By The Dissident Dad: I was wiping off the dust from an old book that I read when I was just 15 years old. I thought I had lost it, but while cleaning out my garage, I discovered it at the bottom of a box, like buried treasure. This specific book changed my life. It was the key to everything my brain had told me was right, but I had never seen it in written words. The book was “Rich Dad, Poor Dad,” by Robert Kiyosaki. First self-published in 1997, somehow I got lucky and a friend who was in his 30s gave it to me as a gift.
Upon opening up this book that I hadn’t touched in 18 years, written in my handwriting was “free your mind.” It was a statement of faith I had declared to myself as a young man.
Since last fall, I’ve been writing Dissident Dad posts weekly, focusing on my personal struggle to raise 3 children in an environment where the America we were all told about and learned to love is completely in the past. It’s a totally foreign nation to anyone residing in the current police state run by an insane group of oligarchs, multinational corporations and lunatics in D.C.
Today, I want to change it up a bit and reach out to any young adults reading this post, or perhaps parents who are raising teenagers. With daily stories about college-aged kids being overwhelmed with debt and irrelevant degrees for today’s economy, I wanted to put together a list of 50 alternatives to going to college.
I personally have no college degree. In fact, I’ve only taken 1 college course, Real Estate Principles, which in all honesty was a waste of time. That’s because by the time I took this class at age 19, I had already purchased two rental properties, with my first one being bought at age 18.
With the Internet of everything and online education abundant in all fields, unless you need a specific license mandated by the government to do business, I just don’t see why a high school graduate would jump into college. I’m not against college at all, but at the very least, consider taking a year off before spending tens of thousands of dollars, or worse – borrow money.
These 50 ideas can all be altered and/or used to inspire new ideas to suit your own life. The point in creating this list is to demonstrate that you can do a thousand things to benefit your life outside of getting a college degree. Don’t limit yourself. The source for education and success does not come from academia, it comes from your desire to learn.
Become a learn-it-all, as my friend David Morgan often tells me.
One last thing. If you still want to go to college, great. You should seriously consider studying abroad. Not only will this be a great life experience, but you can save a fortune. France’s L’Ecole Polytechnique is one of the top universities in the world, with a tuition of less than $5,000!
The Dissident Dad’s 50 Alternatives to College (these will be published in two installments).
1) Go to the top people in the field you want to work in and offer 1 year of internship. Let them know you will do whatever they say in exchange for their experience and knowledge. Add value to their lives. Come prepared, by offering up free labor. Tell them you’ll brief them on books, video research, whatever it is, whatever they need to be more efficient. You will become their personal assistant, and all you want is the experience – not a single dollar!
Mentors and apprenticeship is a forgotten trade, but it is a very effective one that has been used throughout human history to become a master. Do this while young, before you have a family and the expenses that come with that.
2) Start your own business. The most I’ve ever spent to start a business was $1,200, and within 13 months, it generated $1.1 million with almost no overhead.
Ask yourself… what do you enjoy doing? If you had to go into a bookstore and read an entire section, what section would that be? Find what you love, and then monetize it by delivering value.
At the core of any successful business, you need to focus on delivering value to your customer. Most businesses fail because they are only focused on the money. Forget about the money. Deliver value to other people and the money will come. The math is simple, the more people you deliver value to, the more money you will make.
3) Do nothing. Not forever, but after graduating high school, go to a book store, read online reports, travel, and be poor. Take a moment in your long life to discover what you are passionate about, and learn as much as you can without the interruption of a state-organized education curriculum for the first time in your life.
4) Fast-track your skills by going to Udemy.com. Why spend 4 years learning outdated information, when you can dedicate a month learning a real applicable skill right now? Instead of having college debt and old textbooks, you’ll spend a few hundred dollars and be current with others in the field you want to pursue.
These courses are developed by private businesses, so in order for these companies to survive and make money, they have to deliver results. Giving you a worthless piece of paper to frame isn’t an option for them.
