All my life my parents, teachers, society have always said that if you want to be successful in life you need to have a college degree. I was also taught that people who dropout have bad pre-established perceptions about them (lazy, good for nothing, etc.) which of course is true in some cases just like most stereotypes. What I have come to realize at this point in life is that a lot of people who did complete school are just surviving. Not surviving necessarily from a poverty standpoint, but more of people who just go through the motions of life. They do the mundane 9-5 thing at a job you really don't like.
Those same people then go to school to pay $15,000-$50,000 just to get a job where you make $30,000-$50,000 (on average). Then you have people like on of my business heroes Richard Branson who is a multi-billionaire who stopped attending school at the age of 15, and lives a very fulfilling life. You have entertainers like Jay-z, who happens to be a excellent bussinessman who is halfway to a billion and he also dropped out without a high school diploma. Sean "Diddy" Combs another entertainer that actually went to college, and ended up dropping out of Howard University to chase his dreams. To quote my favorite rapper Jay-Z as I most frequently do he says, "I rather die egnormous than to live dormant" That is my general outlook on life, I want to drive the benz's and take lavish trips to St Tropez, and to Mediterran, and take care of my family and community. No disrespect to anybody how lives the life that I aforementioned, my family lives that lifestyle for the most part. But like anybody else I just want for me and my family to be comfortable, that is why I am in school. So that I can have that foundation for the future.
Especially in this economy, I have seen people who graduated with honors and still waiting tables. Once again no disrespect to people who wait tables it is a job that is definately needed. But what I am saying is that you don't pay $40,000 to still not be comfortable. On the flipside of that I also see a lot of excutives who are making six-figures living nice who graduated from college, paid thier dues, and worked very hard up the corporate ladder. I also know that there is very few things that people cannot ever take from you and the only thing that I can really think of is your degree. You can go work somewhere work for 20-years and get fired because someone who is higher qualified than you, and has that college degree is willing to work for less.
With all that said, I am going to wrap-up my thoughts and all that I realized on this using a episode of the Cosby's I watched the other day. Denise decided she wanted to teach kids, and she saw a teacher at Oliva's (Raven Symone) with a very interactive way of teaching kids. She thought that it was really easy that she could learn on the job, and that she could go around every option except school. Then when she told her parents that she found the answer to getting around school was by learning along side the teacher. Clarie(Phyllica Rashad-One of my favorite people) told her that by paying dues was to get your degree, where you can then go and get your foot in the door at the bottom, then go up that was what paying dues were (people who weren't content on taking whatever they were giving like some people who are fine with living dormant). That made a lot of sense to me, because I can relate to Denise because I always used to ask those same questions she asked. I guess I was so against being the status quo, I wanted to seek alternatives to school. But School is a institution that is supposed to give you a more steady foot to stand on. Its not a lifetime commitment its just a small block of years where you power and manuever your way through just to give you the opportunity, to cleaner route to success. Though the route maybe cleaner, but it definitely is not easy by any means. Its okay though what doesn't doesn't kill you only further defines you.
Just something i was thinking about... Until next time
Ya boi
