What if you could do what you lovefor a living and make a great income at it? On top of that, what if youdidn’t have to go to school, spend hundreds of hours in a classroom andend up with a mountain of debt when you finally earn your degree?Sounds nice, doesn’t it?
It’s true that the average college graduate earns more than someonewithout a bachelor’s degree. However, a good chunk of the biggestinnovators and multimillionaires in the world were either high schoolor college drop outs. (See: Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, Johnny Depp, BillGates and Quinten Tarantino.)
So how did they do it?
Is it really possible to make as good of a living being self-taught,as someone with an expensive degree? Each path has their uniquebenefits and drawbacks, and I’m not trying to convince you one way oranother. I’m just pointing out that the playing field has changed a lotin the past decade, and it’s more possible than ever to trail blazeyour own path. The biggest point is to determine what works best for you.
A lot of people don’t know this, but I never graduated from highschool. At the beginning of my sophomore year I just stopped having aninterest in going to class. The work was too easy for me and I felt Iwas being forced to learn about things that I had no interest in. Ifelt like I had no participation in my own education. So I stoppedgoing.
A few years later I ended up attending a community college. I neverfinished that either, but I did like it a lot better than high school.I didn’t choose a set major; I just took whatever classes interestedme. I had no desire to actually obtain a degree, I only wanted to learnabout the things that interested me.
Honestly, I think taking classes that you find interesting should bea greater focus in college, because too much emphasis is being placedon partying and fulfilling course requirements. College is your chanceto study the things you care about. Who cares if they don’t apply toyour major? I didn’t.
In case you’re wondering what kind of options are out there, hereare a few career opportunities that don’t require a college degree:
The possibilities are only limited to your imagination. Most of the skills needed for these pursuits can be learned with a simple library cardand self teaching. You can obviously study most of these career pathsin a formal setting as well, but it’s not necessarily required.
It’s my opinion that over the course of the next decade, we’ll see alot more people on the scene of the self starting career path. Theamount of free information and self educations resources is exploding.Places like Wikipedia and Personal MBAare changing the playing field. Not only that, but it’s becoming easierto establish yourself as an expert and build your network than everbefore. Things like blogging and online content publishing platformscan allow you to demonstrate your expertise without decades of climbingyour way up the corporate ladder. Social networks like Twitter andLinkedIn can allow you to cut out the middle man and build direct,mutually beneficial relationships with the people you need to know.
Despite how romantic this all sounds, this path isn’t always bed ofroses. There are some qualities you need in order to be a self-maderenegade:
I’m not claiming that the traditional path doesn’t have any value.There are benefits and disadvantages to each side. Let’s take a look atthe pros and cons of a college graduate vs. the self educated person.
College degree pros:
College degree cons:
Self educated pros:
Self education cons:
So if you’re thinking about the DIY path, here are some good resources to get you started:
Closing thoughts
If you’re looking to become a chemist, anthropologist, a doctor or alawyer, the self-educated path is probably not the best choice for you.If you’re looking for a career in technology, social media, writing orstarting your own business, self teaching is probably your best bet. Itall depends on what you want out of life. You can obviously have ahybrid of both, too.
In the end, what really matters is real world experience, something no library, classroom or teacher can offer.
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