How To Be Successful Without Going To College
ByKen Nobo | Submitted On March 13, 2009
I’m going to show you how to be financially successful without going to college — because I’m tired of the media over hyping the need for a college degree.
To be financially well off, you can work your way up to management in a stable industry — like the casino. Or the government, especially the military
What I recommend you to do is quit the “I need a job” mindset to, “How can I start a business on the Internet and make some cash money?” mindset.
I know, I know — school trains you to work for a boss. But guess what? Who needs a darn boss — be your own boss!
Learn how to start a business on the Internet. Build some websites, sell some stuff. It isn’t that hard to do. I’m a high school drop out and I’m making a living on the Internet. So can you.
Start off with eBay, or affiliate marketing. Before you know it, you’ll be earning a full time income while working part-time. So do it — because it isn’t that hard.
Side note: ever wonder why your high school teacher say, “Just wait until you get into the real world..”? Because high school is just a fantasy, where most of the stuff you learn in school you’ll never need in real life.
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Network Till You Dont Have To Introduce Yourself
Connect with people both in and out of your field. You never know the potential of your next connection. Its not just about being recognized, its about being recognized for your work. The reputation that builds up around your work, attitude and contacts will help to grow your network.
It can help, too, to become a super-connector. Dont just collect connections. Connect your connections. Everyone has unique skills and experiences. Leverage your network to help others connect, learn and grow. Bonus: that road goes both ways. People in your network will think of you in situations where your specialties would be useful.
So Can You Be Successful Without A College Degree
How to be successful without college/school? And, why do so many people think that you have to go to college to be successful? Its likely because they have experienced the benefits personally. So, yes, its possible to succeed without a college degree. But with so many programs designed to take you from having no experience in a field to being highly skilled and job-market ready, having a college degree offers a clear advantage.
Most of us arent Steve Jobs. And most of us dont come with a vast network that we can fall back on when things get tough. Nevertheless, a college environment provides the kind of support most adults need to not only get a degree but start a life. Success, for many adults, starts the day they get that bachelors degree.
There are many stories of success that we have all heard time and time again of people who didnt finish college or, in some cases, even start college. Yet, these people went on to have massive success. Steve Jobs, the late founder of Apple, and Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, come to mind.
I have been in the education sector for the last 10 years of my career, and I hire many people who must have a college degree. However, the ones that grow within the ranks of our company are the ones that continue to develop and make growth and development a top priority over everything else.
1. Start Early:
2. Find a Mentor:
3. Learn how to Sell:
4. Expand Your Network:
5. Read Lots of Books:
6. Take Some Online Courses:
9. Be a Leader:
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What Are The Opportunities For Success Without A College Degree
Once upon a time, having a college degree was a sign of status. If you had a college degree, you had it made. However, thanks to universal access to education, those days are gone. Having a college education is now the status quo. About half a million of college graduates are working today in minimum wage jobs. Sometimes, the trend has flirted with the absurd: a few years ago, a McDonalds branch required potential cashiers to have a college degree.
In a way, it makes sense for employers to always ask for a college degree as a prerequisite for a job. After all, if they can get graduates, why not have them? In todays oversaturated job market, recruiters need to sift the incoming floods of job-seekers, and college degrees seem very convenient. A degree suggests a certain level of commitment and hard-work mentality, and besides, its really easy to verify.
Confronted with such an outlook, its normal to take a fatalist view and think that having a degree is necessary in todays world if you dont want to be homeless. However, reality is sometimes very counterintuitive.
Of course, the key is knowing how to capitalize on this idea. Not every drop-out is going to be seen as the next Mark Zuckerberg. Most will still be stigmatized, just as they were fifty years ago.
So, yes, old stigmas abound, but little by little theyre being erased by experience, and the era when someones educational background is barely a factor seems to be in the horizon.
Commit To Lifelong Learning
If you want to achieve success without formal education then you need to commit to lifelong learning. In today’s digital world, consuming knowledge has never been so easy. This has given rise to a huge population of people who have embraced online education as a substitute for an expensive college degree.
In today’s ever-changing world, if you aren’t growing and investing in yourself, you will get left behind. This is why successful people make learning a part of their everyday lives. I have always had a passion for learning, so much so that I’ve invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into my personal growth and development. Reading, attending seminars, listening to podcasts, and taking online courses are a core part of my life.
