“Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don’t.”

YPRuck: YP’s education can go a long way in determining what type of experiences we encounter during our lifetimes and can save us some heartbreak, time, and energy if we just “read the fine print sometimes”.  I’ve heard a saying, “The bold print giveth and the fine print taketh away,” meaning when we are gaining something, the obvious is plain and visible but beware of what you may be losing (the fine print) which may be hidden.  Now you have your good and bad experiences that both lead to growth but wouldn’t like to avoid as many bad experiences as you can and what better way to do it, then by being educated.

excuse: is to try to remove blame from or to make apology for

YPRuck:Happy Friday YP’s!  I challenge everyone to adopt my new mantra of “no excuses” ladies and gents.  Hold yourself accountable for any and all of your actions.  It’s time to stop blaming it on the alcohol, or blaming it on your alarm, or your significant other or whatever you’re using as a cop out these days.  We can make all of the excuses in the world for not accomplishing a task, goal or being late or making a bad decision but at the end of the day, we more than likely could have put ourselves in a better position to get it done.  You’d be surprised how many of your goals you’d accomplish and/or how much your work ethic would improve if you didn’t allow excuses to be a crutch and impede your progress.  So my challenge is simple but complicated and requires a “I’m getting the job done regardless of what’s thrown in my way” mentality.  I know it’s hard to go cold turkey so I came up with a rule of thumb.  You can never use an excuse more than once!  Once an excuse is used, figure out why you had to use that excuse and do everything in your power to never having to use it again.  YP’s stand up & get rid of the crutches aka excuses!

“Life must be understood backwards; but ….it must be lived forward.”

- Soren Kierkegaard

Good morning YP’s, it is Monday and a start of a brand new week. I choose this quote today because it talks about the importance of experience and moving forward. Experience is a very fundamental learning tool in life. Sometimes it takes huge mistakes for a person to learn, and the next step is for it to be put into action.  If a person makes mistake after mistake, then experience is useless. But if you use your experience to shape the rest of your life for the better, then you are steadily heading in the right direction…

YPRuck: YP’s, this is a great article that discusses the pivotal role that failure plays in people’s route to success and how it’s damn near impossible to be successful without challenging yourself and failing.  How many times have you or someone you know decided to take the more familiar/easy route of doing something as opposed to doing what was different or a little more challenging?  Remember, successful people seem to do what’s uncomfortable so get out of your comfort zones YP’s.  But take notes YP’s and apply them to your master plan to be successful and look at failure as a character builder that will better equip you for success! Enjoy and share your thoughts!

“Peter, I’d like you to stay for a minute after class.” Calvin teaches my favorite body conditioning class at the gym.

“What’d I do?” I asked him.

“It’s what you didn’t do.”

“What didn’t I do?”

“Fail.”

“You kept me after class for not failing?”

“This,” he began to mimic my casual weight lifting style, using weights that were obviously too light, “is not going to get you anywhere. A muscle only grows if you work it till it fails. You need to use more challenging weights. You need to fail.”

Calvin’s onto something.

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As we look towards the future it is important to think about how we are raising our children. Are we empowering them to face challenges in life, to realize that potentially negative situations can be turned into positive outcomes, to make sound decisions based on knowledge, reflection and courage and to be able to go out into the world as adults feeling optimistic and empowered? It takes our initiative as parents to guide them in the proper direction, to help them realize their worth as human beings and to share our values with them, giving them a foundation to feel powerful over their lives. Here are some tips that can start the process.
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I just had a conversation with a friend who said, “Do you know that I was reading something that said ‘recent college graduates’ can’t even get a job at McDonald’s?”

My dear friends this really bothers me, so I must say a few things to you:
1 – College provides you with a wealth of knowledge, they do not provide you with a way on how to use that knowledge in today’s “real world.” What does? Reading AND applying a book a week from the best most successful people in the world in your particular area of interest. This will give you the equivalent of a Phd in your field. It won’t give you the paper that says “Phd”, but it will give you the information you need to succeed (plus it’s cheaper than tuition and you won’t have to incur any debt from purchasing these books on Amazon.com – unlike “school loans”). The only thing is, if you want “it” you have to fight to get “it,” and fight to KEEP “it.”

