With High School over with, many of you new graduates are left wondering; what’s next? Your teachers and family are pressuring you (I mean prepping you) to go off to college. Your friends are wanting you to come backpacking through Europe. And you’re probably sitting there stressed, confused, frustrated, and unsure of yourself, not knowing who you’re going to become. Good news is, nobody knows exactly what they want to do for the rest of their life. Nor should they. Who says that a 17, 18, 19, or 25 year old should have their life figured out? So don’t sweat it too much. Besides, today we’re going over 3 Tips for a recent high school graduate. Enjoy!
Take More Risks
I’m a firm believer that from 18 to 30 years old, is a time to take MASSIVE risk. Go start that business you’ve been wanting to, travel a bit and meet people (learn to network while you’re there), go intern or apprenticeship for an expert in the field that you’re interested in (FOR FREE!). Go hike the Appalachian Trail, document your journey, create content, forget about what people think. At this stage in your life, you can afford to take these risks, you have almost zero responsibilities and if you mess it all up, you’re young enough to where it’s still cool to have 7 roommates and be broke while you start your next adventure. Don’t wait, you can make more money, you’ll never get time back…
You Don’t Have to Go to College Right Away (Or At All)
The only reason you would NEED to go to college, is if whatever field you want to work in requires it (medical, law, engineering, sciences, etc). Or you want a leg up on the competition when applying for a job. With that said, the recent developments of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the overall automation of the workplace, how long do you think that degree will give you an advantage? Do you really think you can compete with something that never takes a break, never calls in sick, and doesn’t require a pay raise every quarter? Your white collar job where you could have sat safely in a cubicle, will likely be replaced by an algorithm in the coming years. In fact, I believe in the next 10, 20 ,50 years, that everyone will be FORCED to own their own business. There won’t be “regular” jobs anymore, out of pure necessity you will have to become more creative when it comes to making a living. I would argue this is a good thing, because I don’t think you can truly call yourself free, if someone can tell you what time to be somewhere and how to dress (think about it). The only way to freedom is through OWNERSHIP, that means you must either have equity in a business/businesses (be an investor), or start a business (be an entrepreneur). I’d recommend both.
Regardless of what I think about the future of the workplace when it comes to A.I. Another issue to consider when thinking about college is that in the last ten years, the cost of college has risen by 65%. While wages have only seen a 26% increase in that same time. Even worse, when we correct for inflation, we’re left with a net increase of college at 54% in the last 10 years, and a net increase of wages at an abysmal 6.5%. And in case you thought it couldn’t get worse, nearly 40% of millennial’s in the workforce have at least a bachelor’s degree. This results in the watering down of the 4 year degree, almost to the point of forcing you to get a masters or even a PHD if you want to be competitive in the Job market. In other words, that’s gonna be a whole lot of debt accumulated, for not a whole lot of ROI. So when your teachers and parents are pressuring you to go into debt for a degree that may or may not give a good return; remember that in 1970, only 16% of people had a college degree or higher. That means when your parents graduated, college was much cheaper and still had a level of prestige to it. It was exclusive enough to still have a good ROI. Nowadays, maybe not so much…
No matter the path you decide to embark upon, I’d like you to think about this: What are the odds that you are even alive? I mean 85% of human who have ever existed, are dead. Furthermore, what are the odds that you live in the west, or even crazier, the odds that you live in the west during the best time to be alive (we have the internet)? Think about it… As far as anyone can know, you only have one life, don’t regret not going for your dreams, because you played it safe and submitted to the will of others…
Don’t Stop Learning
For many people, once they graduate high school (or college), they don’t continue to educate themselves. They look at that time in their life as being behind them now, they know all they need to know. This is a lethal mistake, if you want to be successful, you must do as successful people do; 85% of self-made millionaires read at least 2 non-fiction books per month. Now while simply reading and accumulating knowledge by itself, won’t get you where you want to be (I mean, you can’t read about doing push-ups and get ripped) it is a necessary prerequisite for taking action. In order to attain mastery of something, you must constantly put in work at improving yourself and your craft. Become an expert, and prevent becoming part of the rat race.