💡 Life Tip - The Last Step Matters Most (Issue #86)
Don’t worry too much about the previous ones
You no longer need a college degree to work at these companies:
IBM
Accenture
Okta
Dell
Bank of America
Google
Delta Airlines
The world is changing, and the assumption that one needs a college degree from a great school is perhaps not as valid as it used to be. But, for now, people still obsess over creating the perfect sequence of steps in their lives.Â
I must attend the perfect high school.
Then, I must be accepted by the perfect university.Â
Then, I must attend the most prestigious graduate program.Â
And then, I must be hired by the best of the best employers.Â
The funny thing is that what matters most is what you most recently accomplished. For example, I attended a pretty mediocre high school. You know what? No one cared or even asked about it once I got into college and later received my undergraduate degree.Â
Also, my undergraduate university wasn’t some prestigious school. But again, no one cared about it after I received my Ph.D. from Rice.
And guess what? No one cared about my Ph.D. after I worked at Apple. Heck, you’d be surprised by the number of people who have no idea that I have a Ph.D. No one cares.Â
Do you want to know what the most valuable thing is that these schools gave me?
It wasn’t the education. It wasn’t even the degree.Â
It was access to an exclusive network of people who opened doors for me while I was still a student. It’s that good ol’ networking effect that I frequently mention.Â
My undergraduate professor and advisor at UNL helped me prepare and get into graduate school at Rice University. Years later, my graduate advisor helped me get a job at IBM in Silicon Valley.Â
My point isn’t that you don’t need to achieve all these things. Yes, checking those boxes will open some doors.
However, you don’t need to obsess about the perfection of those choices. And you certainly shouldn’t set yourself up for years or decades of suffering (e.g., debt) because you demanded that perfection.Â
For example, please don’t spend $120K on some MBA program because you think it will be your golden ticket. Every month, I hear about more employers who don’t care about the school you attended (or your degree). So, decades of debt are definitely not something you should take on for something many employers may ignore.Â
Find a way to check the necessary boxes with the least amount of pain and move up to the next rung on your life ladder. What matters more is where you’re going. Keep your eye on that long-term prize!
I’m Larry Cornett, a Freedom Coach who works with you to optimize your career, business, and life. My mission is to help you become a more "Invincible You" so you can live your life on your terms instead of being controlled by someone else's rules. I live in Northern California near Lake Tahoe with my wife and our Great Dane.