Personal Opinion, Self Improvement

How To Choose Your Path in Life (Career Advice for the young and the experienced man alike)

Leave a comment

the20future

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here? That depends a good deal on where you want to get to, said the Cat.

I don’t much care where… said Alice.Then it doesn’t matter which way you go, said the Cat.”

-Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland-

The Reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

-George Bernard Shaw, Maxims for Revolutionists

Excerpt from The 4 day Work week by Timothy Ferriss pg. 47

6) What is it costing you financially, emotionally, and physically to postpone action? Do not only evaluate the potential downside of action. It is equally important to measure the atrocious cost of inaction. If you don’t pursue those things that excite you, where will you be in one year, five years, and ten years? How will you feel having allowed circumstances to impose itself upon you and having allowed ten more years of your finite life to pass doing what you know will not fulfill you? If you telescope out 10 years and know with 100% certainty that it is a path of disappointment and regret, and if we define risk as the likelihood of an irreversible negative outcome, inaction is the greatest risk of all.

7) What are you waiting for? If you cannot answer this without resorting to the previously rejected concept of good timing, the answer is simple: You’re afraid, just like the rest of the world. Measure the cost of inaction, realize the unlikelihood and repair ability of most missteps, and develop the most important habit of those who excel and enjoy doing so: ACTION.

I have been working in the New York City public school system for quite some time in a guidance counselor capacity. In my position, I have come across many students who have no direction in what it is they want to do with their lives as well as adults in my personal life who also want to do something different in terms of career paths. I have given advice to many kids from ages 16 to 19 and adults from all stages of life from 20 years of age to 80 years of age.

When giving advice to such a broad group of people, one thing remains true and that is we all want to succeed and have a better life, both financially and in terms of quality time for ourselves, which translates to freedom. We all have different views on what success is. For some it is having a fat multi-million dollar bank account and for others it is freedom and loads of free time to do what it is you are passionate about. To live well in this great country, The USA, you do not need to have a multi million dollar bank account, although it helps. The goal is to live life on your terms and to live with loads of free time.

In today’s blog post, I would like to go over some things that may help you in making some very important decisions that will impact your life.

To begin with, and it does not matter how old you are, you must have a kick ass and take names attitude if you are going to make things work for you. No matter how you feel, you must set goals and see them through; this is the true measure of character.

To begin with, many kids have been sold into the typical paradigm of you go through school and graduate; attend college, get a job and work 30 years and retire. This is a direct path to being a wage slave and becoming unfulfilled. But you see, most people believe that this method is what everyone one else does so it must be the correct path. Schools have conditioned many kids to believe that this is the correct path and you are guaranteed a job if you waste four years of your life learning some stupid crap in college. Also, college is not cheap either. So now the young student is looking at a mountain of debt as well and they are just starting out in life. Debt equals no freedom.

A College education is for those individuals who plan on perusing careers and plan to be employed in professions like in the medical profession i.e. Becoming a doctor in a specialized field or a Veterinarian that takes care of many types of animals; for students who may want to study law and specialize in an area of law i.e. criminal law, real estate law or corporate law and such; for students who wish to pursue a career in engineering and or some type of computer technology, also to study accounting to become an accountant.

College may also be for the student who wishes to go into a teaching career although I personally do not advise it. I am a realist, and I usually do not advise students to go into education unless it is in the private sector, although the private sector is quickly adapting a lot of the stupid policies of the public sector. A degree in public education is one of the most expensive degrees around, and it is for a job that pays much less than what the degree is worth. The cost of the degree usually matches up to the salary once you have given your soul to the teaching profession for about fifteen years as you go up the pay scale.

Here are some of the things you must do to go into teaching as of 2008 guidelines. Keep in mind that these guide lines are constantly changing. The excerpt is taken from the book Think Twice about Teaching by Steve Jackson, page 214:

As a refresher, in the old days to become provisionally certified you needed an undergraduate degree plus student teaching. You then had five years to obtain a masters degree, at which point you received permanent certification.

The new state requirements, as of 2008, are more stringent and costly. You still have to have an undergraduate degree along with student teaching. Here are the changes.

