That we all want to be happy goes without saying!
It's a fact that even though money can't buy happiness, we have created a society where it is difficult to function properly without it, because money is required to solve most of today's problems.
Without money you can't buy the proper type of food that will keep you healthy and properly nourished and, if you get sick, money is once again required to pay for health care and medicines; and health is just one aspect where money is a big help, but you just have to look around to find many more.
Think education for instance, without money it's almost impossible to acquire the specific type of education to be successful. And I am not necessarily talking about formal education. Still, without money you can't make a proper investment in yourself to become better at something.
And even though there will always be those claiming that you don't require money to be happy, the huge majority will agree with me that money makes everything easier, specially if you have it in abundance.
And because most folks tend to think like that, they reckon that going to college is the biggest stepping stone to achieve the goal of having more money. So, when I come and say that you can become happy and successful without a college degree, it might sound a little bit contradictory. So, let's take a look at what I really mean when I say that.
In the first article of the series, I talked about the fact that you must have a specific kind of education, if you're to make money without having a formal degree.
Now I would like to address the situation in which the majority of young people and their parents find themselves when the time comes to make a decision whether they're going to go to college or not.
One thing that needs to be reckoned with, is the pressure that society puts, not only on young people, but on their parents as well. In my opinion it goes without saying that you have to question everything, and this would be one of those occasions. Let's take a closer look.
Normally the conventional thinking goes like this:
"Make sure to get good grades, so you can get a college degree. That way, you'll surely land a secure job and then you won't have to go without the best things."
One thing that has already been accepted by the young generation, is the fact that they will have to live without a so called secure job. Young people understand that they most likely will not get a job and stay there for the rest of their lives, they know they'll have to make a living and earn their money in many different ways on many different jobs.
Today to make your living and earn your money in a secure job for the rest of your life is considered as something that happened to our parents and it's not more than a nice dream. We understand, know and accept that it's going to be different in our generation, that to make money in our time will and has taken a completely different appearance. And yet the majority still clings to the illusion that having a college degree will guarantee their success.
The truth is: IT WON'T! A college degree is not a guarantee that you'll make more money or even get a job and keep it.
Actually that's really far from the day to day truth on the streets of America and many other countries. Check out this quote from a recent article on CNBC:
"With millions of recent debt-burdened college graduates still underemployed by one of the worst recessions on record, many students and their families are wondering why tuition keeps rising, and how much higher it will go. Meanwhile, the ongoing rise in costs have stretched families' capacity to pay for college to nearly the breaking point." (Emphasis mine)
But let me clear something up at this point: If society is to continue to make advances, it does require engineers, doctors, managers, scientists and other professionals that are the result of attending an accredited institution. That’s a fact, and I’m not disputing that.
Also, attending institutions of higher learning will transform you as a human being, it will make you a better thinker, somebody capable of employing critical thinking skills which, in turn, might help you in your quest to make more money.
So, why the hell am I kind of talking against getting a college degree?
What I’m talking about here, are the people who do not have a particular inclination or vocation and decide to go for a college degree because they think that’s what they’re supposed to do and won't succeed without one, and in order to get one, go ahead and get themselves into debt that will last a lifetime to get rid of, without a guarantee that the return on investment will be worth it. I’m also talking from the standpoint of that young person trying to decide what to make of their future.
Yes, society does benefit from having lots of cogs in its industrial wheels. But the truth is that the majority of those cogs or employees never make it out of a boring daily grinding routine, that sucks the essence of the majority of their working life and rules all other aspects of it as well.
They generate more money for the companies they serve, but in the majority of the cases, they don't actually make more money for themselves and their families. On the other hand, without the entrepreneurs creating those companies, nothing would actually happen.
So, what’s a young person to do?
Is there an acceptable option for a person without job experience to be able to earn a living?
Is there an easier way to make money without a college degree?
Could you really become financially independent without a college degree?
Can somebody with the appropriate kind of education be successful and make enough money to live free of debt?
The truth is that many financially successful people didn’t even finish high school. Don’t get me wrong, I’m NOT saying that you can go without education at all. A lot of the things that you’ll learn in school will be VERY PRACTICAL in your quest to make extra money and are needed for general success.
However, there are many options to succeed without a college degree, if you’re willing to put the effort in a smart way and acquire specific knowledge that will help you make decisions that, when applied, can help you make a comfortable living with all the money you want. But not only that, this specific knowledge takes advantage of technologies that are starting to mature now in the 21st century, like the Internet with all its exciting online technologies.
