College Respect?

[Phillip Joo]

HI BP, I was at a Financial College meeting with a man I've met twice. Everything was about college, until he asked, "Do you want to go to college?" I answered, saying that I knew it was a terrible investment that Im making, but there was nothing I could do about it. Then we started talking about how the only way to become "Successful" and "Financially Free" was through college. Knowing this wasn't true, I kept listening, he talked about how people would respect Investors and most likely invest in them if and ONLY IF they attended a good college. Respectully, I told him that I had a plan, and a vision that told me that the only way I would successful and/or financially free was through Real Estate. He then told me that I should go to college and deal with it until my third year, where I should transfer to University of California, Berkeley. THEN after that, people would start wanting to invest with me.

The point is, is that I knew that college has had no effect on the successful REE around me. The only thing I'm lacking is capital. Do I need to have a college degree in order to make it in Real Estate? Will people treat me differently if I were to graduate a college?

Do keep in mind that I live in Southern California.

[Daniel Chang]

@Phillip Joo

The posters above have pretty much covered the bases in terms of pros/cons.  Let me just say the following (of course this is my opinion only)

When I saw you are 17 and your profile states "I have had a fantasy of driving nice cars and traveling..." to me, the right choice for you is to GOTO COLLEGE:

-  I don't think you are mature enough at this point to truly understand financial management and wealth

- I don't think at 17, you can truly know whether RE is your passion. 

- Understand the concept of "Illusory superiority", whereby individuals overestimate their own abilities relative to others.  Everyone and their next door neighbor wants to be rich.  Only a certain subset of people actually attain it.  For every success story you hear of someone who made it, there's 5 more failure stories that you didn't hear.  I can almost guarantee you there's more people that have failed in real estate than those that have succeeded.  Other than your intentions right now, what makes you think you are going to do better than most?

- In school and academics, hard work pays off.  In life, it does not necessarily.  What is your plan B without a college degree?

I agree with @Joe Kim's bottom line: Goto College.  

Look at this way, you may be missing some of the best years of your life if you don't.