Society pushes teenagers to go to college after high school to acquire a more advanced and higher specialized education. They promote this so that the teenager can acquire a higher paying job or start their journey into a career. This journey can start with an associated cost of $15,000 and up for tuition and then you need to add a few thousand for books and supplies. On the low end, a college student can easily spend $17,000 per year. Most students do not have the funds to pay for college outright so they are encouraged to apply for grants, like the Pell, as well as student loans.After a four year stent in college, a graduate can leave with their bachelor’s degree and $68,000 in debt. Once again, this is a conservative estimate.

From my wording in the previous paragraph, you may surmise that I am speaking negatively about college. To be clear, this is not true. I believe that if you want to learn or require a specialized knowledge, then college is a great institution to facilitate this need. However, what if the college does not teach you the specialized knowledge you require or the type of skill that you need?

Many times, this is the predicament that entrepreneurs are subjected to. Some colleges have entrepreneur classes. Let’s be honest, entrepreneurialism is not something you learn in a classroom. It is a passion that you acquire. Being an entrepreneur, your needs for specialized information may vary depending upon your market segment, marketing strategy and even geographic location.

So, what is an entrepreneur to do? They seek teaching from other entrepreneurs that have done it before. Entrepreneurs love to solve problems, get paid and give back. The successful ones often times do all of the above through books, seminars, workshops, coaching and mentorship. This is where I have the issue. Why is it ok to spend $17,000 to learn from a professor at a college who has a specialized knowledge but it is not ok to spend $17,000 on seminars and workshops?

Society, in general, does not see the value in this avenue of teaching. How much value building does a college have to do? None when the educational potion is concerned. They just have to convince you to attend their college instead of another one. Now, flip that over to the seminar or workshop world. If an entrepreneur tells someone that they spent $15,000 for a year long program that included seminars and coaching, they would be looked at like they are crazy. This goes to you entrepreneurs as well. When is the last time that you were told that a particular seminar may cost $500 to attend or even $5,000 to attend and you immediately thought “how expensive?” This is a stigma that needs to be changed. And it starts with you.

I recently attended a seminar that hosted nationally known speakers. In order to get people to attend, they had to make the door ticket price $10. $10 for an all day event. You pay that much to watch a movie and the movie is only 2 hours long. After you leave the movie, you do not take information with you that can actually increase your profits by increasing your revenues, cutting expenses or both. Yet you happily pay for the movie. You will also pay $35 to go to an amusement park for the day and spend another $65 on junk. By the end of the day, you are $100 down and yet you think nothing of it. But, when asked to spend $100 on an all day specialized seminar most people balk at the price and complain.

Let’s get one thing straight, most entrepreneurs that are successful have a continued need to learn as part of their core and they do not mind to pay for quality information. These seminars, coaching, workshops, books, CDs and mentorships are your college. Paying for them is your tuition. If you are not where you want to be it is because there is something that you do not know. Entrepreneurs understand this and never stop learning. Not ones that stay entrepreneurs anyway. If you never stop learning, doesn’t it make sense that you would budget a portion of your revenue for your continued education? Run it through your company and it is 100% tax deductible. Go to college without a company and pay personally and your deduction is only 15%. Which one sounds crazier to you?

Remember, life is your classroom and experience is your teacher. The coaches and mentors are your tutors and the seminars and workshops are your specialized tutored classes. Help stop this stigma and pay your entrepreneurial tuition.

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.