Day Twenty Seven

Things have been busy the last week or so.

While I really enjoy writing I simply haven't been making the time for it like I need to to succeed at blogging.

The question comes down to this: Do I want to succeed at blogging?

I don't know. I look at Steve Pavlina and Darren Rowe who are bloggers making $100k plus a year from their blogs.

They love what they do, it seems they help people and they get paid really well for it. Both of them have leveraged their websites into a business. Steve is just now starting to do that and Darren has done that for awhile.

It really stems from where I want to make my money. I have a business that is coming together and so I don't want to spend my spare time working on this blog as it is.
My business is structured, hopefully, to give me more and more time *not* working and more and more money as it grows.

Blogging seems like it can be really fun but while Steve Pavlina has talked about passive income from blogs right now that is not my kind of passive income.

Real estate, business and investment passive income. Those are my current passive income goals.

Day Twenty Four

Things have been busy this week, nothing too exciting just working on business prep work.

On a far more fun note, I will be shadowing my uncles (the rich ones) for about a week this summer. Most people pay $10k plus for opportunities like that.


One of them is writing a book on building wealth so I am gonna pick his brain like crazy.

Day Twenty One

I feel alive and refreshed.


Aside from my right ankle which I twisted earlier today and is now swollen that is.

I am pretty fucking excited right now. I am meeting with the marketing person who just came on board with my company later this week to get her input on the planned marketing blitz for NN (initials only people) launch next month.

I also started interviewing software developers for a different company that I am on the BOD of.

It is a tangled web we weave when you don't know what the hell I am talking about.

A brief breakdown.

I own 30% of company number One and am on the BOD. Company number One has a division doing business under a different name (perfectly legal btw) and I am fully in charge of that division.

Company One was actually formed around several of my intelectual properties (hands off).

My division launches next month. The goal is to generate capital for company One's big project and attract investors.

Company Two is developing a different piece of software and is currently interviewing programmers. I suppose that I am the CEO of that company. This is also based on one of my ideas.

Fantastic eh?


Now to get them making some damn money

Day Twenty

Today my university comes back from spring break.

What does that mean for me?

Just that traffic is going to be slightly worse. Instead of taking me 10 minutes to go into work it will now take 15.

Other than that it is a beautiful, if cold, morning. I had a few good meetings over the last few days. I am feeling pretty good about this business and about life in general.

I suppose I should be feeling a bit stressed, my car needs work and things are about to get very busy, but life is to short to worry about that.

seriously. waaaay too short.


Off to breakfast, I have to be at my job by noon.

Day Seventeen

It has been awhile since I last posted.

Today I was interviewed for a book. The interviewer is doing a few case studies on college age kids and their thoughts on money, investing and entrepreneurship.

Right up my alley eh?

Admittedly I have not written about much in the way of money or investing or business just yet.

Yet...


Anyway, I will let all of you know when that book hits the stores, don't know when.


It has been a nice 'spring break' so far. While I am not *in* college it is nice. I took two days off of my job and have enjoyed the great weather.

And no traffic.

I have spent the week working on my upcoming business venture.

No details just yet.

Day Thirteen

I swear I have been busier since dropping college than when I was still attending classes and doing homework.

Consulting work is going, well it is going for now.

I am working on potentially too many projects right now, I may have to cut back on one or two.

Day Eight

You would think that having quit college and 'only' working a part time job that I would have tons of time on my hands.

Nope.

I am doing consulting work on the side to make extra money. I am also about a month away from launching my business.

Add to that the fact that I am learning on my own, picking up ruby in my 'spare' time, have a girlfriend that I do not see nearly enough of and you can see how my time gets spent.

Then again, I have been exausted for the last two days or so and I am working on catching up on sleep.

Don't knock it, getting enough sleep is vital. College students are often sleep deprived for a good chunk of the semester. Terrible for your health, emotional, mental and physical.


So if you will excuse me...

Nap time.

not to be confused with hammer time.

Day Seven

Success doesn't come cheap. With not being in college anymore I am forced to start searching for my own health insurance.


Fascinating stuff.


So freaking expensive that I may need to get another part time job...


or just wait a month until my business gets rolling


Tune in next time, Same Blog Time, Same Blog Channel

Day Six - Continued

As promised a declaration of purpose:

Post-Drop Studies in Success.

Simple, borderline clever, nice encapsulation.


WTF does that mean?

Whatever the hell I want it to mean, it is my life damnit!


Studies in Success? But you dropped out.

Maybe I have been unclear as to why I have dropped out. I feel my time can be better spent learning on my own, using the resources of the university I work for and the internet, and building my own career path.

Think about it for a second.

When in life is the best time to get your shit together?

When in life is the best time to start a business?

When in life is the best time to fail?

Yo, right here baby.

I can do all of those and still have my entire life ahead of me. Ever take an economics class? No? Well let's look at a simple explanation of the time value of money.