  • Three year limit to get a Master’s Degree and permanent certification.
  • A Video tape or DVD of yourself in the classroom that must pass the scrutiny of the State Education Department.
  • An additional 175 hours of professional development courses every five years paid for by you.
  • Enrollment in a mentoring program your first year of teaching. The state loses 50% of its teachers in the first five years so this is a way for novice teachers to get the guidance and support they need.
  • Certification areas are more restricted. Under the old system you were certified K-6 (elementary) or 7-12 (secondary)
  • Now, for instance, there are four new titles for elementary: early childhood (to grade 2) childhood education grader (grades 1-6) and the generalist and the specialist in middle childhood education (grades 5-9).

To fulfill federal requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, new teachers are required to do the following:

  • Elementary school teachers have to pass written tests such as Liberal Arts and Sciences Test, The Assessment of Teaching skills Written or the National Teaching Exam.
  • Secondary teachers of core academic subjects qualify if they’ve completed any one of four options in their subject area a Content Specialty Test, an academic major, thirty credits or a graduate degree.

Once you decide on teaching as a career, in this state (New York), you are beholden to thirty five years before you can draw a pension. You’ll have to endure hostile parents, vindictive administrators, the rap culture mentality of youths, and liberal rag newspapers like Newsday who will post your school’s test scores in the paper and blame you for the results.

So you see, as quoted from Steve Jackson’s book, this is why I do not endorse students to embark in a teaching career. The reasons I came into the system was basically for the perks, which include a short work day, weekends off along with paid holidays and two months off in the summer. Plus given the fact that I work in guidance, I do not have to be in the class room teaching. Remember when I said that success for some is freedom and loads of free time to do what it is you are passionate about. This holds true for my current job. Also, keep in mind that I came into the system when things were simple and not like they are today as described by Steve Jackson. If I had to do it over again, I would not. It is too expensive and you really have to have a passion for being a book worm and reading all sorts of stupid liberal crap that is on the curriculum and pay those fat and expensive collegetuitionalong with all of those certification test fees. Nothanks. Plus, I have come to the conclusion that college professors are really mental degenerates who could not survive in the real world so they teach their communist crap at colleges to young skulls of mush who can be easily brain washed.

I do not plan to be in the education system for long and it’s not because I have come to the end of my career and about to retire, no, I am still too young to retire. No, I plan to exit soon because I am developing a business system that will give me the life I want and desire, but it takes hard work and a kick ass mentality to get there.

If you plan to work for someone else, then maybe college is for you depending on what type of job you are after. Keep in mind that not all jobs require a college degree; For example, working in the Canadian Oil sands, which is over the boarder of Montana.

Canadian Oil sands go to: http://www.rooshvforum.com/thread-9826.html

Victor Pride advises the following, which I tell many students to do as well:

If you need a job, if your entrepreneurial gig isn’t paying the bills, then sales or manual labor is great. Working in offices is for women and girly-men. A sales job will teach you how to make money and a manual labor job will build your body while you get paid. In fact, there are quite a few manual labor jobs that will pay you big, big bucks. You’ll have to do some travel and work some long hours but you can make 100k+ per year working on offshore oil rigs. A young man with a strong back could work 6 months out of the year doing manual labor and spend 6 months free, traveling, working on an entrepreneurial gig, or doing whatever you want.

http://boldanddetermined.com/2013/11/07/18-things-every-18-year-old-should-know/

Certain paid jobs do not require a college degree(http://www.careercast.com/jobs-rated/20-great-jobs-without-college-degree) but some do if you plan on getting paid a decent wage. I advise many young students to read and also print out Victor Prides article 18 things every 18 year old should know and then I go over it with them. People, many young students and adults alike, should become familiar with the options that lay before them. We are living in an amazing time in our lives right now due to the internet. Did you know that with some basic computer skills and an internet connection, you can learn almost anything and how to do almost anything? Well, it’s true.

Now, for those individuals who do not wish to work for anyone and their goal is to develop a business or a business system and wish to work for themselves this is what I tell them: First off, and this is also good advice for all ages, as stated by Victor Prides quote, obtain employment in sales or a job like the one described above in the Canadian oil sands or something similar to that just search, or even in a construction company at least part time to earn some cash. Do not get into debt buying stupid crap that will have you paying off the purchase with lengthy payments because this will keep you working in these types ofunfulfillingjobs for longer than anticipated. The goal is to work and save up asmuch as possible for your business venture and also to live off of in case you are moving from one job to the next. You should be able to live off at least two months of savings from your salary before moving onto the next job and while you are working on your business project.

If you are a young person during this phase, do not get involved in a relationship. This will only hinder your goals in developing your business and such; keep in mind there are exceptions, but until you know what the exceptions are, stay clear of relationships that will be pulling you down. You must stay focused.

