The Mindset Mentor - Is College Still Necessary?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor podcast. I'm your host, Rob Dial, and if you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so that you never miss another podcast episode. And if you're out there and you love this podcast, please do me a favor, give us a rating and review however you listen to us on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. The reason why is because the more positive reviews that we get on each of those, the more that those platforms show this to other people who have never listened to us before. And that way, the message spreads, more people's lives are changed, and the more this podcast grows. So if you gave us a rating and review, I would greatly, greatly appreciate it. Today, we're going to talk about college.

Starting point is 00:00:43 We're going to talk about is college still necessary? Is college a scam? Is college worth it? Or is it just a complete waste of money at this point? I think you're going to benefit from this if you're young. I think you'll benefit from this if you have kids, if you have grandkids, or if you want to have kids. Because what I want to do is I want to help you think outside of the box that most of us were raised in. Most of us were raised in a box, I was, thinking that college was the only way to become successful. College was the only way that I would be able to create an amazing life. And that's what I thought. So that's why I went to college. But I want to say before I say that is that there's no correct

Starting point is 00:01:22 path for everyone, right? So it could be that college is perfect for some of you guys out there or your grandchildren or your children or your future children. It could be that college is completely worthless for you or your children or your grandchildren. But you want to start thinking outside of the box that we were all raised in. And being that I went to college, I am a college dropout. I never got a degree, but I still was able to build a successful company. I know many people who have built successful companies with and without college degrees. I just want to kind of give you an outside perspective from what we were raised in, right? Because I get so many messages asking about

Starting point is 00:01:57 this. I get so many messages from like 16, 17, 18 year olds that are like, I don't know what to do. Should I still go to college? My parents want me to go to college. I don't want to go to college. Or people that are like 20 years old, and they've been in college for a few years. And some people are like, oh, but my son, he's doing terrible in school. And so I get messages from teenagers. I get messages from people at 20 years old. I get messages from people that are in their 40s that have children and grandchildren that are in college. And this came up. And the reason why I wanted to start talking about this is because I was at a get together. And there was a lady that was there and she was talking to me. She was like, what do you do? And she was older. And she had a grandson that was in college. And I started telling her

Starting point is 00:02:38 what I did. And she's like, that's pretty interesting. She's like, there's no way to go to college for that. Did you go to college? And I was like, I did, but I dropped out. And she's like, that's pretty amazing. She's like, I, when I was younger, you know, she's got a grandson. She's like, when I was younger, college was like the only way. And that's what I thought with him. And she's like, I've been so worried about my grandson because he doesn't want to go to college. And I was like, you have to realize the world that your grandson grew up in is not the world that you grew up in. When you were a child, you didn't have the internet. You didn't have Google. You didn't have all of this stuff. And now you see that some of the biggest companies in the world,

Starting point is 00:03:15 like Google, Amazon, Tesla, all say that college degrees are not required to work with them anymore. Some of the biggest companies in the world, some of the most influential companies in the world do not require a college degree anymore. It wasn't even this way when I was younger. And so the world has changed, but our viewpoint on college hasn't changed that much. And so I have no dog in the fight whether you do or do not go to college, whether your children or grandchildren go to college, but I do want to just give you a perspective so that you can start to think differently about this. First off, let's take a step back and let's talk about college in the first place. What's the point of college?

Starting point is 00:03:53 I would love to ask every single person listening, get 100,000 answers, 200,000 answers, right? The point of college, if we're really boiling down, is to make money, right? Like, sure, yeah, you get some connections. Sure, you meet some people. Sure, you get to learn a little bit better. But you go to college to get a job eventually, which means what you're really doing is you're going to college to make money, not just to learn, but to gain knowledge, to set you apart from other people, which then makes you more qualified and more likely to be hired, right? When we break it down, that's really what it comes down to. That's it. So is college the only way right now to learn a specific skill set to set you apart from other people?