Also, check out Learnable.com for a second option.
5) Offer up your best ideas in a paid newsletter on the topic you’re most passionate about. Create an enormous amount of value for your readers and then charge a minuscule fee relative to your services.
6) Take Up Art: Whether it’s learning how to write, play an instrument, draw using acrylic paints, or photography, art can be both an outlet and a financial helper; and because art is about the story behind it, it allows for creativity and relaxation.
7) Join Charities: There are many charities that can be joined, helping others and learning in the process. Some of them can even bring direct benefits, through things like free food or lodging, and possibly even traveling to places most people will never get the chance to go! This can be a temporary (week or two) deal or a more long-term (years) experience that leads to a greater understanding of the world around you.
8) Play Sports: Sports can offer health benefits, such as keeping you fit, and they also help build relationships with those around you. These relationships can often turn into long-time friendships, as well as invaluable connections when it comes to the job world and beyond.
9) Volunteer in a Hospital: Whether you just want to help others, or think you might want to be a doctor or nurse, this is the perfect experience. Before committing to things like medical school (with high costs and stressful hours), volunteering at a hospital ensures you know what you’re getting into and that you enjoy it before you actually go through all that work. There’s a lot more to it than most people realize from the outside.
10) Work as a Paralegal: Much like working in a hospital, being a paralegal allows you to see what happens in the attorney world. Stressful hours and various duties are seen here, and it can be what helps determine whether or not pursuing a legal career is really what you want to do. Offer up free work in return for seeing what really happens – the experience itself is where the value comes from.
11) Take Online Classes at MIT OpenCourseWare: MIT OpenCourseWare has opened the doors to a lot of free online courses, and they’re the same ones that appear at MIT itself. In fact, a lot of the lectures are recorded from the physical classes, and come with the same homework, tests and reading assignments the in-class students utilize. A premium education with no cost, and it’s self-paced!
12) Get a Job Today: Get a job. Anywhere you want. Maybe at a restaurant because you like their food and they offer it free (or reduced) for employees. Or GameStop because you’re a gamer and want discounts. Whatever the case, having a job – even if it’s not one you want forever – gives financial strength and helps learn about dealing with other people and learning how to cope with various situations. Furthermore, this can lead to learning about a business you can improve on, later becoming the boss! Or you can rise up in the current business, and turn a non-career job into one.
13) Become an Actor: Whether it’s for a play, skits, or local commercials, learning how to act is a great benefit with a lot of real-world applications. It teaches you how to think outside the box, how to be versatile and conquer different challenges, and provides an opportunity to break out of your shell and just do something different. If you’re really successful, it could even lead to television or movie parts!
14) Sell Real Estate: Real estate agents deal with marketing and sales on a regular basis, with some of the toughest clients there are: home buyers. Buying a home is the biggest financial decision most families make, and learning how to sell to them is something that gives a lot of experience that is useful for other jobs (such as business-to-business sales). Not to mention, you can use this experience and knowledge to make a more informed decision if you ever decide to get a new home for yourself.
15) Become a Networker: Get to know people and host events to help people network together. Parties, seminars, etc. are all perfect for this, and the best part is that as the center of the group, you are essentially the star. Find a niche you enjoy (like entrepreneurship, inventing, or politics) and start finding others that are interested in the same area. In no time, you’ll be building up a networking list.
16) Learn to Master a Game: Whether it’s a board game, card game, or video game, mastering one teaches valuable skills. It teaches how to overcome challenges, face opponents (in a positive light), and learn from mistakes. And once you’ve learned how to master one, it’s much easier to master others, and this skill can even be transferred into the job world and relationships.
17) Write a Movie or Television Script: Writing scripts for shows and movies helps teach critical and analytical thinking. It also stresses creativity, and visualizing situations that haven’t actually occurred. This is a huge strength when it comes to formulating plans and coming up with roads to success.