Next, go to your local college and get the course curriculum guide.

York College Course Curriculum Guide PDF Download:2013-2014 catalog

You are not signing up for classes, no, what you will be doing with the course curriculum guide is looking through the business classes section and see how that particular schools curriculum goes about structuring the necessary courses to prepare the student with the knowledge needed to start a business.

Next, you will pick a class like say, business management. What you will do is GOOGLE business management and search for articles that comply with the type of business you plan to build. You can also be more specific like searching for phrases like managing an internet business.

Next, you will purchase the necessary books or visit your local library and search for the Dummies books or any text book on the subject on the course curriculum guide you plan to study and implement.

(Note: Every student who is pursuing building a business should have their own reference library to refer to when needed.)

Next, you will be setting up your own course of study by utilizing the information that is already available to you, which are:

  • Dummies books – these books are well written and any person can learn by reading and applying the information contained in these great books.
  • Idiot’s guides see Dummies book description.
  • Google – you can search many great articles by googling the topics you will be studying from the course curriculum.
  • YouTube video’s – We are living in the video age as well, you can go to you tube and type in the search engine the topic you are studying and learn with visuals as well. It is like being in a class room.
  • Hands on – While you are studying you will be building your business by applying what you are learning from the resources mentioned above.
  • Search for pod casts that are in your area of interest as well.
  • The Library – Yes we still use the library because it has the most extensive supply of informational recourses available to all, and it is all for free.

The next thing I would advise you to do is make a list of everything you are good at and everything you would like to learn. These two lists will serve you in helping you form a niche, which can help you start a nice business through the internet. Once you do that begin implementing everything I told you in this blog post.

The two major and most profitable options we have available for amassing wealth during its inception and giving you the freedom you desire are Real-estate investing and an internet based business. There are many areas in Real-estate investing and you must pick an area of specialty if you choose to pursue this profession and the same goes for the internet based business; there are many areas. The most well known are setting up a website to sell something and or Professional Blogging. My goal here at the I.A.A.M. blog is to do the best I can to equip you with the information covering Real-Estate and Internet marketing and Blogging but you must be the one to make it work because these professions are very difficult to succeed in, but not impossible. You can do it. That is why I say you must have the mind of a warrior and have a kick ass and take names attitude because it is through the long haul that success will come; no instant gratification here. Remember that it takes character to see a major goal through. Big dreams must be followed with Big sacrifice.

Every person that I have come in contact with who has built a business says that a college degree is not needed.

Our current education system has done everything to turn students off to learning and this is by design. You see the more ignorant and stupid you are and the more you agree with the main stream crap, the better they, meaning Government, can control you especially men.

Mark Twain has a famous quote: Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

There are many candy ass guys out there who buy into all of the bull crap being thrown at them by the public school system, College, Television and rags like the New York Times, Daily news and the main stream media, that they are relying on government to save them. As a school teacher in guidance, I have seen many young men, and I use the term loosely, come to school in their pajamas and slippers talking all sorts of crap thinking that, that behavior is normal and that they are men. There is definitely a war on men today and unfortunately many men are complying with the tyrants in our society.

The Education system is beyond any saving. Your Education is on going and should never end and it should be up to you to learn everything you can on your chosen craft. There are no excuses for not knowing something; NONE.

Real Men seek God, Wisdom and knowledge and should not concern themselves with wanting not to be liked or confirm to the heathenistic practices we see in our culture today, or even to seek approval from your sissy peers. Dogs seek approval from their masters; Are you a dog??

Learning and applying what you are learning is fun and should be fun and not mundane like the school system has had you believe.

Here are some resources to guide you and help you on your way.

Here are some great articles from Boldanddetermined.com that may come in handy.

  • The 21 Rules of the Rich (and how you can emulate them)
  • How to Actually Get Rich
  • The Minimalist’s Guide to Getting Rich (part 1)
  • The No Bullshit Guide to Making Money Online
  • How to Stop Being a No-Getter and Start Being a Go-Getter
  • 13 Reasons You Should Start An Internet Based Business
  • So You Want to Be a Professional Blogger
  • Obsession is the Only Thing That Counts

If you decide to be employed or build your own employment, remember one thing and that is how your life turns out is completely up to you and no one else. If you are living a life that you are not happy with then re-read what I have written here and change it. Its hard work, anything worth while takes hard work and sacrifice. Learn to take stock of yourself and pursue what is in your best interest. Stop listening to friends who do nothing but drag you down. Stop listening to family members that know nothing about building a business system and living free on your terms. Learn to seek out wise people who have achieved what you are trying to achieve.

