The $200,000 Education Most parents save and foot the $200,000 bill for each of their children to obtain a lucrative 4-year American college education. As a first-generation college graduate from parents who came over as boat people after serving time as POWs in the Vietnam War - I’m forever grateful for my parent’s working low wage jobs to save every single penny for my brother and I to achieve the American Dream. Most parents have been thru the educational experience that their rebellious students are going thru - knowing what their daughters and sons will do in college. As orientation begins, freshman begin their 4 year journey of “finding themselves” - discovering their character, sexual interests, career aspirations, circle of friends and haters, social passions, protestable issues, athletic goals, and most importantly their life purpose. Everyone dies - so it doesn’t make sense to waste your parent’s hard earned life savings on studies that are not desirable. Parents can spend $200,000 in many ways but they don’t want you to be strolling the streets trolling and protesting others like a bum...unless that’s your life passion. Ways to Spend $200,000 for Huge ROI $200,000 for a 4 year American education - 32 total 13-week classes that meet twice a week is $240 per Class! If your child is bound to spend time in class goofing off on their phones or computers, better instead to INVEST $200,000 in a fresh IPO stock. For $200,000 you could make $4-$17 million instead of being in the RED with student debt. Here are some real-life examples putting $200,000 to work
Students are College’s Customers Parent’s have loved their children from birth to graduation so trust their son or daughter’s judgment on the college selection process. Starting today, student’s must absolutely be in a “customer” mindset to demand your college to deliver on career preparation as you’re paying a fortune for a piece of paper that has “B.A.” or “B.S.” on it. While in college, it is your duty to take initiative studying the right subject and then networking early in school (not Second Semester of Senior Year) to land internships that provide that real-world experience that employers covet. Life After College Leave your ego at the door. Employers don’t care if you were the “hottest girl” or “big man on campus.” You’ve had slip-ups in life, but no one will feel sorry for you if one of your peers beats you out for your dream job. I’ve been discriminated my whole life for being Asian, short, poor, dumb, fat, shy, and unfit. Complaining doesn’t do anything. We all have “chip on the shoulder” moments from people who didn’t believe in us. Use the haters as motivation in transforming from a perceived SCRUB to STAR. If you research the most successful people in the world, they all used a burning fire inside to achieve greatness and silence the haters. Success speaks louder than words. When you succeed, no one cares where you went to school, what your test scores were, how many people you’ve made love with, and how much you can drink. It’s all about RESULTS. First Job Always remember the sensational of your FIRSTS: your first kiss, your first college admission big envelope, your first athletic victory, your first campus leadership position, etc. Getting your first job offer over the phone and writing is extremely exciting. The moment validates your parent’s sacrifice nurturing you to graduate from the college campus bubble into the “real world.” SPOILER ALERT: you will likely not be a LIFER at your first employer. The average person has 4 different post-college jobs by Age 30. I want you to always have a “free agent” mindset in looking out for your best interests because companies can FIRE you at a second’s notice as personnel decisions are made for optimizing business performance. In American Football, teams (employers) look to colleges as a farm system where rookies typically stay with their first company for 4 years. This time period allows a rookie to grow professionally into their potential as a role player or bona-fide superstar. Personally, I stayed with my first employer for 4 years and encourage college students to do the same in building a solid business foundation for a tremendous career. FML At work the “honeymoon period” ends fast - 3 months into your professional career. Many people aspire to be the next Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Oprah, or Mark Zuckerberg, but being an OWNER is extremely challenging. As an OWNER you have to hustle to put bread on the table for your family. For owners, there is NO bi-weekly W-2 direct deposit paycheck that employees enjoy from being on their bosses payroll. Entrepreneurs grind - oftentimes sacrificing family and health goals to achieve their passions. Thus many employees are appreciative of the stability that comes with a paycheck to pay the bills. Employees don’t have to face the FEAST or FAMINE daily battles that owners/entrepreneurs experience. Companies like McDonald’s, Amazon, Walmart, etc happily provide jobs for millions of employees in mission to serve customers well. However, many people lose the fire they had in college treating the remainder of their life as a 9-5 clock-in clock-out punch card - stuck in the Captivity of Negativity. When the clock strikes 5PM, people happily race home to watch 4-5 hours of online video as if its their part-time job, bolt to their online date, watch 3 hours of baseball 162+ days a year, work on “some” thought leadership, and REPEAT. When you hear the phrase “corporate drone” - this is what many of your parents, ancestors, and even you may face. You’ll go about your day saying FML, “Another Day Another Dollar”, and whine about keeping up with the Jones. When you go home at night, ask