18) Learn Yoga: And do it daily! This helps clear the mind, assists with getting physically in shape (and much more limber), and is known to enhance the ability to think, boost effectiveness in other areas of life, and overall make you feel better. The trick with this is to keep at it and stick with it.
19) Take Up Local Odd-Jobs: Things like gardening, physical labor, and mowing are always in demand. Go to your neighbors and see who needs things done around them. This is a simple way to get a job freelancing (bringing in revenue) on your own time, as well as gaining a lot of different skills for the future.
20) Be a Party Planner: Companies and individuals are always looking for a new event or party. Be the one that hosts them. Birthday parties, corporate events, and social events are huge, and you can connect with the community while doing it. Not to mention take part in the events you set up.
21) Learn a Foreign Language: Learning a foreign language helps open your mind, keeps the brain juices flowing, and allows for conversing with people that otherwise might not be possible. Knowing more than one language also offers benefits in a lot of jobs, since you can talk to customers or other business representatives in their own native language.
22) Make Videos: YouTube is a great place for posting your own videos, and you can gain a following (Internet fame), and possibly take it further. It’s also a way to fast-track an acting career, singing, or just show off your creative flow. YouTube content creators are also eligible to earn money from their videos.
23) Learn to Fix Cell Phones: Everyone knows someone that needs cell phone repair. They drop it, the batteries die, etc; and the good thing about fixing them is that all the information (and detailed guides) can be easily found through a quick search on Google or Bing! Use this to help others fix their cell phones, and you can knock out quick gigs that pay decently.
24) Learn to Program: There are many sites that have programming tutorials, and programming is basically just using creative methods to get something done. Once you’ve mastered one programming language, it’s easy to use others, and the knowledge gained from this helps with learning other new skills. Not to mention developers are amongst some of the higher paid professionals in today’s economy.
25) Train Dogs: Training dogs is a test of patience and understanding. It helps learn how to deal with another being (or in this case dogs), which is an essential social skill. This is something that can help strengthen relationships, friendships, etc., as the patience itself is something most of us need on a daily basis.
The next 25 ideas - Part 2.
– Daniel Ameduri aka The Dissident Dad
Source
Upon opening up this book that I hadn’t touched in 18 years, written in my handwriting was “free your mind.” It was a statement of faith I had declared to myself as a young man.Since last fall, I’ve been writing Dissident Dad posts weekly, focusing on my personal struggle to raise 3 children in an environment where the America we were all told about and learned to love is completely in the past. It’s a totally foreign nation to anyone residing in the current police state run by an insane group of oligarchs, multinational corporations and lunatics in D.C.
Today, I want to change it up a bit and reach out to any young adults reading this post, or perhaps parents who are raising teenagers. With daily stories about college-aged kids being overwhelmed with debt and irrelevant degrees for today’s economy, I wanted to put together a list of 50 alternatives to going to college.
I personally have no college degree. In fact, I’ve only taken 1 college course, Real Estate Principles, which in all honesty was a waste of time. That’s because by the time I took this class at age 19, I had already purchased two rental properties, with my first one being bought at age 18.
With the Internet of everything and online education abundant in all fields, unless you need a specific license mandated by the government to do business, I just don’t see why a high school graduate would jump into college. I’m not against college at all, but at the very least, consider taking a year off before spending tens of thousands of dollars, or worse – borrow money.
These 50 ideas can all be altered and/or used to inspire new ideas to suit your own life. The point in creating this list is to demonstrate that you can do a thousand things to benefit your life outside of getting a college degree. Don’t limit yourself. The source for education and success does not come from academia, it comes from your desire to learn.
Become a learn-it-all, as my friend David Morgan often tells me.
One last thing. If you still want to go to college, great. You should seriously consider studying abroad. Not only will this be a great life experience, but you can save a fortune. France’s L’Ecole Polytechnique is one of the top universities in the world, with a tuition of less than $5,000!
