Stay the hell away from the universities/[advanced] indoctrinitation centers
I’m a 9th grade dropout, just a fact. When they started adding letters in with numbers (algebra and above) I lost interest and knew that I could hire someone to do any of that type of math if I needed it in my future. I grew up in a home with a self-employed father. He started his own company when he got back from the war, he was in the Battle of Midway. My dad said I could quit if I got my GED. So, I signed up and took the 6 week course and got it. I worked a couple jobs but my dad always taught me you can never get ahead by trading dollars for hours. So I started a service company on a shoestring. In the 1980s I was making well over $50K per year. Great money for a 25 year old female back then. Next, I decided on a different business. Started a carpet and upholstery cleaning business. I had 5-6 telemarketers. One day the Mom of a 17 year old phoner came in and asked me to encourage her daughter to finish school and go to college. I looked straight at her and said:
…”You’re asking the wrong person. I dropped out in 9th grade, and am now operating my second successful business at age 35. I would encourage your daughter to ask me how I did this and to listen carefully to my answers and to follow in my footsteps. My sister got a business degree and she is now washing cars for Enterprise Car Rental. My brother also did not go to college and decided on real estate At that time he had just got written up in the NYT as a top producing rookie Agent of the year (nationwide) for McPhearsons Realty. Now, he makes about $50K a month, and I am riding his coattails as his right hand.
Formal education is NOT NECESSARY to make your way in life. A GOOD LIFE. Brother and I have no student loans to pay back, and we are not in regulated industries with corporate oversight, and people telling us how we have to conform and do our jobs. Sure there are laws to follow, but he is not told what to do.
I recently gave some advice to my young nephew when he graduated. He didn’t take it. He went to college a coupe hundred miles away and fell UN with a bad crowd. Sister and Brother-in-law thought that the tough love of “get a job if you want spending money” would do it, but no. They failed to see that while raising him he got everything he asked for, so to him this being broke crap was unfair. He started buying quantities of bad dugs on the dark net. He was very naive, when he got busted they got him on 7 felony counts. Sheesh. I said to Sister - “Why didn’t you just send him gift cards for Safeway, for the Cinema, Prepay his internet—that type of thing? You can’t just toss hi out after providing everything and expect him to swim. Did you ever sit hom down and show him all your bills? Did you teach him abut what it takes to live independently?” — No, they thought they were teaching him a lesson. So now, the police want him to become an informant or they will it him away for minimum of 10 years. Wonder how tat will turn out.
There’s a middle ground…
Stay away from these evil institutions. They are teaching from a radical liberal podium. If you don’t have anything in mind, research different trades and go to a 2 year trade school. Learn how to do something where the professors are not preaching liberal values all day. The computer industry is still wide open. Longshoremen are always needed and well paid. Plumbers and Electricians make BANK, but they take a bit longer to get to Journeyman. Once you have a trade to fall back on, you can find your passion and find a way to get paid for THAT.
Start a business in the field of your passion while you are working in a trade, temporarily. Maybe your passion is building houses—being an electrician would certainly help. I’m saying put some thought into it, and take some out-of-the-by steps.
My advice is —Don’t Follow The Sheep, step away from the crowd. When people tel you they think you’re making a mistake, just smile and keep stepping closer to your passion. Later, when those people are nothing more than automatons that traded dollars for hours for decades and hate their life, you will have found how to make money doing your passion and you will be HAPPY.
Been there.