yourself if you’re happy and living a great life. If you’re not I want you to always remember how Steve Jobs approached life Your Legacy When You Die Fast forward to the day you die. Think about how you want to be remembered by everyone in attendance and those you know. Steve Jobs lived by the quote “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.” This helped him avoid going thru life’s motions and enabled him to take business and personal risks. Steve enjoyed the fast track to success over being stuck in the corporate rat race. At Steve’s funeral (I encourage you to watch this entire event), Tim Cook, an Investor, the CDO, Coldplay, and Norah Jones spoke about his life achievements. We were all put on EARTH for a purpose. The sooner you learn to envision your desired legacy, you’ll be able to live life purposefully and happily. Employer College Pipeline Just like high school serves as a pipeline for colleges around the world, college is a farm league for sports and business. The cost of hiring and firing is expensive so employers absolutely strive for employees that fit the company’s culture and performance expectations. Employers have many talent pipeline alternatives to college students such as automation, outsourcing, and artificial intelligence. In a world of over 7 billion people not including robots, there is always a faster, cheaper, better, and hungrier alternative thrilled to take your spot. As a college student, your biggest challenge is standing out from your peers to rise above the corporate “HR Black Role” which is the mysterious inbox containing thousands of resumes for limited opportunities. Having reviewed thousands of job applications and prospects, skills pay the bills. Skills Pay the Bills In American Football, owners allocate a budget to 3 types of players: superstars, role players, and bench warmers. Everyone else is fired. This is the same “rank and yank” system that Jack Welch created that has been adopted by companies all over the world in making personnel decisions based on annual performance so that there are no hard feelings if underperformers get fired. There is no room for corporate politics often seen in publicly-funded jobs i.e. government, teachers, cops where pay is based on seniority instead of merit. Just like in sports where the stars start and the washed up get cut, stars in companies are on the fast track to success and the underperformers must find alternative careers. What Schools Don’t Teach Street smart vs book smart. You need both. Academia often times teach obsolete pie-in-the-sky skills that don’t prepare students for business success. This is understandable as most professors are academics not practitioners - having never worked a day in the business world. College is the best time to soak in fresh information as your brain is young - not as clogged as older people. In a fight to land coveted positions with the top employers in the world, many elite academic institutions are handing out 4.0 GPAs like candy to pass the GPA Resume Screen. They’ve lowered academic standards and dumbed intellectual curiosity as students take “cheesecake” classes such as “The Joy of Garbage.” In the classroom, you want to study a hirable subject or may end up like most Art Majors during Occupy Wall Street. Watch this video as this could be you. No one is going to feel sorry for your incompetence in wasting a $200,000 college education. Below are the skills that employers around the world cite as deficient from college students (popular motivational video links attached)
Internship = Fast Track to Success Use the classroom to gain deep knowledge in a business area, then seek professional experience thru internships to apply your learning and gain real-world experience that can’t be learnt in the classroom. Employers look for candidates ready to hit the ground running in as little time as possible. Having overcome many challenges in life, I was still shy and afraid of public speaking more so than death. Interpersonal skills are critical in business, so I turned those huge weaknesses into strengths by spending 2 years working as a Cutco knife salesman, serving coffee at Dunkin Donuts, and interacting with private wealth managers (i.e. people who manage other people’s money (OPM)). All those experiences required the ability to have product knowledge and salesmanship. Everyone has problems in life. To succeed, you need to have a doctor’s mindset in providing a “pain-killer” priceless solution that will rid the customer of their pain. Act NOW You don’t want graduation to come when all your friends have jobs but YOU - it’s an embarrassing feeling in front of family and friends. I’ve experienced that twice after getting my Bachelors and then my MBA. So before you drink your brains away, binge watch a TV show, head to your online date, etc. get an edge on your peers now with real-world experience thru an internship. At JustHuynh, we are accepting applications for Campus Ambassadors HERE Best of luck in your career
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AuthorFrancis Huynh is Founder & CEO of JustHuynh - the social fitness company that helps people build confidence and self defense skills thru group fitness martial arts and power athletics training. Personally experiencing obesity during college and consulting, training with partners helped Francis become healthier and happier. With time as most valuable resource, Francis turned down corporate career opportunities post-MBA to dedicate his life to help 400 million+ people affected with diabetes worldwide reach their health goals. Francis completed his undergrad at Bowdoin and MBA at Vanderbilt. Archives
March 2018
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