Starting point is 00:04:32 No, absolutely not. You can learn almost anything that you want to online. Now, you know, if you want to be a doctor or lawyer or engineer, yeah, I think you probably need to go to college. You don't just want to do, you know, doctor YouTube videos or something like that, right? So there's many ways that you can gain knowledge nowadays to improve a skill set that didn't exist years ago. When you have something like the internet, right? And it's so cool because I follow so many people that are creators, they're editors, they take photos, all of this stuff. And one of the best filmographers, but,

Starting point is 00:05:04 you know, also at the same time, editors and the stuff that he does is just insane. He just started when he was like 16 years old, going onto YouTube and looking at tutorials and started figuring stuff out. And the stuff that he makes now is way better. And he's getting hired by massive companies like Coke and Pepsi and these huge companies to literally create their ads for them now. But he didn't go to college for that. He learned it all on his own. And so what I always think is this, what I think is best for someone to do, and this is my own personal opinion, and I did not do this when I was going into college. I think the best thing for someone to do right when they get out of high school is not to go

Starting point is 00:05:39 to college. I think the best thing for them to do is to at least take a gap year. They take one year, they save their money, they ask for money as gifts for everything they do. When they graduate, they ask for money. They ask for money on their birthday, they ask for money on Christmas, all of that stuff. And what they should do? Travel, discover themselves. They should figure out who they are. Because most people are going, myself included once again, from high school directly into college. And I still didn't know who I was at that point. But when you travel and you meet new people and you get other perspectives and you try new things, you start to get new perspectives of what life could be like and you start to discover yourself. I think that traveling is one of the most important things that somebody could do

Starting point is 00:06:17 to discover who they are. So if you don't know who you are when you're young, try to discover a little bit of, you know, go out there and try to figure out a little bit more of who you might be, meet new people, find new things to do, all of that stuff. And then here's what I also think is important with that traveling. I would go to, if I was 18 years old and I was doing it all over again, I would go to as many conferences as possible that were in industries that interest me in some sort of way, whether it's making money online, marketing, music conferences, fitness conferences, fashion conferences, film conferences, podcasting conferences, public speaking conferences, self-development conferences, whatever it is that interests me or semi-interests me, I would take my money instead of putting it

Starting point is 00:07:03 into my first year of college, whatever amount that be, what, $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 nowadays, take half of that and put it into going to conferences to see other things that are out there. That will be way more beneficial for someone to just get through all of their electives that they need to get through in their first year of college. Because you start to get new perspective. You start to see a brand new world when you go to conferences, you meet people, you get to see what they're doing. And that's one of the most important things is like another one of the things that I hear that people always say college is really good for is making connections and relationships. Sure. But if I'm 19 years old and I'm in college, I'm connected with other 19

Starting point is 00:07:43 and 22 year olds, right? 19, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 year olds. Are those people going to give me a job? Are they going to help me make money? No. Like, could they be friends for life? Sure. Those people can be friends and they can be connections, but they're not going to be massive needle moving connections right out of school in my life. Most likely not, you know? So if you go to a conference, though, and you meet people, if you're 19 years old and you go to a conference or your grandchild or your child is 19 years old and they go to a conference, they can meet people that have been in the industry that they're interested in or semi

Starting point is 00:08:17 interested in for 5, 10, 15 years that have much better skill set than them, that have way more knowledge of the industry, that have way more knowledge of the industry, that have way more failures and would be an amazing person for them to learn from, whether that's a paid mentor or whether that's a free mentorship. It could be an apprenticeship. They could say, I'll work for you for free to learn from you, right?

