College has long been believed to be the answer to “What will I do after high school?”
As a society we have been focused for years on how important college is. How it can make all the difference and move individuals further into the career of their dreams. But, instead, what has begun happening is that a college education has become more and more obsolete.
Millennials are entering college in hopes of landing that dream job right after graduation, but it’s not happening. Instead, they complete their time in school and find jobs that are well below their skill levels, which in turn pays them less than they deserve, which leaves them paying back their student loan debt for YEARS. This burden can be suffocating!
It’s time to consider that college may not be the answer that we’ve all hoped for.
Teach Young People to Know Their Power
We push our young people to graduate high school and immediately jump into college. And, while college may be the answer for some high school grads (ie. aspiring doctors), what’s more important is teaching our young how to truly harness their power.
Heading into school, the work force or even creating a business won’t mean anything without someone knowing how to own their skill set and put it to the best use.
Dan Negroni, a guest of Success Unfiltered, regularly works with Millennials and refers to them as Digital Natives. They’re the individuals who were born or brought up during the age of digital technology and are therefore familiar with computers and internet from an early age.
Dan believes that instead of pushing kids into college we need to teach them that life is all about building relationships. It isn’t about selling, it’s about building relationships of trust where you can provide value to others. It’s about how young people can learn to frame their words, their mindset, and their approach– and he believes we do an awful job of teaching this in traditional education.
But, we don’t have to!
We can teach our kids that it takes awhile to master their mindset. That zeroing in on what you’re really good at can take years to learn, but that if you take the time to educate yourself by listening to podcasts like Success Unfiltered, or reading personal development books, you can learn through life and experiences and be just as amazing at being a “salesperson.”
I believe that college is a waste of money. You can learn SO MUCH from online programs, from listening and immersing yourself into podcasts. That’s why I started my podcast because I felt like if I didn’t share my knowledge and expertise, I was doing others a disservice.
Know That What You’re Offering Provides Value
To start your journey you need to learn about yourself. You need to become comfortable with what you’re asking of others and know it will provide value to them in some way. We are all incredibly powerful in our ability to influence others.
There are 3 rules that will get you to this point faster:
- Show up and be present.
- Be part of what’s going on around you.
- Put down the smartphone.
By doing these 3 things, you can get to the base of figuring out who and what you are and how you want to communicate your message.
As you begin to dive into your message and start to uncover your innate gifts, you want to determine what is it that you want to do? Take the time to journal, dig into your interests, feel out where you feel most excited, or what do you do when you forget that time exists.
What do you get completely soaked up into?
When you’ve completed that, it’s time to start learning how to show others that what you’re offering will provide them value. THE BEST way to do this is by starting with building relationships.
The most important skill you will learn is how to build relationships with others.
Traditional school may have some value when it comes to learning to live by yourself or creating a community, but none of it will teach you how to build those relationships.
Dan did not discover his personal gifts until the age of 45 (by the way, his gift is being bold and speaking the truth). Mull that over for a minute. It took Dan 45 years to discover what his gifts were, and how to harness them.
You have the ability to do this earlier. Don’t wait until you finish college, do the work now and save yourself time and money.
Ask Great Questions
We know that building relationships is the number one skill young people need to learn, but you might be wondering how you can start building those relationships, since we know it doesn’t just happen.
Dan tells us that to get started we need to truly understand our story and how it offers value to others. You absolutely must be interested in other people and their stories. Finally, and most importantly you must learn how to ask really great questions.
Good questions demonstrate that you care. Good questions are complex and challenging. And, a good question will allow you to dive into deeper meaningful relationships with people.
Once you’ve built that relationship, selling becomes easy because the individual you’re speaking with knows you care and you aren’t just trying to make money, but instead are trying to enhance their life with whatever product or service you are selling.
In Conclusion
What would be amazing is if in every high school or college there was a course where an entire semester was spent learning your strengths, your skills, your values and your passions, so that you could share those with the world. Because if you don’t know it, you can’t share it!
Life is a journey and some will figure things out at 25, others will be 45, but do the work to truly uncover the real you so that you can share your gifts with the world.
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