If the younger, 18 year old version of me was sitting right here, next to me as I am right now (31, older, and wiser), I would have so many things to tell the younger version of myself.
At 18 years old, I was as stubborn and as hard headed as I’ve ever been. I thought I had it all figured out. I thought I KNEW what I needed to do, and not one person was going to tell me otherwise.
The only one person I would have listened to is the older version of myself, which is why its a damn shame that wasn’t possible.
One of the very first things I would’ve told myself, is to not take out student loans to pay for college.
I actually think this is an even bigger mistake, than just the decision to go to college. I talk more about this is in a previous article here.
For the purpose of today’s article however, I’m going to focus on why just going to college period, is very likely NOT the right decision for you to make in 2017 and beyond.
There is one more thing to understand before you read much further. There is a certain kind of man, that stumbles onto and then consistently reads a blog like this one.
In this article, you are the guy I’m talking to when I say that you should not go to college. I will describe this breed of man starting with the next paragraph. If you don’t feel the the person I’m describing is you, then maybe college is the right move for you after all.
The rest of you (most of you) are probably in this category:
The Man That Wants More Out Of Life.
You are not like most people.
You want a competitive edge over life, and everyone in it. You want glory, just like I did, just like I still do. You’re an underdog in the game of life. That’s what drove you to this website in the first place. One thing lead to another, which lead to another, which lead to you arriving right here at Mission Life Motion.
Glory is to had, its just waiting for you to have to have the balls to go out and take it.
To hell with complacency and anything that even remotely resembles it.You should always want more and more and more…..
This is your life, its the only one you get, and its ending one minute at a time.
You feel you deserve the best things this life has to offer: abundance, wealth, freedom, travel, creativity, women, and options.
For one reason or another, for most of your life you’ve been the underdog, and now you’re the hungry wolf at the bottom of the mountain. Now you want to claim what’s yours, not because you’re entitled to it, no no NO. Just the opposite actually, you’re just hungry to earn your way up to the top.
Because earning it will make getting there feel that much better.
Other people are too busy bitching, whining, and complaining about ”fairness”, and why their entitled to the good life. They think doing this will get them somewhere.
At some point you realized that doing what they’re doing, wasn’t going to get you there, and even if it did, there would be no glory in it. No guts….no glory. The glory is yours to be had. And the only way to have that glory, is to go out and TAKE IT.
Take it like a Goddamn man. A man goes out into the world, and takes what he wants. He knows that no one is going to give him permission, and he sure as shit knows that no one is going to give it to him, regardless of how much he may bitch about being ”entitled” to it.
The other losers are off somewhere doing the opposite of this: whining all day about ”fairness”. They do this because the word entitlement means something to them.
Far too many young people today are disillusioned by this concept of entitlement. And far too many young people today go off to college believing that when they come out the other side, degree in hand, that they’re ”entitled” to the good life.
This is exactly what I thought at that age. I was blindly told my whole life, mostly by my dad, to just ”get that degree and the rest will take care of itself”. Well yeah dad in 1977 a college degree opened a lot more doors. To be fair to him however, there were a lot of people that were telling me that at that age.
”Nothing else will matter once you have that degree, you’ll be able to do almost anything you want to.”
While the you can do anything you want to attitude is not bad….it has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not you have a college degree.
I have never been spoon fed such so much bullshit in my life. And from so many different people too. I look back at my dad and everyone this advice came from, and consider the real influences behind what drove it from them to me. When I do this, I feel what can only be described as quiet rage.
Quiet, brewing, rage.
Not rage towards my dad. After all he was who he was and he never claimed to be anything different, but rage towards how stupid I was to take his word (and everyone else’s) as the gospel.
How stupid I was to not think for myself and decide what was really best for me personally. Hindsight is 20/20, but it still stings.
