Do You Really Need a College Degree?

Society and the school system has us buying into the belief that attaining a college degree is equivalent to having a secure life.  I say go for it if what you want to do with your life actually requires specialized education, like being a doctor, lawyer, or engineer.  However, take time to think.  If you want to do something entrepreneurial, creative, or innovative (and this is what is needed in the new economy), then you need to ask yourself if you really need that college education, or if you can just believe in yourself enough to realize that you are more than capable of teaching yourself what you need to know with the limitless information that is available on the internet and through real world practice and experience. 

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." - Mark Twain

College can be a great experience, I know.  But remember, it's an experience you'll be paying for many years after it's over.  There are limitless experiences you can have and create for yourself in this world without such a huge financial burden.  And you have access to all the information you could possibly desire with the click of a mouse.  Please realize that our education system is stuck in that it is operating as if information is a rare commodity.  This was true in the industrial age.  It is not true today.  The price students are paying for a college education and the value that they actually receive from it has stopped matching up a long time ago.

Take my words or leave them, it's your choice - but that's just it - let whatever you do be your choice and take 100% responsibility for it.  If you're going to go to college, know how much debt you'll be carrying after you graduate, be mindful of what the market is like for whatever it is you're majoring in, get some real life experience of the field to know if it's something you want to spend the majority of your time and energy doing, look at people who have been doing what you're planning on doing for 10, 20 years and ask yourself if you want to be like them.  Will you be able to afford a home?  A family?  Will you be able to spend the time that you want with your family?

And if you're thinking of not going to college, then you really got to get serious and figure out what skills you need to be building and books you need to be reading.  You got to learn how to make money and how stay successful long term.  You might even need to unlearn alot of stuff you've been conditioned to believe.  You got to get comfortable with failing and being outside of your comfort zone and seeing that as a good thing.  You got to stop acting like you're always waiting for permission and start giving yourself permission.  You got to start studying the success principles and realize that everything is up to you.

Let the value you give to the world be your resume.

Make your choice.

Labels: 100% responsibility