If you decide to make money and earn a living using these technologies and this specific knowledge is your goal, you really won’t have to be tied to a cubicle or an office for the rest of your working life; in fact, you’re not even attached to a city or a country and you can still become financially independent and make lots of money.
Unless you have an inclination or vocation for it, you should also forget about manual labor type jobs. It’s obvious, that if you go in for an interview without a degree, you’ll be offered low paid jobs that do require lots of manual and probably repetitive labor.
This is the main fear that people have. They don’t want to do manual labor and think that having a college degree is the easiest way of escaping it.
But there are other options, and they are much better. They do require a little bit of work, but mostly mind work. You know, similar to the kind of work required to obtain a degree, namely, STUDY!
And similar to obtaining a college degree, you most likely, will have to make an investment to get access to that kind of specialized knowledge. The huge difference is in the amount of money you’d have to invest to obtain that knowledge. It’s a small fraction of what you’d have to pay for a tuition in a high education institution.
If we think about what colleges charge in terms of tuition, like for instance, Kaplan University, which states on their website that tuition can go up to $66,780, not going to college and living without a degree might already represent a winning, because you won't have that debt with you all the time.
The key to success without a college degree
Before discovering the key to being successful without a degree you must understand what picking a profession and going to college really entails. In other words, why people normally do it.
Some people do pick a profession because they have a talent or a vocation to do that type of activity for the rest of their lives. They have an inquisitive mind that must have answers and has to learn new stuff constantly, they necessitate constant input. They are the minority. The huge majority just sees the whole formal education thing as a commercial transaction.
They think in terms of how much money they can make with whatever profession they pick. They calculate the amount they'll generate if they go to college and how much less they'll get if they go on living without a degree. Simply put, they go to college because they believe that by doing it, they'll make more money over time. They even go into debt because they think the extra money they will make will offset whatever debt they incur.
The problem is that they make all these decisions using assumptions that used to be valid and factual but are not anymore.
It's time to update those assumptions and make them more close to the actual reality. As you've read, there are no guarantees out there, even if you have a degree. The times of getting a job that would last a lifetime are sadly over, and that's a fact. Most people have to incur huge debts in order to just set foot in a higher education institution and that debt can, according to statistics, become their companion till the end. These are the new assumptions you should keep in mind.
But there is something new out there. New in the sense that it has become easier than ever before. I'm talking about Online Home Business Opportunities and how easy it is in today's world to make money through them.
You can certainly get involved and be successful in an online home business opportunity without a college degree, but there are other factors that are a must if you're to succeed.
Given that they are online, you can work these business opportunities from a home office or, being more specific, from a laptop that has access to the online world. If done correctly, your home business can make you a good living and as part of the whole package, give you freedom.
And that's exactly the point, because even though it's called an online home business opportunity, it does not necessarily mean that you must conduct your business from your home, although that's very likely to happen. In reality you can determine from where you are going to work, remember, the only obligatory requisites are a computer and a connection to the online world or internet.
Obviously, if you have heard of online home business opportunities in the past, or if you have tried to become an online entrepreneur yourself, you've probably discovered that it can be more complicated than expected. There is so much stuff that should kept in mind, so many decisions that are required to be made, that honestly it's not for everyone. And yet big opportunities open themselves for the appropriate kind of people.
To make money from an any type of home business opportunity requires a certain kind of person and a specific type of knowledge, but this is even more so in the case of an online opportunity. It requires from you to ditch the employee mentality and let it be replaced by something totally different.
The key of being successful with or without having a college degree lies in developing the appropriate mindset or mentality. An entrepreneur mindset that permits you to try new stuff with an open mind, to work smarter and look in uncommon places for sources of income. If you have that correct mindset and make the right decisions accompanied with the massive proactive action, it will certainly increase your chances to make it big.
Just look around, specially in the online world, and you'll discover unconventional ways of how people selling digital products or services that are not tangible have created millions and sometimes even billions out of thin air (I just read how Candy Crush was bought for 5.9 billion dollars).
One book that can help you develop this type of mindset and that shows you what is possible is “The 4 hour week” by Tim Ferriss. It explains exactly the principles I’m talking about in great detail.
Do you have the proper mindset? Are you that special kind of person that is willing to try new stuff? Do you want to discover what’s possible once you have specific knowledge? If you think you do, just sign up for the free and live training showing you what’s possible online for normal folks like you and me by clicking here.
After taking a look at these opportunities to establish your own home business, let me know what you think in the comments below.
I just paid $250 for Loss Prevention training and right now I am having a hard time finding one that will hire, plus I’ve been turned down cause I still don’t have experience on the actual field.