If I never do another thing the rest of my life, the one thing I will do is I’ll make life decisions based around what I want and what is really best for me, not what other people think is right or best for me. This is actually the #1 on the list of the top 5 regrets of the dying:
1.) ”I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”
The other 4 are right here.
I would have been so much better off getting a job in an environment that would force me to learn how to work with other people (something I learned to do in college….at a costly price).
I ended up waiting tables throughout college anyway, so I could’ve still done that, then maybe been a bartender.
Then I could have gotten either my real estate or insurance license and done what I ended up doing anyway. I would’ve gotten a head start by several years and had that much more experience, and real world knowledge.
All while putting money in the bank.
I’d like to think I still would’ve ended up where I am at the moment, but just gotten here from another route, but who knows.
This might be the only counter argument that I have to this whole thing: Would I have ended up exactly where I am today if things had gone so much differently for me? My theory is yes: I would have still ended up in the same spot, but we’ll never know.
Unlike many people, I actually take responsibility for my mistakes, own up to them, and do what needs to be done to get past them.
For the most part, I’m pretty damn happy where I am in my life right now.
The point is: be careful what you wish for. Ask yourself:
”Do I want this because I really and truly want it? Or is this just more of the same old social and/or parental pressure to do another normal thing that normal people do.”
Another example is marriage and kids.
You see, you have to remember something: society wants you to fall in line.
Society wants you to be a good little boy, and conform. Society wants your parents fall in line too, and it wants them to pressure you to fall in line.
”Just a be good boy now….lets not get carried away”
It would be one thing if you were going to sit around, smoke weed all day and play video games. Then you probably are better off going to college.
Because anything is better than being a worthless lump of shit that does those all day long.
If you have brothers and sisters that are, say ”underachievers” we’ll call them, and your parents want you to go to college because they’re paranoid you might end up like your loser siblings, then I can somewhat further understand their concern.
They want you to set a good example for your siblings.
I actually believe leading by example is one of the best ways to lead. The problem with that in this case however is this:
If your siblings are underachievers or losers….IT WILL NOT MATTER HOW MUCH OF WINNER OR OVERACHIEVER YOU ARE, THEY WILL STILL BE THE SAME PERSON THEY ARE NOW.
Believe me on that one….
The key here will be convincing your parents that a.) You haven’t turned out like them yet, and will not end up like your loser siblings, and b.) You have your own plans and you’re very serious about seeing those plans to fruition.
Remember that your parents, like most people, are trapped in the matrix. In other words they’ve been brainwashed by the media and society their whole lives.
Literally they’re entire lives.
They also grew up in a different time than you. When they were your age, a college degree made a lot more sense and could actually get you places. You didn’t need such a specialized, narrowed down focus like you do nowadays.
You didn’t need a masters or PHD to make your bachelors degree even mean something. Back then a bachelors degree was enough for the most part. Now it doesn’t mean shit. At least not in return for what it gets you and how much it costs.
And in terms of what it costs you, you have to also remember the opportunity cost, not just the dollars and cents.
Times have changed my friends. The world changed and it happened so fast most people haven’t even realized it yet.
The world is headed towards entrepreneurship. We are entering the golden age of entrepreneurship. Just like the 1950’s-1990’s was the golden age of cinema, we are entering that era of entrepreneurship.
Stay tuned for more articles on this comment in the month’s to come.
If you’re young enough to avoid the trap of student loans and a worthless college degree, then heed this advice. Go back and reread this article over and over until it sinks in…..WAY in.
The alternative? Here are some suggestions of service based sales jobs you can start with little to no money: Insurance sales (personal lines), real estate, private consultant, personal trainer, or work online doing something like Amazon FBA.
Start getting creative. It’s 2017 and never in history have there been so many resources and guides that break down how to succeed, step by step.
Most successful entrepreneurs have written autobiographies detailing how they got to where they are. READ THEM. If you need a little direction, here’s a great start.
I’ll talk to you guys again soon, until then,
Live Intentionally,
-Matt Mitchell