The present value formula is the core formula for the time value of money; each of the other formulae is derived from this formula. For example, the annuity formula is the sum of a series of present value calculations.

• The present value (PV) formula has four variables, each of which can be solved for:
  1. PV the value of a dollar at time=0
  2. FV the value of a dollar at time=n in the future
  3. r equals the interest rate that would be compounded for each period of time
  4. n is the period of time you want to equate.
  

Or even simpler. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Those 'birds' can be anything in life.

So there you go. Post-Drop Studies in Success.

Day Six

This weekend there were two prime time Sunday shows that mentioned college dropouts.

Maybe I should be worried.


Fuck that.

For those of you who followed my semi coherent ramble of why I dislike 'higher' education versus education in general here is a real treat for you. Or something confusing.

MIT has a program, OpenCourseWare. In short, the whole MIT curriculum is now online. You can't get credit but you can learn from MIT without going to MIT.

Remember, I am not against education but against the systemic problems of the university environment. Or something like that.


Enough of that for now. It is time of a deceleration of purpose and direction for this blog.

Coming soon

Day Three

Yesterday I promised a brief outline of my views on being educated vs education.

Don't say I never kept my word. Ever

Never.

Since lists on blogs are very popular Lets do this thing in lists eh?

I am going to clarify my terms here just a bit. By 'being educated' I am talking about the school system, particular the higher education (duh) system. Educated is a state of being. Or mind. Or something like that.

To continue.

Being Educated aka 'higher' education

1. When you are in the system you are expected to jump through various hoops. I have nothing against a well rounded education but honestly ask yourself how much you have learned from your english class? Exposure to classic literature is a great thing. How often are you interested in it though. Ask yourself, you graduates and current students, how much information you retain from your 'core' classes. Think about some class you only studied to pass the tests. Did you care then? Do you care now?
   
2. That leads me to my next point. Tests. Test are used to measure how much information you are retaining and sometimes (not that often sadly) what you can do with it. I have seen hundreds of people in dozens of classes, all spending thousands of dollars just to be there, only learning the material enough to pass (or ace) the tests. How well do tests prepare you for real life? Yeah, you may have to come up with some big report or project in real life but you get input throughout the process. You can do research *during* the project/paper/etc.
   
3. It is all a game. That is right, I said a game. You pay to play just like a casino. College is quite a bit like a casino in fact. Think about it. Getting a degree is no guarantee that you can get a job. I know a guy with two degrees and he is fluent in three languages. Can't get a job for the life of him. Where as I am degreeless and have a rather nice part time job making good money, enough that I dont need another job leaving me free to pursue my own projects and 'education'. Have fun 'winning' that piece of paper. Or lambskin or whatever the hell they make those things out of. Hmm, maybe I should learn that tomorrow.
4. Ok, so there are a number of pluses to going to school. I will admit it. Once. It is a great social place. It is a great place to figure out what you want to do for many people, that is until they graduate and panic. I want engineers, doctors and lawyers to go to college, there is value there but you have to really work for it. Real life and really doing something will teach you more than just about any class. Why do you think they have co-ops and such?
5. Last point for now. Being educated is passive learning. You have a teacher guide you through lessons and textbooks. My girlfriend is graduating with a degree in science ed and she is a good teacher. (+1 brownie points) There is a need for teachers, to get you started learning and to give you a good foundation. Beyond that it is your call. Pick something and go learn it. There is so much out there that they don't or can't teach you without your determination to learn.
   

Education aka Real Life

1. I have seen right around a hundred people graduate in the last few years and just about all of them struggle to find a job or even pick a career path. College simply doesn't prepare most people for real life. In real life you have to sink or swim. Ok it isn't quite that bad, there is a lot of grey in that area and there is always welfare. Don't overlook welfare. In college there is a pass/fail line. There are As Bs Cs Ds and then Fs. In my experience I have learned more from my failure at business, relationships and every other part of life. I have learned from my success too but failure is a great wakeup call and a great motivator.
   
2. Education doesn't stop when you leave college or at the least it shouldn't In college when a class is over unless you have another class along the same path that is it. You are done. That never made sense to me. I took classes and if I liked it I kept studying it beyond the end of that class. Why not? I paid to learn the shit, might as well learn more and possibly put that to use.
   
3. Having education versus being educated gives you an open ended feeling. I wake up (almost) every morning and ask myself what I want to do or learn today. That started when I quit college. Before that I was to hemmed in with papers and tests and classes to attend and on and on. Working on my own education gives me the freedom to work outside those little ticky tacky boxes. Life is too short to be limited and there are enough limits put in place by society as is.
   
4. Education versus being educated (using my own definitions thank you) can be scary. I want to live a very comfortable life, beyond comfort actually well past rich. Most people aren't rich. I had to ask myself if I wanted to be like most people. That was pretty easy. I am not saying that everyone should quit college, but it seems that for right now I don't and don't want to belong in college. I am going my own way and hopefully that will be good.
   