The Dissident Dad’s 50 Alternatives to College (these will be published in two installments).
1) Go to the top people in the field you want to work in and offer 1 year of internship. Let them know you will do whatever they say in exchange for their experience and knowledge. Add value to their lives. Come prepared, by offering up free labor. Tell them you’ll brief them on books, video research, whatever it is, whatever they need to be more efficient. You will become their personal assistant, and all you want is the experience – not a single dollar!
Mentors and apprenticeship is a forgotten trade, but it is a very effective one that has been used throughout human history to become a master. Do this while young, before you have a family and the expenses that come with that.
2) Start your own business. The most I’ve ever spent to start a business was $1,200, and within 13 months, it generated $1.1 million with almost no overhead.
Ask yourself… what do you enjoy doing? If you had to go into a bookstore and read an entire section, what section would that be? Find what you love, and then monetize it by delivering value.
At the core of any successful business, you need to focus on delivering value to your customer. Most businesses fail because they are only focused on the money. Forget about the money. Deliver value to other people and the money will come. The math is simple, the more people you deliver value to, the more money you will make.
3) Do nothing. Not forever, but after graduating high school, go to a book store, read online reports, travel, and be poor. Take a moment in your long life to discover what you are passionate about, and learn as much as you can without the interruption of a state-organized education curriculum for the first time in your life.
4) Fast-track your skills by going to Udemy.com. Why spend 4 years learning outdated information, when you can dedicate a month learning a real applicable skill right now? Instead of having college debt and old textbooks, you’ll spend a few hundred dollars and be current with others in the field you want to pursue.
These courses are developed by private businesses, so in order for these companies to survive and make money, they have to deliver results. Giving you a worthless piece of paper to frame isn’t an option for them.
Also, check out Learnable.com for a second option.
5) Offer up your best ideas in a paid newsletter on the topic you’re most passionate about. Create an enormous amount of value for your readers and then charge a minuscule fee relative to your services.
6) Take Up Art: Whether it’s learning how to write, play an instrument, draw using acrylic paints, or photography, art can be both an outlet and a financial helper; and because art is about the story behind it, it allows for creativity and relaxation.
7) Join Charities: There are many charities that can be joined, helping others and learning in the process. Some of them can even bring direct benefits, through things like free food or lodging, and possibly even traveling to places most people will never get the chance to go! This can be a temporary (week or two) deal or a more long-term (years) experience that leads to a greater understanding of the world around you.
8) Play Sports: Sports can offer health benefits, such as keeping you fit, and they also help build relationships with those around you. These relationships can often turn into long-time friendships, as well as invaluable connections when it comes to the job world and beyond.
9) Volunteer in a Hospital: Whether you just want to help others, or think you might want to be a doctor or nurse, this is the perfect experience. Before committing to things like medical school (with high costs and stressful hours), volunteering at a hospital ensures you know what you’re getting into and that you enjoy it before you actually go through all that work. There’s a lot more to it than most people realize from the outside.
10) Work as a Paralegal: Much like working in a hospital, being a paralegal allows you to see what happens in the attorney world. Stressful hours and various duties are seen here, and it can be what helps determine whether or not pursuing a legal career is really what you want to do. Offer up free work in return for seeing what really happens – the experience itself is where the value comes from.
11) Take Online Classes at MIT OpenCourseWare: MIT OpenCourseWare has opened the doors to a lot of free online courses, and they’re the same ones that appear at MIT itself. In fact, a lot of the lectures are recorded from the physical classes, and come with the same homework, tests and reading assignments the in-class students utilize. A premium education with no cost, and it’s self-paced!
12) Get a Job Today: Get a job. Anywhere you want. Maybe at a restaurant because you like their food and they offer it free (or reduced) for employees. Or GameStop because you’re a gamer and want discounts. Whatever the case, having a job – even if it’s not one you want forever – gives financial strength and helps learn about dealing with other people and learning how to cope with various situations. Furthermore, this can lead to learning about a business you can improve on, later becoming the boss! Or you can rise up in the current business, and turn a non-career job into one.
