Many of us were raised to go to school and get a good job. This was sound advice in the industrial age. But we are now in the Information Age and maintaining the same mantra is making America fall further and further behind the curve. Please do not misunderstand me. I believe in education. I just do not believe in the formal educational system to acquire a better job or propel you forward in business.

There are a few fields for which a formal college education is still a viable and required foundation for a profession, such as doctors, lawyers, engineers, psychiatrists, and a few others in the medical, legal, and mathematical fields. They attend college to learn the basis for their profession. However, all of them are required to seek continued education to stay up to date in their fields. It seems accepted for someone who paid ten to hundreds of thousands for their education to pay for courses in the thousands to tens of thousands in the continuing educational field.

Entrepreneurs, wake up! You may attend college to get a basic knowledge of business and accounting. But the real knowledge gained that is needed to be a successful entrepreneur is not learned from a college classroom. It is learned from experience and from other entrepreneurs. You cannot buy experience. But you can buy knowledge from others in the form of classes and seminars taught by entrepreneurs that have already succeeded in the realm that you seek success. If you want to learn about financial literacy, you seek out Robert Kiyosaki. If you want to learn about self growth, you seek Tony Robbins. If you want to learn about entrepreneurialism and practical application of that knowledge, you seek Daniel Vega. And the list goes on and on (Zig Ziglar, Donald Trump, T. Harv Eker, Napoleon Hill, etc) depending upon what type of specialized knowledge you seek.

These are your professors in entrepreneurialism. Why do you hesitate to pay $500 for a seminar or $5000 for a class. These seminars and classes are specially designed and tailored just for your specific need for information. To put it in perspective, to enroll in MU (Missouri State University) in the Spring of 2009 for 20 credit hours is about $5500 and that does not include your books or any extra course specific classes or materials required (info found here). Let’s assume, conservatively, that your books and materials were only $500. That means that you would spend $12,000 for one year of education. Here is my question, as an entrepreneur, do you spend $12,000 a year on your own education? $6000? $1000? Most of you spend nothing on your education and that is horrible. Why is that? The excuses I hear are “I do not have the time” or “I do not have the money.” I am here to tell you like it is, “That is a load of crap!” If you are not growing your mind you are stagnate. Stagnation in the entrepreneurial world equals death. In comparison to traditional colleges the classes are less expensive and more focused towards your particular needs. And you can receive your education, and often times mentorship, in less time. From my perspective, you have to make time and you can’t afford not to invest in your education. If you don’t you will have plenty of time on your hands and no money when your competition learns what you refused to and continued to progress while you regressed. Small business is the backbone of the US and the leaders in innovation. If we are falling behind, you can clearly see the reason. Entrepreneurs, the ones who create small businesses, do not invest in their number one asset: THEMSELVES.

President Obama stated that the only way we are going to ever going to reduce our national debt is to make ourselves more valuable. We make ourselves more valuable by increasing our education and our ability. The President went on to state that this included Alternative Education, which includes seminars and non-accredited classes. Doesn’t it make sense that if you do what the millionaires do that you will receive the results the millionaires receive? You are an entrepreneur which means you are a person of action. Your money spent on your education, if paid for by your company, is often tax deductible. It is also an investment that never depreciates, compounds in value as you add more to it, and no one can ever take from you. Quit procrastinating and making excuses and get started. Your future depends on it.

**Note: If you are looking for specific seminars or classes and are having a difficult time selecting one, contact me with your requirements and I will be happy to refer you to one that meets your needs.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 18th, 2009 at 11:53 pm and is filed under Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.