Starting point is 00:08:38 I think it's super important for people to understand that these opportunities exist. They can go out there and they can meet people and start to get ideas of what it is they wanna do. The parties, the gatherings, the extra time outside, and of course, the well-deserved time off. That's one of my favorite things about summer. And with all the plans that are on my calendar, it's hard to find time to grocery shop and commit to delicious fruit and veggie-packed meals to keep me nourished. That's where Daily Harvest comes in. Daily Harvest delivers delicious food built on organic fruits and vegetables. You can

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Starting point is 00:10:57 complete with medicine, treatment materials, and tips for getting the most out of your experience. After only two sessions, 87% of Mindbloom clients reported improvements in depression and 85 reported improvements in anxiety. It's time to enter the next chapter in your mental health and well-being. Let Mindbloom guide you. Right now, Mindbloom is offering our listeners $100 off your first six-session program when you sign up at mindbloom.com slash dial. So go to mindbloom.com slash dial for $100 off your first six session therapy today. That's M-I-N-D-B-L-O-O-M.com slash dial. For me, I had one time I went to a conference it was in Orlando. Conference is probably about a thousand bucks. It was a three-day conference. There was a bunch of people that were there. It was a marketing conference. And I sat down at

Starting point is 00:11:43 lunch with one of my friends and one of his friends sat down at lunch with us as well. And he sat down right next to me and I noticed his watch. I'm a big watch guy. And I started talking to him about his watch. He started talking to me about my watch and we started just talking back and forth. And he's like, so what do you do? And I explained to him what I do. And he goes, oh my God, I do the exact same thing. I was like, really, what is it that you do? And he started explaining it to me. Here's what was cool about them. At that point in time, my business was at about between four and $500,000 a year. This is about four and a half, five years ago at this point. And his business was over $5 million. It was around four to $5 million, I think is what it was at. So mine

Starting point is 00:12:20 was at four to $500,000. His was at four to to 5 million. We were in the same industry, but I was like, how, how is he doing that? What is he doing differently than me? And so literally we became friends, became good friends. We talked a lot. He would like help me out with stuff. He never asked me for money, any of that type of stuff to, it was just a friend and just like kind of like a free mentor. And then one day I realized like, I really want him to be invested in my success. So i'm going to offer to pay him to learn from him So I call him up and I was like hey I want to pay you to to mentor me and to teach me how to do what you're doing I want to see what you're doing. I want to see behind the scenes

Starting point is 00:12:55 I want to be able to ask you the questions If I just paid you 25 000 dollars, can you be my mentor? And he's like Yeah, we could do that and he was just interested because we were already friends. And then now he had more of an interest in my success. When you fast forward, that was about four years ago. Fast forward now and my business is now over $5 million a year. It's like that didn't just happen by accident. It happened because I put myself in a place where there were other people that could possibly be doing the same thing that I'm doing. I met him. He was further ahead than me. He's also about 10, 11, 12 years older than me. And so he's further along the process. He's already

Starting point is 00:13:28 gone through way more failures, figured out what works, what doesn't work. And I was like, just teach me. I will pay you. Right? They might be out there and be like, well, I don't have $25,000 to spend. Right? Most people don't. That's completely fine. But there are things that you can work out with people if there's some sort of way. Sometimes there's free mentorships, like I said. Sometimes you can, I don't know, give them a part of your business if that's what you want to do. I don't know. You can always get creative. It's not about resources. It's about resourcefulness is what it's about. So that's just an example of how that helped me in my life massively. And I would do that over and over and over and over and over again to pay him for that mentorship because I think it was worth it a hundred times more than what I paid. So unless I want to be

Starting point is 00:14:08 like a doctor, a lawyer, engineer, I probably wouldn't go to college if I'm being honest with you. You know, I went to college for business administration. I learned from people who didn't have businesses, right? Why would I go to a school and pay someone to teach me about business who doesn't have a business? I'd rather go pay people who have a business and learn from them. So unless college is required, I probably wouldn't go to college. You know, if people go to college for entrepreneurship, in my mind, if I'm being honest with you, that doesn't make any sense because you're learning entrepreneurship most of the time, people who are not entrepreneurs, you know, it's like learning basketball from somebody who's never played basketball. I wouldn't want to do that. It's trying to learn. Would you pay somebody who's not a millionaire