By adopting an attitude of curiosity, I am constantly approaching the world and my work with an open mind. A neurological study has shown that curiosity makes our brains more receptive to learning and that as we learn, we enjoy the sensation of learning. It’s important to point out that learning means nothing unless you do something with it. Don’t get stuck in the trap of analysis paralysis. Instead, the moment that you learn something, put it into action immediately.
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Find Career Opportunities That Don’t Require A College Degree
Once you set your goal and outline the steps you need to take to achieve it, find jobs that you can take without a college degree. Depending on your passion and interests, you can find opportunities to enter a meaningful and satisfying career across many different industries. For instance, if you’re passionate about helping and caring for others, you might consider a job as a medical assistant, which is a career option that doesn’t require a college degree.
Rethinking The American Dream
Most American adults* define themselves by their familyAmerican families are getting smaller
Average family size
People are having fewer childrenChildren* per family
Fewer American adults are getting marriedHouseholds including married couple
Many adults are choosing to live with friends instead of familyNon-family households
With more Americans living alone, everyday luxuries are harder to afford
Most Americans want more:
In 1940, the average home cost $2,938 Thats equal to $52,976 todayRent, on average, cost $27 Or $487 todaySince then, housing prices have soared
Today, the median home value is $220,100 4x the typical home in 1940Rent has risen to $1,650 More than 3x what it once wasAs rent continues to skyrocket, apartments are getting smaller 8% smaller over the last decade
The Ideal American Home:To feel successful, Americans want a house 2x as valuable as their current homeOn average, Americans want
Rising tuition costs and mounting student debt have prompted more Americans to consider other options
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Do Most Millionaires Have Degrees
The vast majority of millionaires attend college, but not elite schools Eighty-eight percent of millionaires graduated from college, while only 33 percent of the general population did. Over half of the millionaires in the study earned a master’s or doctoral degree. The average citizen earned a master’s or doctorate degree.
Become A Subject Matter Expert
Subject matter experts , or domain experts, provide knowledge and expertise in a given subject area. Your job might be to ensure that the content on a particular subject is completely accurate. Companies looking to train staff need an SME to work on everything from training videos to educational courses. SMEs typically come from academic, technical and vocational fields, but no specific degree is required.
Network for opportunities in your industry or opportunities working as course creators and contractors for training companies. Textbook publishers are also always looking for subject matter experts, though that’s a tougher sell if they need an experienced educator in an area like science.
Storyblocks
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Master The Art Of Self
Selling is an overlooked asset, but it’s something that everyone needs to master if they want to be successful in life. No matter what career path you take, you need to learn how to sell yourself and your ideas. Unfortunately, the history of the word selling has given it a bad name.
Selling isn’t about shoving your business card down people’s throats at networking events and telling them all of the reasons why you are the best. Rather, it’s about knowing your value and communicating it in an authentic way. If you can’t influence those around you, you wont get very far in life. In order to effectively sell yourself, you have to first think about what your unique value proposition is.
What are your strengths and talents? What makes you stand out from the rest? When you have a solid understanding of who you are and what you bring to the table, you will know how best you can serve yourself and others.
In his book, To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, Daniel Pink said thatThe purpose of a pitch isnt necessarily to move others immediately to adopt your idea. The purpose is to offer something so compelling that it begins a conversation, brings the other person in as a participant, and eventually arrives at an outcome that appeals to both of you.
How Can You Be Successful Without A College Degree
People define success in different ways. For some, it means having enough money to buy the things they want. For others, it means being respected by your peers. For some, it simply means having a loving and supportive family.
Regardless of how you personally define success, the stats show that a bachelors degree can make having a successful career more achievable. Consider the following:
Bachelors degree holders earn an average of 66 percent more than high school graduates.People with a bachelors degree will add $1 million to their total lifetime earnings than someone without a degree.
High school graduates experience an unemployment rate 8 percent higher than college grads.So, while there are some newsworthy exceptions to the rule, the numbers dont lie. With higher-paying jobs such as cybersecurity analyst, health care professional, and business administrator going to those with 4-year-degrees, bachelors degree holders can more easily find work and earn more than those with less education.
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Can I Be Successful Without A Degree
This will always be an on-going question, with no defined answer, asked by those who go to university and those who dont.
Those who have a degree will always support needing a degree to be successful, and those without will always deny needing a degree. I suppose there never will be a correct answer to it and it will always just depend on many things.
