At 18 years old, I had the plan I thought I needed to have as to what I wanted to do with my life. I was just graduating high school and making the jump to college on the path to achieving a degree that would allow me to become a physical therapist. At that time, I actually worked in a physical therapy office getting onsite real job experience almost daily. I was always told a college degree is what you need if you want to succeed at anything in this world. This was reiterated and reinforced by everyone around me. I liked physical therapy a lot, but how would I manage financially if I followed down this path. This is something that was never brought up or discussed at home or in school. Finances are definitely a conversation that should be had with young people. The principles of capitalism have the ability to set anyone on a path of virtually boundless opportunities. This was never even mentioned in the classroom at any stage of my school career. It is obvious that a lot has changed for me since that time. I am no longer in school or practicing to become a physical therapist. I am an entrepreneur embracing the opportunity of capitalism and all it has to offer, and using my ventures to buy back my time, something you’ll never learn about in school. How did college end up this way? Wasn’t it supposed to be different? I thought we could do anything we want to when we grow up.
The stigma of wanning possibilities
When we were in elementary school, everyone was told they could be whatever they wanted to be when they grew up. “Anything is possible! Shoot for the stars!” From police officer to astronaut to president to doctor, imaginations and desires ran wild and we were encouraged to follow our dreams. Obviously, a lot changes from elementary school to your later teenage years, but the restrictive chains of society’s definition of “realistic” should not be a burden kids this age face. At 17 and 18 years old, kids are put under pressure to pick a traditional career, achieve higher education, and trade the rest of your time for money until you’re in your 60s. In my opinion, this is extremely unfair and takes away all the possibilities that were once promised to us when we were kids when we were told “anything is possible”. Is anything no longer possible when you grow up? Was that just a cute game to play with kids to get them excited only to shoot them down 10 years later with traditional expectations? It shouldn’t be because in this country we have the greatest economic system known to man, capitalism. Within this system, you can essentially monetize anything and provide value to society in your own unique way. You can invest your money into assets such as stocks or real estate and begin to stop working for money and allow money to work for you. Why don’t schools teach any of this? I don’t know, but if it weren’t for reading and YouTube videos, I would have never found out this was a possibility and more than likely would be miserable right now applying for graduate school in an alternate universe.
The story of my awakening
I was always a great student in high school receiving straight A’s and consistently making the dean’s list. I was programmed to think I could only go to college post high school and never even thought about an alternative. After my first year of college, I was perplexed. “This felt like 13th grade. I thought college was supposed to be harder and teach me more about my career path.” In reality, college has morphed into an extension of high school, and most of the time spent in the classroom isn’t dissimilar to any of the classes you took in high school. Distraught over this, I decided I would transfer to another college in the fall and give it another chance. Then, just like that, Covid happened and life was put on hold for three months. Like most people, I spent the first week watching reruns of Friends bored out of my mind in the basement. One day, I got the itch from a friend to start to learn about stocks, so I did. “What do I have to lose?”, I told myself. It turned out I only had everything to gain. Exposing myself to the general ideas of capitalism such as the stock market grew my hunger for more information. “Why didn’t I learn about any of this stuff in school?”, I thought. It was from that point forward that I dove into many areas of investing and entrepreneurship. I started an Amazon business, started this blog you’re reading now, got my real estate license and sold a few houses, invested in the stock market, opened a few real estate wholesale and acquisition businesses, and this is only the beginning!
Going back to the “You can do anything you put your mind to” mindset we spoke about in the first section, at this point in my life I now know this is true. We live in a country that contains limitless opportunity and possibility if you only go out and seize it! Don’t let the progressively lower expectations of society bog you down doing something you loathe because you were told it is the only way. In America, you can and should make your own way using the works of others who have gone a similar way for reference through books and now videos. In today’s world, you can simply learn anything you want for free online or in a book, you just need to develop the motivation and hunger to look for it! Never forget the limitless possibilities available to you at any time and take full advantage of them instead of letting society bully you into decisions about your life!