How I wonder who you are?
Do you ever think back to your high-school or college days and wonder what all your friends (and enemies) are up to? Applications like Facebook, Classemates, and MySpace have certainly made it easy to recreate old connections and bridge gaps that have been created between former friends, but there’s always a few questions that linger in the back of your mind, right? Or am I the only one?
I was talking to a few of my high-school friends on MSN and AIM a little while ago and I realized that after high-school I really did take off in a whole different direction. Most of my friends went on to college and university, a few took on trades, and one of them even won the lottery for $38 million, but I still managed to fly off to somewhere else entirely.
Most of my friends went to college and university. By now they’ve all graduated and found decent jobs (I’m sure) and are working hard to make room for themselves in our crowded modern society. I went to university, but I never graduated. I never felt the motivation to actually attend class and finish what I had started, and so after spending nearly $15,000 I am no further ahead than I was when I started (according to my friends and family, anyway).
Yet, looking entirely from an income and overall job satisfaction level, most of my friends make decent money (around $50K a year seems to be the average) and are decently satisfied with their work. I make good coin (more than all of my friends) and love what I do, yet ALL of my high-school chums constantly remind me to “get a real job” and finish my degree. I don’t know if the jokes on them (it’s too early to tell), but right now I’m happy doing exactly what I’m doing.
But, out of everyone I went to school with, there’s one woman who has really taken off. She has her degree, her own business, a private jet, and just about every car I could ever dream of, and she started with nothing. What I find really funny about all of this is that during high-school she was really average in every way- average grades, didn’t really participate in school events, and just managed to coast through high-school without making too many waves. Now she’s a multi-millionaire by her own design.
I love how ironic life can be.
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That is a feeling that really rings true with me. I dropped out of college half-way, earlier this year, to pursue my entrepreneurial dreams. Now, everyone is graduating and making 30-40k/year thus beginning their long and predictable climb of the corporate latter.
Like you, I, on the other hand, make WAY better money than they do while doing what I love. Cheers for entrepreneurial initiative!
Excellent NYD reading Always great to hear about the people who do thereir own thing and prosper. Happy new year
I dont think college degrees or grades matter very much in life.Many illiterate people hav made it to the top and many well educated have ruined.
You may be very successful in college or university, but what actually matters is how you handle life when you go beyond those college boundaries after your graduation.
I agree - degrees, etc don’t matter, except in certain trades.
However until this world sees it differently they will matter. I have lost out on countless jobs because “the other guy had a degree” but no reference to my xx years of experience over them! Or I haven’t even got to the interview because I don’t have the magical piece of paper.
I do what I do and I enjoy it - I’m not making shed loads of cash and I’m also not bragging about it.
That’s pretty funny. I guess you can’t predict success in life by grades and activities. It’s like how they say that the world is run by ‘C’ students!