For 1 % the right answer is not go to college. For the 99% out there who are happy with a medicore to better of life the answer is yes. I am not making a alot of friends with this post but this is my opinion.
A little about myself, before I explain why.
Me personally didn't even finish high school. Born in germany to asian immigrants, visited private high school. Had my first company with 13 and had over 50employees, sold the second biggest ecommerce for asian grocery in germany when I was 23. Now I am here in the USA investing in real estate and having a restaurant. The waste of my time was my 7-8 years marriage, which stopped me from archiving more. Don't be with someone who can stop your dream ! But this is another topic. Anyway luckily divorced now for 2 years and coming back to life ...
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It's pretty simple for most people who have upper middleclass and high class parents the answer is go to college, you have the time to connect, to develop yourself and you are financialy backed up, in other words you got time to waste. You have a safety net underneath you. Even if your college fails your parents have connections to get you into something decent. Those group of people will life a very comfortable live, you won't really hear anything from them either. Those group will not be mentioned in forbes. This group will have nice houses, fancy watches and will show that they are better off, but this is also a group which is fighting hard to maintain their social status by living the " Better of live " , they got the better jobs but are not really working harder to archive better. So it will be more of a struggle to keep them where they are. I see so many " college people " who feel they have to drive a fancy car, because they are college educated, they need a nice dress watch suits to their armani suit, they need to send their kids to private school, have to live in a nice suburban upper class area.
Most of the college people have several weaknesses
- Feel entitled which prevent them to see things from a few steps below them.
- Feel more knowledgeable which prevent them from continiously learning
- Feel safer which prevents them from risk more
- Have a higher cost to maintain their lifestyle
- College people have higher salaries, not necessarly higher net worth.
- Their skillset becomes their asset.
- Higher salaries forced them to be their own mouse in the wheel to run for money. Most college absolvents will try to work more to earn more. Because they are themself their biggest asset.
- Most of college grads start their job by working for someone. This is like poison if your mind is teaching you that you get money by working for someone , you become a modern slave.
- Just because people pay you 200k a year does not mean you are worth 200k. You are at least 300k worth for the company but the company has to pay you less to make their margin.
- So many more reason why medicority and hiding behind a college degree is preventing you to become the best version of yourself.
- False feeling of safety and archivements is stoping you to become greater
I am a strong believer that wealth is build with knowledge, education and culture. It might take several generation and this is ok. If you come from a low class family to middle class family and you are satisfied with an ordanary life, then go to college. College is the best way to keep your life safe and without much trouble and excitement. Is a 9-5 life. This is what you have signed up for and this is what you get.
For the 1%, who already could not wait to finish school, who already build up something during their schooltime, who are really chasing the dream, who will always risk everything to climb up one more ladder, who will always stand back up after a knockdown, who will not give up and always pursuit further in all aspect in life. Don't go to college, you will be succesful and you will archive your goals.
Learn that the only thing everyone has about the same, is the time. Learn to use other peoples time to leverage your aim. You only have 24 hours, but if you used other peoples time , you are saving yours. Time is exchanged by money. In other words , you use your money to buy peoples time for a discount. The difference is your profit. You don't want to become a slave of your own system. If you can always try to use other peoples time and money to leverage yours. You just want to give enough instruction so it goes your direction. In nicer words this is called leadership.
Your aim is to be financially succesful, with a strong healthy body, a balanced, calm, wise and knowledgeable mind and a strong spiritual, all humanloving kind of person. With this 4 pillars ( finance, health, mind, and empathy ) you have a strong foundation to find happiness.
By just going to college I feel that I can not build on my 4 pillars which will lead me to be unsatisfied.
The strength of starting as an underdog
- You know you start low, to archive higher than other you need to work harder, faster, more effecient and longer
- You know you are poorer, so you save more, you learn being frugal, you learn being cheap, you learn to negotiate, you learn to stay alive
- You know the bottom, you are not scared of it, you had been here. Your thirst of going out and stay out will be bigger. You are building a inner drive.
- You have no qualification, you have no time to take a break, you can simply not give up. There is no backup plan. Is all or nothing the only way is you break or you succeed.
- You will become a " undercover millionaire ". You live in a working class neighbourhood, drive a japanese 2nd hand car, your kids go to a public school.... all in all maintaining your life is simply
- By having a low maintnance cost and by being used to living frugal you can safe up more for investment.
- Your knowledge about money management is better, because you never had enough
- Your knowledge to make money, leverage money is over average because if you had nothing and want everything , you are forced to learn , think, improvise, improve in all aspect of your skillsets.
- You are street smarter. You will become a more learning by doing type , your tolerance for taking risk are higher. Overall this softskills help you to be an succesful investor or entrepeneur. Important is that at one point you still have to improve your hardskills , read books, analyze mathmaticaly, be self critical, judge your way harder and you will get further.
- There is no image people expect from people who have no college education. Without this image, we can what we want to be. We can behave and do things which is out of norm. We are not scared to be different because we were from the beginning. We are the kid with non brand sneaker in school when everyone had their newest nike. So we are used to
- We can be different means we can change the group. If you can change the group you can be succesful. College people tend not to try to be different, they try to fit in than to change and create. Noone can change the one next to him when he is the same like you.
All in all, I don't think at all having no college education is a disadvantage. A piece of paper and couple years of attending some classes, where you won't use 90% and 90% of those relationship and connections are worth not a lot. It's however for many people a door opener and it will get you to the next room. But it won't get you out of the house. You will not see the world by just attending college.
For all who decide not go to college. Be hard to yourself. If you can not judge yourself hard enough, if you feel no drive to improve your life in all aspects, when you are lazy, when you get comfortable easy, when you easily give up, when you don't know how to be persistent and consistant, when you don't observe your surrounding carefully enough than please go to college. It's easier to go to college than not to. The easy way is college. College was made for 99% of the society the chance that you fall in this category is high. I would also send my kids to college unless I see the same drive in my kids like myself. Me personally never regret that I drop out of high school.
The most ideal overarchiver is someone who can take both strengths of going to college but not falling into this college grads lifestyle and continue their life with their ambition, dreams, determination of the person who did not attend college. Those people are usually CEOs.
