Think Like a Hardworking Millionaire

We are brought up by our elders believing that we should go to school, finish college, apply in a multi national company, get a good job as an employee, and try to be the best worker there is. But come to think of it, it is an old school mentality based upon fear and submission. And it deals with human being's inherent need for security. Nowadays, this means financial security. People regard high education as synonymous to stable job and success; as such, if you didn’t finish your education, you will not be able to land a good steady profession, job competition is very harsh in the market.

Currently, I am longing for the period where I will be able to work in my own pace and time and not to trade my time for money and have another person be in control of my freedom as well as the amount of money that I could make.

MYTH OR FACT: Formal college education will lead to higher financial success. I finished college without any thorough study or desire to study. What I just know and feel is that I must finish college so that I will be able to get a stable job after college, nothing else. It is a good thing I am an average student in the right place at the right time. I was able to answer the test questions correctly, even the dreaded Calculus subjects. During that time, I answered and did what I was supposed to do as a student. And all the while, at the back of my mind, I was looking for information that could take me to the streets and survive. I was looking for realistic data that I could put to use. After being employed for so many years, realization almost always struck me that there are many things, practical things that one would need in order to use and survive the daily existence.

Like many other people discovered, I found out that when you get out of college, you enter the business and corporate world that cares little about education and feelings, and wants more marketable trade specific talent. So with my diploma in hand, I learned that I was no better off than a high school graduate. I discovered that those who entered the workforce right out of high school are at an advantage because they learned more skills, worked their way up and developed the marketable experience and dexterity that most employers are looking for. I felt I was deceived because all my life I was told that I should graduate from college and money will always be there.

The actual truth might hurt, but it is time for some cliché notes be straightened out. In this present day, employees with a college degree are a handful, even those underemployed, so to speak. Ask any employer and they will say that a four-year college education will tell you that you can read and write well. But what employers are now looking for is more of an experience and practical knowledge. It is very costly for employers to educate again and again.

I am not saying that a four-year education is worthless, but having a college degree does not weigh much at present on the career path. To rephrase it, going to college will make you a good employee, but it does not guarantee wealth.

It is sad to think that college education does not teach students how to wrestle urban bullies of the corporate world, while maintaining sanity between coffee breaks.