Make full use of the information that I have presented here and put it into action today; Just Start.

I will have part two in a future blog post.

God Bless.

I.A.A.M.

Down Load complete article on PDF here:How To Choose Your Path in Life

 

http://www.internmatch.com/blog/keep-cool-figuring-life-school

Keep Cool while Figuring out Life After School

Go to college they said. You’ll get a job they said. This is a joke I’ve repeated several times in the last few weeks. Every time I mumble it to any graduating senior they laugh. Not the type of laugh that you get after watching smack cam videos on Vine, but the kind of nervous, so true laugh that screams out OMG, I understand.That laugh is comforting because it symbolizes that I’m not alone.

So if you’re a graduating senior with no post-grad plans, a junior confused about what you want to do, a sophomore still fumbling between studying medicine or English or a freshman thinking about which house party to crash this weekend, I want to laugh with you today and tell you that you are not alone. And if your parents are anything like mine they are still telling you to change your major to nursing (quick money), or asking you why you didn’t have a job lined up 2 years ago. However do not fret, although I still don’t have a job, my last 4 years have qualified me to share a few tips on how to keep your cool while figuring out school (that rhymed) with you.

1. Do your research. (Excel is your friend)

There is nothing worse than looking into grad school, or a job, or anything really without organization. At the beginning of my search I couldn’t remember where I applied, where I wanted to apply, or the contact info of key people. I quickly realized that an excel worksheet can give one peace of mind. Set it up by employer name, their contact info, job requirements, salary, location, so on and so forth. The amount of sanity this will give you is priceless.

2. Refine your resume. (Make your resume compete)

A resume is usually the first thing a recruiter looks at and one that doesn’t match the job can ruin your chances. I am personally looking for a career within a more creative setting (advertising/pr) and my businessy resume was not making the cut. It was complete and thorough, but boring. I added a little color and changed a few fonts and I landed an interview a week after.

3. Clean your social media. (My Twitter cost me a job. I think)

I have this weird theory that my Twitter kept me from landing a few jobs. I didn’t necessarily tweet anything too crazy, but I was known for tweeting a few four-letter words here and there. However, employers probably do not want you using those words in the office so why use them online? This being said you may want to put your accounts on private if you just can’t bring yourself to part with your rants, but if you’re like me and can’t stand not being retweetable then you should consider cleaning up your image a little.

4. Pool your resources. (Email, Email, Email, even if you think you’re being annoying)

I’ve realized that the phrase “it’s who you know” is more than just a catchy phrase, it’s the dang truth! It is one thing to submit your resume through a website hoping that they happen to look at it and think that it’s worthy of an interview, it’s another to send it directly to a key person’s inbox. Pool your resources. Contact your contacts and ask them to put you in contact with their contacts. Join groups that you have things in common with on LinkedIn (Greek life, major, companies). Do not delete your Facebook; one of those friends you have accumulated since middle school could be the key to your career, all you have to do is find out who.

5. Know your dreams. Follow them. You’re great. Don’t give up. (Where there a will there’s a way)

I have never been to NY, or LA, or Seattle, but it’s where I want to end up. For some reason that’s where my heart tells me to go so that’s where I’m aiming for. It’s okay if at first you land somewhere that doesn’t feel right; use that as a stepping stone to get to where you want to be, where you need to be. Life is too short for settling. As of now I don’t have anything set up, but contact me in 5 years and I’ll bet I’ll be cruising through the star-lined streets of Hollywood, walking my dog through central park, or enjoying a macchiato at the original Starbucks. I’m determined and you should be to.

Now, for the most important advice that I can share with you: A little white lie to your parents never hurt anyone. If they are obsessed with the idea of you going to grad school, but you just don’t see that in your cards, just tell them that you are looking into different programs. Naming a few different schools will build your credibility too. This will help you avoid an argument and save you a few headaches. You’ll thank yourself later when you’re doing what you love. And your parents will eventually forgive you because, let’s face it, they have to.

Good luck to you!

About the Author:

I am a graduating senior at Florida State University (Go Noles!) where I study marketing, media & communications studies. I wanted to be an actor, a newscaster, a reality TV star, and recently an advertising executive. I like to make people laugh and I’m a strong believer of not taking life too seriously. I probably use social media way too much, so follow my journey @KayloQue.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *