Why Every College Student Should Read The Education of Millionaires

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Group Of Students With Male Tutor In Computer Class

Today’s business world is much different than it was in the last few centuries. With the upswing of modern technology and WiFi hot-spots, a lot of people are doing their work on the go from the comfort of their laptops and tablets. With the increase of many freelance jobs hidden in the market that aren’t necessarily seen on regular job market postings, it makes the real world a much more evolving atmosphere.

In order to give the young people of today’s generation a better idea and outlook. I decided to do a quick summary of an excellent business book by Michael Ellsberg, The Education of Millionaire’s.

I don’t plan to do too many book reviews on my blog, however I do firmly believe that some reading materials are definitely worth the time. For this reason, I wanted to include my personal opinion along with the modern day advice of Ellsberg on the current business and career landscape present for the generation of today.

In The Education of Millionaire’s, the book begins by discussing some of the most important skills that every young adult should be developing that aren’t necessarily taught in your State History class or Introduction to Psychology course. What is stressed in this book is the crucial need for success related skills such as personal skills and networking with people of authority. All of which aren’t necessarily taught in introductory college courses.

The college education of today consists of pounding in studies through the means of memorizing vast terms and spending all-nighters studying for material that may not always have great relevance to the modern workplace of job related skills. Unless a student is in an Engineering, Pre-Medical studies, Finance, or Computer Programming field the world is becoming increasingly hard for new graduates.

What this book really stresses is the need to develop seven key skills related to successful results in the professional world as well as practical steps to take in order to make vast changes.

The seven success skills are as follows:

  1. How to Make Your Work Meaningful and Your Meaning Work (or, How to Make a Difference in the World Without Going Broke)
  2. How to Find Great Mentors and Teachers, Connect with Powerful and Influential People, and Build a World-Class Network
  3. What Every Successful Person Needs to Know About Marketing, and How To Teach Yourself
  4. What Every Successful Person Needs to Know About Sales, and How To Teach Yourself
  5. How To Invest for Success (The Art of Bootstrapping)
  6. Build The Brand of You
  7. The Entrepreneurial Mind-set versus the Employee Mind-set: Become The Author of Your Own Life  (Ellsberg 17)

In order to really make a dent and change lives, it takes a lot more than a simple college degree as our current job applicants all across America become increasingly educated and acquire more and more higher degrees. Nowadays many people continue education all the way beyond to the point of graduate school. The question to consider is whether all the schooling necessarily pays off in the long-run and whether the knowledge is really put into practical use to help fund and create businesses.

Through the course of self-study and learning  many relevant skills can be learned in a short time span including the art of app and website creation. With the increase of online programs and software becoming increasingly available it has become much easier to develop critical skills that can be applied towards multiple entrepreneurial ventures.

The modern day student and local retail salesperson are both people that are fighting a similar fight. They’re stuck in a crowded environment where their utmost skills and talents aren’t necessarily being full utilized, while their plates are simultaneously becoming more full.

Ellsberg repeatedly stresses that the biggest part of learning in the realm of career, work, money, and business all come through the course of self-education and trying out new ideas.

It takes a lot of trial and error in order to make an impact on the lives of others while simultaneously living a fulfilling life.

In order to have a successful launch it requires a smart toolkit of skills like transferring ideas and knowledge via word of mouth.

Ellsberg recommends time after time that if you want to take things a step further and reach people outside of your local circle of influence, a major way of accomplishing this goal can be through the method of referral marketing and building brand awareness. The best way to reach large amounts of people is through setting good realistic goals and taking constant action in order to reach more followers, customers, fans, and large groups of people.

The biggest stress of this book by Michael is whether it is correct to push our future students and graduates directly into schools or whether it is more beneficial for society and human interest to go take risks with creative passions.

Just about everyone has some sort of outside hobbies and passions that they enjoy doing, but the question of whether young people should take the risk of taking on student loans and boring careers versus striking it out in the business world is what young people need to try and configure.