Hopefully all that made sense. That was kind of stream of consciousness so forgive any incoherence.

To end this admittedly biased discourse I leave you with one of my favorite philosophers.

Only the educated are free. - Epictetus

Day Two - continued

I saw something today on Digg (my favorite time waster/social news source) that, predictably, pissed me off. It is a list of 'high' paying jobs that don't require a college degree. This brings in to light my own lack of anything beyond an associates (aka useless) degree.

I was going to post something tomorrow about how most people don't end up using their degree anyway but tonight I will explore some of the option they left out.

While the list did include freelancing as a programmer and and freelancing in other specialties I would like to address some of the jobs/career paths they missed.

• I started a business in 2004 at the tender age of 21. I had help and investor capital. Within a year I was making upwards of $75 dollars an hour doing consulting for small businesses. What kind of consulting? IT. Yes that is right. That was one hell of a lot of cash coming my way. It wasn't freelance work in that it was through a company but it was through a company that I founded and was a part of. Big difference. Owning, operating and growing a business doesn't require a degree. That degree may help you wow investors but I have found that many of them prefer real world experience. Running a business is hard work but if you love what you do... you get the idea.
• They missed the recently popular Pro Blogger. Not many people can become pro bloggers, it takes massive amounts of time (so I hear) and dedication. Succeeding can be very very lucrative as Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net can tell you. Steve Pavlina is doing quite well with his blog as well. By quite well I mean $100k plus. Surprising that the NextPath article overlooked that.
  
• Winning the Lotto. Not exactly a 'traditional' career but certainly possible. Just like getting struck by lightening. Or spontaneous combustion. Actually I think that winning the lottery is really a bad idea for most people. Coming into money that quickly and without any understanding of basic investment principles can get you in trouble really quick.
• One of my uncles is a multi-millionaire. He retired at 40. Doing what? Investing in real estate. He is currently writing a book on how he does it and he is willing to help out his extended family members learn to invest. Score one for me. He started out just reading books, some of which I will cover later on in this blog. He took the time to learn to control his finances well and took that leap from learning to doing. Trust me when I say that putting up quite a lot of cash upfront can be scary. Four years ago he was making ~$70k/year from his investments. He now makes (from what I gather) ~$400k/year Passive Income plus his other active investments. From him I have learned that it can take a surprisingly small amount of money to get started investing.
  

Why did I go back to school if I was making that kind of dough from my business though?

A bastard of a partner and some fraud on his part.

I had a loyal group of customers who switched contracts to keep me on but I decided to take my cash and go back to school.

I did more freelancing after I moved but then took the job I have now.
Not nearly as much in the way of pay but it let me not seek out clients.

The time for that is over. I already started my third business.

Stay tuned.

Day Two

Today was quite the busy day at work. Spent the whole day running around fixing computers.

Did I mention that I work as a Computer Specialist? Well I do.

My girlfriend was up sick all night so my early morning was taken up with that instead of my usual walk and time studying whatever the hell I want.

Tomorrow look for a my views on education versus being educated.

Day One

Last night I made the decision.

I quit.

I am not dropping out. I am not failing out. I quit.

I quit putting up with bullshit professors. I quit worrying about tailoring stupid papers to individual teachers tastes. Can't offend most of them or bad things happen to your grade.

I quit being one of the herd. Ever yell "baa" or "moo" in a big crowd? Well, in college most people can't hear you because of the attached iPod or cellphone.


So now what?

I woke up this morning and asked myself what I wanted to learn today. So I surfed around looking for some education podcasts on iTunes. (yeah, I have an iPod too, I used to be one of the herd)

I figured that I should probably work on my grammar and go from there. I stumbled onto the Princeton University Podcasts, pretty cool stuff.

Wait a second. Didn't I just quit college?

Why then am I choosing to learn?

Because I love to learn. I hate education.

Above my monitor is a little quote :

Education ought to foster the wish for the truth, not the conviction that some particular creed is the truth. - B. Russell

After that I decided to go old school (damnit, sometimes you just can't help yourself) and read a book or two. I didn't feel like picking my MCSE course books, I was in a history mood. I rent a 100 year old house out in a tiny town not far from the college town where I *used* to go to school and still work. Seriously, this town is small. No stoplight or anything. But it does have a tiny little library which is connected to the north Georgia library system.

So I took a stroll down to the library to see what I could find.

Nada.

Tiny library. But while I was there I ordered up some nifty books to read, I will post them later when they arrive.

One of them is a programing guide to Ruby and along with the tutorials and such I am going to learn to program in Ruby.

The other one is an in depth study of medieval warfare. Oxford press.

Delicious.

In the mean time I picked up a nice fiction book to read out in the park. Fantastic.