13) Become an Actor: Whether it’s for a play, skits, or local commercials, learning how to act is a great benefit with a lot of real-world applications. It teaches you how to think outside the box, how to be versatile and conquer different challenges, and provides an opportunity to break out of your shell and just do something different. If you’re really successful, it could even lead to television or movie parts!
14) Sell Real Estate: Real estate agents deal with marketing and sales on a regular basis, with some of the toughest clients there are: home buyers. Buying a home is the biggest financial decision most families make, and learning how to sell to them is something that gives a lot of experience that is useful for other jobs (such as business-to-business sales). Not to mention, you can use this experience and knowledge to make a more informed decision if you ever decide to get a new home for yourself.
15) Become a Networker: Get to know people and host events to help people network together. Parties, seminars, etc. are all perfect for this, and the best part is that as the center of the group, you are essentially the star. Find a niche you enjoy (like entrepreneurship, inventing, or politics) and start finding others that are interested in the same area. In no time, you’ll be building up a networking list.
16) Learn to Master a Game: Whether it’s a board game, card game, or video game, mastering one teaches valuable skills. It teaches how to overcome challenges, face opponents (in a positive light), and learn from mistakes. And once you’ve learned how to master one, it’s much easier to master others, and this skill can even be transferred into the job world and relationships.
17) Write a Movie or Television Script: Writing scripts for shows and movies helps teach critical and analytical thinking. It also stresses creativity, and visualizing situations that haven’t actually occurred. This is a huge strength when it comes to formulating plans and coming up with roads to success.
18) Learn Yoga: And do it daily! This helps clear the mind, assists with getting physically in shape (and much more limber), and is known to enhance the ability to think, boost effectiveness in other areas of life, and overall make you feel better. The trick with this is to keep at it and stick with it.
19) Take Up Local Odd-Jobs: Things like gardening, physical labor, and mowing are always in demand. Go to your neighbors and see who needs things done around them. This is a simple way to get a job freelancing (bringing in revenue) on your own time, as well as gaining a lot of different skills for the future.
20) Be a Party Planner: Companies and individuals are always looking for a new event or party. Be the one that hosts them. Birthday parties, corporate events, and social events are huge, and you can connect with the community while doing it. Not to mention take part in the events you set up.
21) Learn a Foreign Language: Learning a foreign language helps open your mind, keeps the brain juices flowing, and allows for conversing with people that otherwise might not be possible. Knowing more than one language also offers benefits in a lot of jobs, since you can talk to customers or other business representatives in their own native language.
22) Make Videos: YouTube is a great place for posting your own videos, and you can gain a following (Internet fame), and possibly take it further. It’s also a way to fast-track an acting career, singing, or just show off your creative flow. YouTube content creators are also eligible to earn money from their videos.
23) Learn to Fix Cell Phones: Everyone knows someone that needs cell phone repair. They drop it, the batteries die, etc; and the good thing about fixing them is that all the information (and detailed guides) can be easily found through a quick search on Google or Bing! Use this to help others fix their cell phones, and you can knock out quick gigs that pay decently.
24) Learn to Program: There are many sites that have programming tutorials, and programming is basically just using creative methods to get something done. Once you’ve mastered one programming language, it’s easy to use others, and the knowledge gained from this helps with learning other new skills. Not to mention developers are amongst some of the higher paid professionals in today’s economy.
25) Train Dogs: Training dogs is a test of patience and understanding. It helps learn how to deal with another being (or in this case dogs), which is an essential social skill. This is something that can help strengthen relationships, friendships, etc., as the patience itself is something most of us need on a daily basis.
The next 25 ideas - Part 2.
– Daniel Ameduri aka The Dissident Dad
Source
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