As quoted in the book, “More and more Americans of all ages are waking up to the reality that you don’t need a nine-to-five job to be a valuable, contributing member of society and to create wealth for yourself and others. Millions of small-business owners, entrepreneurs, computer programmers, graphic designers, independent consultants, writers, and freelancers make valuable contributions to society (creating four out of ten new jobs in the economy), outside the realm of working for a boss nine to five or (eight to eight). (Ellsberg 15)”

Ellsberg stresses there needs to be more purpose in young people’s lives that isn’t exactly shown through dull professions and university degrees. In order to have a strong balance one needs to learn the art of making a living by solving problems and making a difference.

Part of experiencing life is stumbling upon new interests and refining old skills. In order to live comfortably and confidently it requires one to be adventurous enough to take leaps in the direction of new opportunity.

The important factor for most young people is that in order to launch a successful venture it helps to have a sense of financial security so experimentation and failure can occur without being broke. Ellsberg will tell you it is way less stressful to do things like launch an entrepreneurial  experiment when there is still room to fall between the spare hours of work and life. As he states about experimenting, “Leading always feels more meaningful, impactful, and creative than following. (Ellsberg, 44)”

One of the most important takeaways that I took from reading this book, was the importance of taking the step of Aligning Your Money and Your Meaning. When you live a life without any meaning attached to it, you’ll be wondering around hopelessly in a career that brings little value or satisfaction. I really feel that this book is a game-changer and it can really motivate strong self-directed learners towards the life of one’s dreams.

One of the quotes by Matt Mullenweg on the back cover of this text is quite noteworthy,  “Self-education is the key to upgrading your mind and your life. Michael’s book teaches you how to unlock the education available outside of classes, all around you.” Matt Mullenweg the creator of WordPress.org, the platform used by blogging professionals across the world; is just one of the many big names mentioned in the book.

The book will provide any college student or employee with a strong mindset as well as street-smart toolkit full of skills that can be applied towards real world success.

Be sure to stay up to date and create a strong reading list. Get yourself a copy of The Education of Millionaires!

Works Cited

Ellsberg, Michael. The Education of Millionaires: Everything You Won’t Learn In College About How To Be Succesful. New York: Porfolio/Penguin, 2011. Print.

Living A Life of Positivity To Change The Modern World

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Living A Life of Positivity

For most folks across the world they live a life of mediocrity. Many people are perfectly fine with a boring life of sitting on a sofa staring at a flat-screen TV, rather than living a self-designed adventure or creating their own musically orchestrated rhythm to this game we call life.

So how should we all live? Should we believe everything that we’re told? Should we thirst for life by constantly trying to experience life as fully and deeply as we possibly can?

The way I look at life, is in a fashion of mental growth and enrichment. Life is a constant climb of inclines and declines of multiple mountain peaks.

What we all really need is more love, strength, courage, inspiration, light and positivity in the world; and less cynicism, hatred, negativity, and pessimism.

After studying some ethics I began to come across some very deep contemplative questions. These questions are inevitable for the action-takers and the shape-shifters of our modern world. I decided to come up with a list of summarizations:

What should you really be doing?

-Master your good habits and do them continuously.

-Minimize your bad habits.

-Be an effective person who actively engages in positive daily interactions with every person of contact.

-Find out who the best of the best are at their trade, and learn from them. (Finding a mentor at a young developmental stage is crucial for future success.)

-Find the best of the best and try to out due them in their aesthetic field.

-Learn what form of aesthetics is your best fit. (You are brilliant and you are extremely talented. Believe it or not, you can change the world if you take the steps to change yourself and grow as an individual.)

-Study epistemology and figure out your best learning style.

-Develop your art form and reproduce your work.

-Ask the life question: Where do you see yourself five years from now?

-Pursue the type of life that makes you happy. (A happy life is a virtuous life.)

-Seek progress through the sharing and innovation of ideas.

Perhaps I shouldn’t call life a game, but many people gamble with life, create, and dance their way toward successful endeavors. The way in which we choose to spend our time largely defines our personality and reflects our true character.

A life in the moment, has been proven to be a way towards more happiness, since people of true passion get lost in the moment and swiftness of their deepest endeavors.

