When I picture life choices, I think of it as a grocery store, but for lives. You go in, go down a certain aisle, and pick up the life you want.
You can go down the college aisle and pick up the surgeon package or the accountant package. Perhaps you choose to go down the trade aisle and pick up the welder package or the plumber package.
The Weird People, The Entrepreneurs
But back in the corner of the store, there’s this strange area where weird people hang out. Life is not prepackaged. You have this area full of fresh ingredients and you can grab any combination of them, mix them together and you have something different. The entrepreneurs.
There is a system in place that says: go to school, learn these concepts, go to college, learn those concepts and at the end, you come out with a job. Work that job until you’re 65, then retire.
It’s a path that the majority follow. People warn me about following the crowd. In the stock market, Warren Buffett tells me to be greedy when others are fearful, and fearful when others are greedy. Yet, no one seems to question doing what everyone else does when it comes to livelihood.
The Uncomfortable Truth About College
People are disappointed when they realize that as the supply of degreed individuals increases, their value drops. College graduates are already reporting this fact. Ironically, after paying all of that money into the system, they may still need to resort to entrepreneurship.
The prepackaged lives are good for the majority, but they aren’t good for me. Chances are, if you’re reading this, they aren’t good for you either. Maybe we’ll bump into each other in that weird corner of the store sometime.