Does Your Education Serve You Well?

My more traditional path may no longer be the best (only?) path for you.

I followed a very traditional pathway in my educational life. I learned good basic skills. I pursued an academic curriculum in high school. I went to college right out of high school and succeeded in acquired a rather generic type of degree.

I entered the professional workforce and called it all a whopping success. I spent many years in corporate America doing work that had little or nothing to do with my education. That’s not to say I think my education was a waste — absolutely not — it’s just I spent four years not earning a sustainable income (and acquiring a modicum of debt along the way) instead of getting a jump start on living in the adult work and being a responsible citizen.

If I could go back in time I would probably do things exactly the same way — with the emphasis on “going back in time.”

If I would be starting out in life today — well, I may be choosing a different path.

While I will always believe in the power of education as a solid basis for a thinking, feeling person to embrace the world and understand all its multi-faceted dimensions, I’m coming to realize that much of what I learned in college is much more applicable in my brain and how I relate to the world as a whole than it is in a practical sense in the real world.

In recent days, I have been trying to secure the services of an appliance repair person and a landscaping person. For me, at this moment in time, these services are an essential element of my life.

I am struggling (only marginally successful, so far) to resolve either of my current basic life dilemmas. Supply shortages, staffing issues and an overall lack of specialized skills has made some of the basic operations of daily life significantly more difficult to acquire.

My husband, on the other hand, has a friend he meets with weekly to discuss the philosophical bends in the works of their favorite philosophers, Plato and Aristotle. He is having no trouble whatsoever in finding time for this entertaining, albeit useless in the practical sense, diversion in his life. His book club friend is a philosophy professor, off for the summer months, with nothing but free time on his hands.

So, where are the folks with the hands-on skills hanging out these days?

That is, of course, a rhetorical question. It goes right back to the supply shortages, staffing issues and lack of specialized skills I referred to a few paragraphs back.

This, in my opinion, is a potential gold mine in the making for anyone with a skill or an interest in developing a hands-on skill that can be translated into dollar signs.

Skilled labor has, for too long, been viewed as “blue-collar,” a step below what is considered successful professional pursuits. “Smart” people went to college.

Well, let me tell you, those blue-collar types can write their own ticket right now. Start out when and where you have to, but every mechanic, plumber, landscaper, repair person of any and every gadget used in everyday life, cesspool cleaner, housekeeper, cleaning person, home care worker, package delivery person, truck driver — I could go on and on but I’m running out of breath just making this list — every one with a hands-on skill can use their talent and their brains to start a flourishing and successful business.

Put in the real work right now, every day. Then, take classes at night, on the weekend, online — whatever it takes in your spare time, to built the knowledge and the credibility it takes to turn a lucrative, much needed skill into a business.

That will put your education to work for you in a way that a four year (debt-ridden?) degree in archeology, history, philosophy, or basket-weaving never will.

Sure, study what interests you on your own time. But, maybe you don’t want to give up four years of earning potential just to earn a sheepskin touting your proficiency in archaic medieval languages.

There is a huge, largely untapped (in my opinion) opportunity for a brave new world of entrepreneurs out there. It’s time to seize the day.

If you enjoyed this article, perhaps you would like to check out a few of my other thoughts on living and growing in a rich, full, vital life.