College And Opportunity Aren’t Enough

With everything available to us like never before in history, it becomes ironic as to why we aren’t overwhelmingly more content. We have the ability to make our own opportunity in the development of the information age. Only some have taken advantage of that new ability, such as the new breed of you tube millionaires. So one can conclude that opportunity isn’t the big equalizer it was thought to be.

You want to change your life. You think about more schooling. That might be a bad idea.

The internet made connection available to a number of like-minded people. People you could not hope to get to before. That power, seen from a time before it happened, would be thought of as a game-changer. And it was, but take a look at what many are doing with the means to connect. Right now – today.

Chest thumping braggadocio, an unrealistic portrayal of how great their world is, or the one-sided force of their opinion ad nauseam. Is that the best way to connect? Yet that’s done by huge numbers of people online. They carefully mold their 15 seconds of daily fame.

Old vs. New

The American ideal was to be able to strive, to achieve if you worked hard. Here we are, free to be able to live the life we aim for. It should be better than ever, and in fact for many who will, it is. There are now those who have taken an easier production process, and their skills seriously and approached their pursuit in a planned, purposeful and businesslike manner. Even if they didn’t purposefully set a business model in place, their actions were the same as if they did. They have cutout the middle man by filling that position themselves. They have said yes to themselves and gone for it – daily, bit by bit. No longer do we wait to be discovered. We have the ability to discover ourselves and get ever better.

But there are two sides.

The internet has information and connection.

That used to be the property of colleges, universities and libraries.

Buyer beware.

2-3 generations ago, college was a big deal. It meant a job. I’m talking about the 1940’s & 50’s. Not everybody was expected to go to college. That’s not that long ago really. Today almost 30% more people are graduating. With so many more enrolled, one of the biggest new national problems is that of student loan debt. It became big business with new colleges being built en masse since that era. In 1940, 3.8% of women and 5.5% of men graduated with a college degree. In 2013, it was 31.4% of women and 32% men. There are far more enrolled and on the financial hook.

But what used to mean a job for your parents and grandparents stopped meaning nearly guaranteed employment – and now we face a crisis in paying for it.

It sure seemed good for a long while. It’s a different era now.

One step forward two steps back.

We have access to all the information to learn about a great variety of subjects, yet the average amount of time spent watching reality shows is on the rise, because it’s just as available, if not more so.

So a college degree isn’t the ticket it used to be.

Neither is waiting to be discovered.

No employer hires based on where you went to school, and depending on the job, maybe not even that you went to college. Can you do the job well? Do you have the best attitude? Those are two major ingredients to your personal success.

The info is out there. Go get some and use it.

“I can’t” doesn’t work.

When someone says “I can’t”, what they’re really saying is “I won’t.”

Information is oversold.

It’s not solely about the information, it’s what you do with it.

It’s not only about the opportunity, it’s what you do with it.

One word holds what is truly the key ingredient.

Desire.

Desire will always win.

Desire brings you to information and it let’s you see opportunity.

So when you’re looking to change I ask you –

What do you want?

If you answer truthfully, you will do what it takes to make your own way.