If you live in a fashion where you enter every encounter with an intention to positively interact and leave others with their glass more full, you’re living in a state of positivity. In order to learn more about leaving other people’s glasses more full, you should read the book How Full Is Your Bucket.

You can choose to live a life full of abundance, or you can choose to live a shallow life with very little excitement in between. Most people are afraid to jump over hurdles or go outside of the loops that the massive herds of people across the world end up going through.

What our society really needs is for people to become nonconformist of our public schools and formal educations and make a difference in the lives of young people both inside and outside the confines. As Fredrich Nietzsche would promote, we need certain individuals to rise above others in thinking, learning, and idea sharing among young peers.

We need enlightened business people and spiritual people alike to share a thirst of life and positivity.

A life of positivity is composed of enlightened stages of intellect and new ideas. All these new ideas and deep contemplation can help a person reach a state of happiness. I truly believe the things that we seek in order to achieve happiness varies upon each person and their life experiences from past-present-to future.

Perhaps a resurgence of 17th century salon’s where intellectual conversation took place night and day is what America and other countries, with struggling economies need in order to refurbish. The role of feminine and masculine positions in our modern society must be questioned and answered in the near future, as we embark upon new ethical questions regarding our current modern day.

We need the good company of intellectuals who possess common interests, ideas, and love for beauty. There is a need to integrate the writers, directors, poets, musicians, athlete’s, architects, designers, entrepreneur’s and painters of today.

The largest difference between today and the 16th and 17th centuries is the technology currently presented. The modern reliance upon digital technology for entrepreneurship and communication is becoming  increasingly important across many global landscapes. Our coffee shops and cafe’s are full of people who are trying to innovate, but we need more positive integration.

The major question if we’re to recreate the idea of salons of the 16th and 17th century, how much power do we give to the modern day woman and man of today’s day and age? When we talk about equality we should talk about the implications of how much influence a woman has over a man and vice versa.

Many institutions of the modern world promote mediocrity through the teaching of nihilism. We need to change this because religion and morals have important value for society.

We need to enlighten the young minds of the globe and create abundance for the populations of people who have been robbed of their lives and natural resources.

Once people rise above the stages of Camel-Lion-Child we can have a world full of free-play and creativity for those who seek to go the extra miles.

There are many people in the countries of Central America and the continent of Africa who suffer and are in need of help. These very people are risking their lives to travel and live in western countries in order to create better and more prosperous lives.

Many countries, states, and provinces are going through massive changes in their systems of law and freedom. What needs to be done is the activation of steps towards massive change.

I suggest that more of life should be lived outside of the brick confines and out in the world of everyday experience. Whether it is workplaces or public school institutions; much of humanities potential gets trapped and untapped within brick confines.

So what do I advise?

Well, rather than having one’s creative potential put to waste, why not go out and show it to the world? Why not strive to flourish, so we can all creatively share our ideas that the world so desperately needs.

We all want to attain our goals of having sufficient healthy food, shelter, security, power, wealth, and other scarce resources that we all fight and spend our lives to obtain.

Our world is so beautiful and our people so beautiful, yet many are rather unsocial and live lives engulfed in technology and screens. Rather than living a life of fun and abundance through the beauty of aesthetic creation, many fail to create for the fear of trying.

The civilizations of the past were built upon the philosophical foundations of building virtue. The ancient Greeks and European monarchies of the past encompassed great architectural feats, musical creations, athletic displays, dramatic performances, and artistic embodiments.

Today our society still takes great strides in multiple areas, but my only fear is whether we can truly make our predecessors proud. Will the children of tomorrow be happy and excited about the things that we create today? Are we striving to create a better tomorrow or are we too conceited or embezzled in our own-self interests?

What we need is virtuous people who create happy flourishing communities across the world’s landscapes. A life of positivity is the life of a shining flashlight through the world’s dark staircases.

Many are caught up in a rat race and are constantly pursuing something without really knowing why. Is it pleasure, self-gratification, or happiness?

If you want to be a master of your work and morality, life must be lived as a means rather than an end in itself.

Go out and be radiant. Become a shining light!