Student Debt Can Crush Your Dreams
You don’t need a degree if it’s going to put you far into debt with no light at the end of the tunnel. Student loan statistics are grim with over 44.2 million Americans saddled with student loan debt. According to research from Student Loan Hero, the delinquency rate is 11.2% and the average monthly student loan payment for borrowers 20 to 30 years old is $351.
Think about what would happen if you didn’t have that loan payment. You could invest that $351 into your own business or self-learning to create the kind of career and income stream you’re looking for.
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Does Education Bring Financial Success
For nearly all careers, wages have risen over the past 70 yearsSkilled laborers, without a degree, are making more than 3x more todayBUT, for careers requiring an advanced degree, wages have less than doubled
Annual Earnings, 1947*-2017
At the same time, the cost of an advanced degree has grown more than 8x,Law School Tuition*, 1948-2018
For many, milestones on the road to success are getting harder to achieve
Consider Careers That Dont Need Degrees
Wondering what the chances are of being successful without college? You will be happy to hear that many careers, like air-traffic controller, dental assistant, detective and even teacher offer the chance to train as you work, so youre being paid to become an expert in the career youve chosen. Other professions dont need degrees at all think entrepreneur, start-up CEO, sports coach, stylist and many more.
Plus, even careers that were traditionally degree focused are now making themselves more accessible to other people: Publishing company Penguin Random House no longer requires a college degree for job applicants in the UK. The company hopes this will lead to a more diverse staff and, therefore, a more diverse book catalog.
This is the starting point for our concerted action to make publishing far, far more inclusive than it has been to date, Neil Morrison, the companys human resources director, told the BBC. We believe this is critical to our future to publish the best books that appeal to readers everywhere, we need to have people from different backgrounds with different perspectives and a workforce that truly reflects todays society. Pursue one of these options and your decision not to go to college wont be relevant anymore.
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Could You Be The Next Steve Jobs Or Bill Gates
Hard work and determination certainly have their place in achieving success, andif you have an entrepreneurial spirit, connections with angel investors, and a mind for tech trendsits possible to follow in the footsteps of Jobs or Gates. For the rest of us , the path to making it will be steadier and more traditional.
Also, not everyone has what it takes to risk it alland if you look at those who made it big on a dream, they often face huge setbacks. Gates, for example, started a failing data company before Microsoft, causing him to start from scratch. Without a backup plan, an incredible support system, and unfailing work ethic, most of us cant sustain these types of setbacks more than once in a lifetime.
How To Be Successful In Life Without Going To College
Are you ready to learn how to be successful in life without going to college?
Don’t get me wrong. Knowledge is power, but obtaining that knowledge from an academic institution isn’t necessarily a predictor of success.
In fact, studies show that while less than 20 percent of college graduates leave campus with a job, a staggering 80 percent leave buried in debt.
The great news is that you don’t need a piece of paper to succeed in life. It is possible to create success, on your terms.
Watch the video below where I talk about my favorite way of making money online:
Do you want to learn how you can master your life? to join my Life Mastery Accelerator program!
This page contains affiliate links. If you purchase a product through one of them, I will receive a commission . I only ever endorse products that I have personally used and benefitted from personally. Thank you for your support!
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College Isn’t A Prerequisite For Success I Started As An Entry
College doesnt always dictate future success. Whether you attend or not, you can be successfulits about what you bring with you. While a college education can produce many positive outcomes, it doesnt mean youll never be successful without a degree. Im living proof that this myth is wrong.
Im proud to say I only have a high school diploma. While I worked harder than most to get where I am, I wouldnt change my chosen path. I started as an entry-level receptionist and rose through the ranks quickly, becoming a business owner by age 25. Yes, thats less than seven years from graduating high school.
In addition, my company was recently acknowledged by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S. Ive been featured in Forbes, The Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. Hows that for success without a degree?
Here are some tips to help you achieve success in your career with or without a degree.
You Don’t Learn Grit In College
Grit isn’t learned from textbooks and taking tests. It’s learned from being out there in the world and struggling through challenges and figuring out how to make things work. Your own grit might be learned through launching a freelance career or startup, securing funding for your business or traveling the world and working remotely.
At the end of the day, you don’t need a degree to give you permission to succeed and earn big. While a degree may be useful to help grow your skills and make new connections, it is not a prerequisite to becoming a leader in your industry. Success is a mindset and the result of hard work – and it can absolutely be achieved without your learning credentials in hand.
Did you skip out on college and achieve big success? Let us know about your experience by leaving a response below:
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