Starting point is 00:14:44 to teach you how to be a millionaire? No, you'd want to go to somebody who's a millionaire. So what would I do? I would try to learn almost everything that I could online. Everything that you want to learn can be learned online, whatever it might be. And I would try to learn from someone who's already doing whatever it is that I'm doing or what I might want to be doing to see if I'm more interested in it. And when you go to conferences and you meet people, you can network, you can find mentors. And sometimes you meet somebody at a conference and then they're not your person, but they know somebody who is the person they could connect you with. And so, you know, an example of like what I could think is I could,

Starting point is 00:15:20 if I wanted to become really good at film, right? I took film classes in college. If I wanted to take film classes, I could go and I could spend $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 a year to learn film classes. Or I can learn from somebody who is local that I respect or that is a really great creator in my city. And I would just work for them for free. I would ask to be an apprentice. Hey, can I come in and help you shoot? Can I come in?

Starting point is 00:15:42 And I would, or I would honestly pay them to work for them as well if it came down to it, because it's much better to invest my time and my money into learning actually from somebody who's doing it than learning inside of a school setting a lot of times. Because I want to gain knowledge from someone who's already crushing it in the field that I want to get better in. And, you know, I can learn if I love it or if I hate it after I spend a week, two weeks, three weeks, a month, two months with them. And then I didn't waste years of my life and a ton of money by going and trying to get a degree for four years and then getting into a job and realizing two years later that I spent, you know, six years total, two years of working for

Starting point is 00:16:22 a company and four years of trying to get a degree to do something I didn't even actually want to do. Mentors are meant to collapse time. It's like learning Spanish two times a week. You could learn Spanish two times a week inside of a classroom, or you could just move to Spain. Which one do you think you're going to learn faster? There's no comparison. You're going to learn so much faster in Spain. And so there's nothing wrong with college, but I'm just saying that there's a whole other opportunity that the world has become, many other opportunities the world has brought to us now with everything, the way everything's become.

Starting point is 00:16:53 But, you know, if you want to learn like Facebook ads, you can learn Facebook ads. I would find someone who crushes it in Facebook ads and work for them for free. Or once again, I would pay them. In my mind, this is an investment. It's not an expense. It's an investment into myself. It's not an expense. If you want to be a great business person or a great CEO, I would go knock on doors of big

Starting point is 00:17:16 businesses in my area, 19 years old, 20 years old, and just say, hey, I will work for you for free. I'll do whatever it is that you want me to do. I will do anything to learn from you and show them that I am serious about it. Now, are people going to say no? Yeah, of course. But is somebody eventually going to say yes? Yep. And that's the person that you want to learn from. These are the people who already have the knowledge that you want. Learning business from a teacher who doesn't have any business versus learning from someone who has a successful business, those aren't even on the same playing field. And so what I would do is I would have, you know, a full-time or a part-time job to be able to pay my bills. I would save up, I would be as frugal as possible, and I'd put as much time into learning from that person as possible. And then, you know, I can go on and I can actually start learning how to make money

Starting point is 00:17:59 right away. I can start a side hustle. I can start a YouTube and start making videos and learning from my mentor. It's way less time. It's way less money. It's way less debt, but it's collapsing time to get to being successful so much faster. And I think that people need to realize that this is the world that we now live in. And so is college necessary? I don't think that it is for majority of people that are out there. It is for some. And I just want to offer a different perspective to every single person listening. Hey, it's not necessary for you to go to college all the time. It's not necessary for your grandson, your son, your child, daughter to go to college. If it is the right thing for them, it's the right thing for them.

Starting point is 00:18:37 But if they're kind of resisting it and you're pushing it, maybe you should take a step back and see if there's other alternatives that they might be interested in. And that is just personally my perspective. So that's what I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode, please share it on your Instagram stories and tag me at it, RobDialJr, R-O-B-D-I-A-L-J-R. Once again, I'm posting on there all of the time as well. So if you want some extra mindset tips, go ahead and follow me once again on Instagram, RobDialJr, R-O-B-D-I-A-L-J-R. And I'm going to leave the same way I leave you every single episode. Make it your mission

Starting point is 00:19:08 to make someone else's day better. I appreciate you and I hope that you have an amazing day.

The Mindset Mentor - Is College Still Necessary?

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