2 – I know you have issues with thinking on your own. I mean those that think differently and challenge “authority” don’t fair too well in college because all you need to do well in college is get good grades. In the “real world” good grades doesn’t get you much (and no one cares – unless you are using it to get into graduate school for an advanced degree in the field of medicine, law, etc). How does this transfer into the real world? “Good grades” in the “real world” means doing something “good” and expecting something “good” back. The problem lies in the frustration of not getting something back in return for doing something “good.” It happens and can continue to happen, BUT it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do something “good,” just because you weren’t rewarded for it. The “good” stacks up over the years, and it ALL eventually comes back to you. Which brings me back to this… it’s OK to “challenge authority.” And furthermore you should NOT be “good” anyway. Be OUTSTANDING! “Good” isn’t good enough anymore.

3 – It is unfortunate that college doesn’t teach you HOW to BE you. You are on your own for this. It comes from knowing who you are and knowing who you are not. Once you do more of who you are and less of who you are NOT you REALLY start to find out “who you are.” Furthermore, I TRULY believe you know who you are, but because of the reaction you might get from the people you are around, you change yourself to “fit in.” You have probably done this in high school, and if this happened all throughout college as well… you need some time to REALLY think about it and not care so much what other people think. What do YOU want your life to stand for? What do you REALLY want to do if you didn’t care so much about what others think?

4 – Lets think about this…. since you could walk, you were in school for about 16 YEARS of your life. It’s hard to think about what YOU want, because for so long you were TAUGHT things that you might of had no interest in or what your parents THOUGHT were right for you. There is a point at which you must UNLEARN all the things you were taught and figure out things on your own. It’s OK to not know what you want. Just don’t lie to yourself and please other people (it’s YOUR life, not theirs). Also keep in mind that your parents probably don’t know what it takes to succeed today, because what worked when they were in school or building their business doesn’t necessarily mean it works today. If it does, great… but you are STILL not them.

5 – You need to know what separates you from all the other graduates. It’s REALLY important to think about this. “These times” are changing so fast that if you don’t know what separates you from everyone else, you are going to have a hard time telling someone this on an interview (or separating yourself from any business). Actually, I’m not sure I would even think about interviewing with anyone either, because most businesses in the next 10 years haven’t even been created yet. Solution? Create your own business. You didn’t work this hard to sit in a 4×4 cubicle cell to get a job with “great benefits” and a “401k.” Who cares! Get a life (instead of a job). Who wants to be “Just Over Broke” anyway (which is what j.o.b. REALLY stands for).

6 – Finally, its is really important to understand that no “test” a school provides (like the SAT) measures passion. Passion is something ingrained within your being. It causes you to stay up late and wake up early for only one reason, “Because you must do it, and will die if you don’t.” Very few people have a passion for taking a “test” and throughout the 16 years of my schooling I haven’t seen one teacher in the school system teach me how to build a business around what I am passionate about. I think that is pretty sad.

Passion causes someone to stay late, work harder, and find a way where there isn’t one (despite just having the educational background). If I had a choice between choosing a smarter person or someone with a dying passion, I would choose the passionate one. Sadly, most businesses hire “smarter” more “educated” people because it’s easier to measure. Passionate people you can only measure by giving them a bit of time to prove themselves. And what business has time nowadays? It’s true a smarter person may find a quicker solution, but if it doesn’t work time and time again and they keep “changing with the times” they quit because they don’t “have to” do it. The passionate person can’t sleep UNTIL they find a way to “do it.”

So that is it for now. I apologize for possibly sounding a bit harsh, but I think this is really important to share and hope it helped you or someone you know that might of just graduated.

My college degree (B.A. in Psychology) taught me NOTHING in how to get my music played on MTV, publish “The Poet and the Billionaire,” book/play/promote/market HUNDREDS of solo acoustic concerts across the US, book speaking engagements, start my own community called, “The Black Sheep Project,” how to get press… and on… and on… and on… However, college did get me away from my parents and cause me to think on my own. I’m not sure it was worth $15,000/a year, though. But what do I know? It’s just my opinion, and it doesn’t really matter much anyway (unless you think it does).

Jared Matthew Kessler
(Author of “The Poet and the Billionaire”)

http://www.jaredmatthewkessler.com

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