If your parents were like mine they always told you that the best thing you could do with your life one day was to graduate from college. In order to be somebody, to be successful you couldn’t be otherwise without a college degree or any other type of superior education degree.
Well, the people who raised us were surely well-intentioned. Unfortunately that idea, that notion that to make a living, to be successful you need to have a college degree is ultimately a false one.
You see, the problem here is not college itself or what your parents believed in. The problem is that in the large majority of cases a college degree leads you to have a job. You acquire a competence, you have the credentials, someone needs them, you’re in. And, if everything plays out normally you will start earning money fast, perhaps for the first time in your life. Real money. “How could life be better than this?” – you will think. After long years in school and the university you end up earning what looks to be easy money. Your parents and the system were right. Well, not exactly.
According to an Accenture study the majority of workers are dissatisfied with their jobs. And more and more we hear people around us saying that they are not happy with their jobs. But, “that’s just the way it is” we usually tend to hear. “Work can’t be fun. How could work be fun? It’s work right?” Wrong. Work can be fun. In fact work MUST be fun.
Work isn’t fun when you don’t have the freedom to express yourself. When you do something you don’t believe in. When you invest your long precious hours into someone else’s dream.
I remember watching on a documentary one day Donald Trump speaking about this success, to use an example of an highly successful person who is well known in the occidental world. When asked about what was his number one secret for success his answer was: “I’m successful because I love what I do”. It’s a very simple secret, but so little put in practice. But why?
Successful people, truly successful, are so because they love to do what they do. But yes, some worked hard, many worked even real hard to be successful. And most probably many had to try different things before finding their right kind of work. But, many didn’t went to or finished college.
Want an example? How about Richard Branson who had dyslexia and poor academic performance as a student, but later discovered his ability to connect with others. Richard is a business magnate, best known for his Virgin Group of more than 400 companies. He started by selling records and advertising in a magazine he started without ever having taken a journalism class.
James Cameron. The Oscar-winning director, producer, and screenwriter that wrote and gave us Titanic, Terminator and Avatar has high-school, and dropped out of California State University. What about Henry Ford, Winston Churchill, Louis Armstrong, Bill Gates, Julie Andrews, Johnny Depp, Quantin Tarantino. See the pattern? This people loved what they did, or do right? Do you think they started enjoying what they do after being successful or the other way around?
“Well, those were just a few examples” – you may say. And perhaps they were all very lucky, or they are all geniuses and that’s something just way out of my league. Here is a big list for you. And I’m sure you will find dozens and dozens more famous and successful people who dropped out college or even high-school just by surfing for a few minutes on the web.
There is another way to make a living. One that you will love and that will transform you into what you’re supposed to be. You need to work on something you like. Better, that you love! So, what stops you from moving to this new life? Your new life where you work on something that you love? Not as much as you think.
The strategy will depend a bit on who you are and what your preferences and strengths are but everybody is more than in time to make a shift to their lives in order to start living on their dream work.
Some however will tell you that you need to be very smart, or very intelligent to figure out a way to make a living on your own idea or your own business. While having the wits will certainly help speeding things up I’m convinced that that’s not at all necessary to succeed on your own terms. What you really need is love for what you do, hard work and perseverance, and you will make it.
Many things will not be under your control though. Luck plays a bigger factor than we might think. So, you may need to find your dream work through trial and error. In fact you most probably need to find your dream work by trying many ideas until you feel that you found the right one.
So, there you go. You don’t need to have a college degree to be successful, but a good education is certainly a big plus to be truly successful. You don’t need to work on a job that fulfills somebody else’s dreams, unless that also fulfills your own dreams. You don’t need to be very smart to figure out a way to transform your love and your strength into your work and your own business. You just need to work on something you love doing and be bold and persistent enough to make it work.
Don’t know where to start? If you’re showing signs that you shouldn’t be working on your current job and you know what you liked to do when you were young I recommend you start thinking in working possibilities that are better suited to your likings. The thing that you are meant to do that will make you a very happy person. Don’t worry, I’ll be your guide in your journey. It’s this blog very purpose to help you find your dream work. So, be positive, you will discover the right work for you, one that will change your life forever.
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