Education alone doesn’t cut it!

December 22, 2008 | 12 Comments

I just received a request from my friend, JL Pritchard, who runs a great blog called All Financial Matters.  I have the question and my response below.  This is a great financial blog that I highly recommend to you.  He does a lot of great giveaways and offers solid financial advice on a variety of topics.  I use it as a resource myself.  Check it out at:  http://www.allfinancialmatters.com

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Larry Winget’s Thoughts on ‘Poor Boomers’ Comments

By JLP | December 22, 2008

Recently, ‘Poor Boomer’ left the following comments on AFM about education:

Poor Boomer:

What’s with all the education hype? I have an awful lot of education and a minimum wage income - so what’s so great about education?

JLP:

Poor Boomer,

Education does not equal a great income.

Have you ever asked yourself why you only make minimum wage?

Poor Boomer:

It’s obvious why I make only minimum wage - I have no marketable skills and no career-related experience. (I got a liberal arts degree with law school in mind, but couldn’t afford law school, so my degree is now worthless.)

His answer bugged me so I sent him an email and asked him if I could post about his experience. This was his response:

Hi, no problem - you’re welcome to it. I think a college education is, generally, an excellent investment, BUT one entailing huge downside risks. I can now say that NOT seeking an internship in college (I was sure I couldn’t afford unpaid work) was one of my biggest mistakes. Also, I think there is a moderate time window in which one must “do something” with their education or degree in order to have meaningful career prospects. This time window for me lasted roughly five years, during which obtaining an interview was not especially difficult. After roughly five years, the interviews abruptly stopped coming.

Instead of me addressing this myself, I decided to ask Larry Winget for his help. For those of you not familiar with Larry, he has written a ton of best-selling books. His latest, People Are Idiots and I Can Prove It!, will be released next week (see Larry’s website for details on special he’s running). I like Larry’s style because he doesn’t sugar-coat his advice. He tells it like it is.

So, I sent Larry an email asking him for his opinion and this was his response:

I hear this argument a lot. Rarely do people actually work in the field in which they get a degree. Degrees in education, liberal arts and the like are typically not the educational path to high-paying jobs. In fact, in my opinion, the whole reason for a college degree is the education in discipline it requires to get the degree - not what your area of studies were. It takes personal discipline, personal responsibility and accountability, the ability/willingness to study, the time and effort to get to class and sit through class, the skills to test, the ability to work with others, the ability to set a goal and achieve it, to manage your time and a variety of tasks, and on and on and on. Those skills are the skills most beneficial from earning a college degree and those are the skills that can make you rich if applied.

People need to realize that “being excellent” at something that no one is willing to pay for is of little value if you measure success in terms of financial achievement (and most of us do.) One really marketable skill - again one and only one - can make you rich.

If someone has a real desire to be successful, all they have to do is ask themselves what skills are people willing to pay for? I will guarantee they are the skills I listed above. All other specific/technical/job-related skills can be taught and most employers are more than willing to teach job-related skills to anyone who has the ability to set and achieve goals, be responsible, manage their time, handle a variety of tasks, work well with others and so on.

Another comment on the posting is this: Anyone - again ANYONE who makes minimum wage is only putting out minimum effort. Tough approach I know, but it is true. Minimum wage jobs are STARTING places - they are entry level jobs into the employment pool. The people who get them and stay in them are the people who aren’t willing to go beyond minimum effort and show their employer they have more than minimum skills.

By the way, my degree is in Library Science. Do you think I would be where I am today utilizing all the marketable skills I learned in that degree program? No. I never worked a day with that degree. I also never used it as an excuse. Instead, I quickly realized that in order to be financially successful, I was going to have to apply myself in other areas and do things that had nothing to do with a library! You don’t get a degree and think your education is over. Education is a continuing process. Therefore, I have read over 4,000 books since I got my degree. I have listened to 5,000 hours of audio and watched that much educational video. I still read every day to make sure I am current on what my audience wants from me. In my world, my audience is both my customer and my employer. This concept must apply to everyone in the workplace. I continue to learn so I will have something of value to offer my employer and my customer. Everyone must ask themselves if they are doing the same thing.

What are you reading? What are you watching? What are you listening to? Will it make you a better employee? employer? manager? salesperson? janitor? or will it only entertain you and leave you as stupid as when you started?

