Before I start this and tear apart every person with a college degree, I have to say this first. I am impressed by and also jealous of anybody who has a college degree, no matter what the degree is for and no matter what school it is from. Because I hold knowledge very highly in my book of importance in life. I know the power of knowledge in any area and how that information cross pollinates itself and merges with information in other areas to create cohesive understandings and new ideas.
But here’s the thing with a college degree. Most people are NOT using their college degree. They go to school because of the societal, peer and parental pressures that make them thing they need to go to college to be successful.
So what happens? We are 18 years old and deciding what we want to do with the rest of our lives and we don’t even know who the hell we are yet. We have no idea what we REALLY want to do because we haven’t gotten out in life and explored and seen enough things to know and truly feel an overwhelming moment of vibrational passion run through our bones as we say “omg, this, this is what I want”
Without that moment’s epiphany, we are just people walking our path in life just trying to avoid depression and do the things we think will keep us happy like making money and buying things we think will cover our pain.
So, you’re 18 and uninspired, you go to college with a complete shot in the dark at the field of study for what you think makes sense for your future. You spend 2 to 4 of your most healthy, energy filled years of your life doing something you aren’t even sure is right for your future. And now you also just racked up about $50,000 in debt. So not only did you just basically waste 2 to 4 years of life, you just slowed down your entire ability to have financial freedom in life to try new things and find your actual passion. Because now you are stuck with monthly college loans and you have the responsibility of your full time job to pay it back. A job that you got with the degree that you weren’t even truly passionate about getting. Now even if you find what you’re passionate about, your bills and buying things to feel more successful and happy will keep you stuck at the job to pay your new costs of living. You won’t even be able to venture into what you found you are truly passionate about. You’re stuck.
If you tell friends and family that you just found out you are passionate about something and that you want to chase it. They’ll ask you how you’ll pay your bills? If you say you’ll do it in your off time, They are going to ask you when you’ll have the time? All of their answers are going to lead to making you doubt you ability to chase your passion even though you felt that moment of passion that touched you soul like nothing else ever has.
So now you will constantly fear chasing your true passion that you finally found because it will require completely excavating the entire foundation of your life that you just took more than 5 years to build.
So what happens? Well, you can take a guess and then realize why 95% of people are broke and why only 95% of those 5% of people ever truly become wealthy and successful.
We were raised to hold people with a college degree in high regards and respect them because they are smart.
If you don’t know what the fuck you want to do with your life? Why the hell are you spending $50,000 going to school for something? How smart are you really if you’re spending $50,000 to go to school in HOPES that the knowledge and classes you chose will inspire you to become passionate about those classes and subject matters in life?
Do you hear how stupid that sounds?
After all this being said, I tell people ALL THE TIME, I would absolutely love to go to college RIGHT NOW. Right this minute. I want to go to Harvard and get my MBA! Now you’re going to call me hypocritical and you’d be wrong. Because I am extremely passionate and absolutely LOVE everything about business. It is fun and even when it seems complex to someone else, to me it is a puzzle that I love solving and I love the pay off for. Because that pay off, is making money. LOTS OF MONEY! And that money let’s me spread my inspiration and motivation to more people.
Notice how my passions in life all work upwards in a chain. First I had that epiphany with music. Luckily at 12 years old as I won my first rap battle. That passion never left me but another passion didn’t exist in my soul until I was 25 years old. It happened in a moment when I had $0 in my bank account, no money for food and was sleeping in someones garage. I was suicidal and in the darkest depression of my entire life. Suddenly, in that moment I had the epiphany that I had to change my life and I coulnd’t keep living like that. I was inspired to better myself and develop into a person that wouldn’t have to live like that. I fell in love with books and knowledge after 1 book I read changed the entire way I saw the world. Then I read another book and it did the same thing, then another. I was hooked. About a year after developing myself with everything I had learned, suddenly a switch went off in my head I realized that if these things changed my entire life, I needed to show other people these things too. Then I really realized something. My life story was what I could use to inspire everyone and show them that if I could make it here with my life, surely anyone could. My life story was so crazy I didn’t think anyone would even believe it so I started writing it all out so I could get it tattooed on me. Because who is going to cover themselves in something they have to see everyday that isn’t true? I wanted it right there to remind me where I came from and be proud of myself. I wanted it there to be able to inspire people with my story instantly no matter where I was.
About 3 years later from that moment after developing myself into someone who was actually valuable, and capable of a great life, I fell in love with creating businesses and business systems. It was the moment I realized how fun it was to create them and how all my street hustling and having to survive on my own in south side Chicago had wired me to think of solutions differently than other people. In the same time frame I realized that power of money and how I could use it. And every single one of these things were directly aligned through my original passion which was music.
I became passionate over and over again. As I discovered one passion, it led to another, then to another, they all started linking and making sense. Suddenly one passion became several passions to envelope and fuel my one true goal in life. To change the lives of 100s of millions of people and leave my footprint on this world. To leave this world better than it was when I came into it.
And now I’m worth more than 10 million dollars and I did it all without a college degree.
If I did it, you can do it. If you’re 18 years old and hearing this, you can definitely do it.