came across TMF and read it 3 times. This is when things started really making sense and motivation to pay off all debt in my life really grew at this point.
Through college two of my best friends are trying to make it in software, one on his own project which is going strong. Another friend of mine is a partner in my software endeavor. This friend is from Peru and moved here when he was 3. His family moved because they lived in relative squalor there. His dad worked 3 jobs to make sure they could make it. My friend in college, took 36 credits one semester. This was all very tough engineering courses, with masters level courses in this, while he was a part of a Latin dance team. The average credits per semester I usually see people take is 12-14. I know with this dedication, this is the type of person I want on my inner circle of my company because he is a winner in anything he touches. I know we can't fail and we are both accountable to each other. Without college I would have never had the need to find the fastlane and even put it on my radar. I would have never met these two people who now we all push each other to succeed and talk all the time about our respective endeavors. I would never be working on this endeavor if it wasn't for my college years.
So college became a motivating factor for us to go this route. We all are in constant contact with programmers in the Philippines while working regular jobs, trying to leave these jobs to work on our projects full time, but using these regular jobs to make sure we are using the time to learn new skills that can be used in other places. Everyday I come home from work and make up a schedule about what I'm going to work on from 5 when I get home from work until I go to bed. This morning I was on a Skype call with our programmers at 8AM, while most people on a Saturday my age, are probably getting ready to go to the beach or out to Six Flags, we were working most of the day. We know once we succeed we can go to the beach everyday.
I hope someone reading this, can take something out of this thread, that first, don't go into student debt if you can help it, and second, if you do decide to go to college, use all resources you can to get to the fastlane. It's not worth staying in the rat race slowlane and I'm working toward my freedom date every day.
I'll start off with a short background on my past and my degree and hopefully someone can take something away from where I've been and where I'm at now. I went to a strictly Engineering School in Hoboken, NJ. The minimal female population we had went by a general quote since they were so outnumbered by guys it went "The odds are good, but the goods are odd." There wasn't really crazy major partying going on, but at times there was. It was probably 65% guys, 35% women when I went there.
Being at an engineering school filled with inventors who are your professors with major patents, you start to see what can be accomplished out there in the world, but still arent really thinking of going out on your own, as everyone in college is just trying to get the best grades they can get, to get good engineering jobs. From being in college, you really can see that everyone is just a cog in the wheel and wants nothing more than to land the good job and just go on with life. If you look outside this area, you realize its smarter to become an entrepreneur because there is actually less competition than for an actual job, that may have thousands of applicants for one position. The only problem is that your entrepreneurial competition is much smarter than the average worker that is not thinking outside of just their own environment.
I graduated in 5 years with a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering and then a Masters in Electrical Engineering. I left school with about $70,000 in debt. Realizing from an entry level engineering job alone it was going to take me forever to pay back this debt, I started thinking why is there no way I can control how much my job is giving me per year. There has to be another better way. I was talking to friends who were fed up with their massive college debt as well and this is when I came across TMF and read it 3 times. This is when things started really making sense and motivation to pay off all debt in my life really grew at this point.
Through college two of my best friends are trying to make it in software, one on his own project which is going strong. Another friend of mine is a partner in my software endeavor. This friend is from Peru and moved here when he was 3. His family moved because they lived in relative squalor there. His dad worked 3 jobs to make sure they could make it. My friend in college, took 36 credits one semester. This was all very tough engineering courses, with masters level courses in this, while he was a part of a Latin dance team. The average credits per semester I usually see people take is 12-14. I know with this dedication, this is the type of person I want on my inner circle of my company because he is a winner in anything he touches. I know we can't fail and we are both accountable to each other. Without college I would have never had the need to find the fastlane and even put it on my radar. I would have never met these two people who now we all push each other to succeed and talk all the time about our respective endeavors. I would never be working on this endeavor if it wasn't for my college years.
So college became a motivating factor for us to go this route. We all are in constant contact with programmers in the Philippines while working regular jobs, trying to leave these jobs to work on our projects full time, but using these regular jobs to make sure we are using the time to learn new skills that can be used in other places. Everyday I come home from work and make up a schedule about what I'm going to work on from 5 when I get home from work until I go to bed. This morning I was on a Skype call with our programmers at 8AM, while most people on a Saturday my age, are probably getting ready to go to the beach or out to Six Flags, we were working most of the day. We know once we succeed we can go to the beach everyday.
I hope someone reading this, can take something out of this thread, that first, don't go into student debt if you can help it, and second, if you do decide to go to college, use all resources you can to get to the fastlane. It's not worth staying in the rat race slowlane and I'm working toward my freedom date every day.
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