Before you blame your degree for your success or lack of it, go to the mirror and take a good hard look at yourself and answer those questions. Then you will have a clue as to why your life looks like it does.

Larry Winget

Larry said it better than I could have said it myself. I appreciate him taking the time to respond to my email.

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ON A SEPARATE NOTE:  If you are on FACEBOOK, be sure to sign up as one of my friends AND join to the Larry Winget Unofficial Fan Club.  I don’t have anything to do with the fan club but I joined it anyway!  I am brand new to FACEBOOK and think some people on there really need to get lives, however, it’s a fast way to distribute information to everyone about things that are going on.  So sign on and I’ll do my best to notify all of my friends on there of upcoming television appearances.

http://www.larrywinget.com/facebook.html

Posted by Larry Winget | Filed Under Money & Personal Dev 

Thoughts on a television commercial and more………..

December 12, 2008 | 15 Comments

I just saw a commercial for a television manufacturer who is obviously trying to sell more televisions.  Their advertising slogan is, “Change your TV, change your life.”  Okay, that’s just wrong.  Unless your life truly sucks, a new television isn’t going to change your life.  Or unless your television truly sucks!  If you are still watching a 12 inch black and white set with aluminum foil twisted into an antenna, then pay attention to the commercial, your life actually might change with the purchase of a new TV.  

I love to watch television.  I watch a lot of it.  I watch the national average of television per day and then some.  I rail about this a lot but sorry folks, I’m not in the same category as the people I rail against.  I watch TV because I am on TV at least 2 or 3 times per week and it’s helpful for me to see what is being said by the people who will be interviewing me and the people I will be debating.  Next, I don’t have kids at home that require my time.  Third, I do commentary on popular culture and the economy and politics and the news of the day and all the other stupid crap that happens so I have to watch a lot of news to have something to rail against.  Mostly, I justify my television watching because nothing else in my life suffers because of it.  I still read a book a week.  I still communicate with my sons and my wife - sometimes more than they want!  I still go the gym, get out of the house regularly to run my errands, and every bit of my work gets done.  My priorities are all in alignment and nothing doesn’t get done.  Therefore, it’s okay.  Can you answer the same way?  Is everything getting done before you watch your 4 - 5 hours of tube per day?   

 But the biggest issue I have with the commercial is the message it sends that a better life (a changed life) can happen as the result of a purchase.  Sadly, that message has been SOLD to the American people and we bought hook, line and sinker (with the sinker being your credit card!)  A better life is the result of recognition, education, and good old fashioned hard work.  To imply that buying stuff will change your life is irresponsible and plays heavily on the stupidity of the buyer, of which there is no shortage!  

This time of year, it’s popular for advertisers to lure us with advertisements in order to boost sales.  I do it myself right here on my website and through my email blasts.  I don’t apologize for selling my stuff.  I have no problem with blatant promotion of any product by any retailer or manufacturer.  I expect the consumer to be smart enough to decipher the information and responsible enough to not buy things that they can’t afford or don’t need.  That’s the point here:  how responsible are you?  What do you expect will happen as the result of you buying whatever it is you are buying?  Will your purchase help you achieve more or become more?  Will it REALLY help you “change your life”  like the television ad promises?  Can you afford it?   If the answer is yes, then get after it.

Think about that this year as you buy your gifts too.  Will your gift help the person become more or achieve more?  Be thoughtful this year and steer your purchases toward gifts that will last a lifetime, the gift of knowledge.

Now, MY effort at blatant promotion:   My new book, People Are Idiots And I Can Prove It: The Ten Ways You Are Sabotaging Yourself and How To Overcome Them is being released December 30th.  Here is my offer:  If you pre-order OR buy the book the week of January 5th (that week is most helpful to me) you will receive a FREE book.  Not an e-book to download or some other gimmicky promotion like a lot of guys do.  Just a real book that you will receive in the mail.  A book by one of my buddies that has been contributed for this special promotion.  If I run out of their books, I’ll be sending you one of my other books instead.  Bottom line: you get another real book.  So go to Amazon, or Border’s or Barnes & Noble or to any other bookstore you want, find my book and buy it before January 9th.  Keep your proof of purchase and send it to me (how to do that will be in the upcoming promotional piece you will be receiving.)  When you do that, I’ll stick a book in the mail to you from one of my buddies (each is a top selling author/speaker/consultant in their own right.)

Posted by Larry Winget | Filed Under Money & Personal Dev