Many people wonder if you need a college degree to get started with your own business and the short answer is: NO!
Focus on Learning, Not the Degree
If you ask around (and I'm sure you've probably done this) you will probably not see any correlation between college degrees and who is succeeding in business. Have you ever heard of any of these cliche statements:
1. "It's not what you know, it's who you know"
2. "I learned on the job"
3. "I learned in the school of life"
4. "I never used my degree"
5. "If I could go back to college, I would have studied …"
So what does all this mean?
The point of this topic is that you do not need a college degree to be successful in business. Now before everyone starts biting my head off, let me explain a few things.
First, for many professional careers, a degree is important, and required! For instance, doctors, lawyers, certain technical careers, etc, all need the required education in order to do their jobs correctly.
But not in business, baby!
Also, as a college attendee myself, the one thing that I would never give back is the set of skills I learned having to study a bunch of course materials I will never need to know again!
For instance, this is the invaluable part of higher education:
• how I learned how to think
• To question things
• How to study effectively
• How to perform under pressure with deadlines, etc
• Communication and interpersonal skills
The key thing with most successful business owners is that they will all tell you: "Never Stop Learning." This is of utmost importance, regardless of what you do!
People Judge You By Results in Business - Not Certifications
Think about the last time you were at a fine dining establishment and you were completely blown away by the service of the waitstaff. I bet you didn't ask to see their "waiter qualifications degree," now did you?
That is because, just like in business, we are not typically going to ask to see qualifications upfront (with the rare exception of course). We want to see results!
So if you are thinking about starting a business online for instance - what type of results or service are your clients going to expect? They most likely will want to see your acumen and results - not that you graduated Magna Cum Laude from XYZ University!
No Degree = No Problem!
I bet you know someone in your immediate circle of influence that is a business success that has never set foot into an institution of higher learning…
Maybe it's your friend's uncle who is a millionaire pizza shop owner, or a cousin who has a hugely successful extermination company, or something crazy like that.
When is the last time you heard of a Pizza Company or Exterminator P.h.D.? It's the school of hard knocks as they say!
As you probably know, a degree does NOT guarantee you a high paying job or success at any level, especially for entrepreneurs. But what about doctors and lawyers you say? Again, I'm sure you can think of a few people with both of these degrees that are not practicing, or making as much money as some of the other school drop-outs.
Here is an example:
Have you ever heard of John Paul DeJoria? Most people have not heard of him. John Paul was the classic example of a student who was told while in school that "he would never succeed at anything," and boy were they wrong…
DeJoria did go on to graduate high school, but opted out on the whole college education thing. And guess how much he is worth now?
$4 billion.
John Paul DeJoria and a close friend went on to create the Paul Mitchell line of haircare products. AND, Patrón tequila. You ever heard of these 2 brands?
Yep, $4 billion. Not too bad for a kid with no degree who was told he would never succeed at anything!
Moral of the Story
The lesson here is that not having a degree is not an obstacle in having a successful business. To reiterate - a degree can be an important part of the process of discovery for many people, and also really important for some technical careers. However, to start a business it does NOT require a degree, so make sure you don't let this stop you from your dreams!
PLUS, nowadays we have an unlimited supply of knowledge right at our fingertips in the form of the internet. Getting answers to your questions is as easy as your resourcefulness with the search engines!
Mobe Matt Lloyd: one-thing-you-need-to-succeed-in-lifepath
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