LaDonna and I were sitting around thinking the other night and we came to the conclusion that, "we are not going to encourage our kids to go to college."
It took a huge paradigm shift for us - two learned individuals with two bachelors and graduate degrees each - to come to this new understanding.
We've been reading article after article about how high school students are becoming millionaires before they even leave high school. So, why would we encourage our kids to study hard, go to college, get a degree and get a high-paying job?
We recently read an article that said that what "college students learn in their freshman year will be obsolete by the beginning of their junior year?!" So, why would we want them to aspire to that type of paradigm.
So, we actually want them to be in that group of students that are becoming multi-millionaires before they even graduate from high school - probably middle school!
But, what does that mean? Well, here's how we see it. These high school students that are becoming entrepreneurs are not geniuses, special or gifted and talented. They are also not employees!
We still have some research to do on the premise, but we assume that they must be spending much more of their time (e.g. free time) ... thinking and being creative. The difference for these students must also be the amount of investment that their parents make in supporting those thoughts and creativity.
Well, that's what we plan to do. We plan to expose our children to as much as we possibly can. We plan to involve them in all kinds of activities where other children are thinking critically and creatively. Moreover, we plan to take them on trips around the world and support any and all of their entrepreneurial ideas.
If you read my last post, I talk about a family's largest investment being their home and second, their car. Well, that's silly to us. Our first and foremost investment of money and time will be our children.
Many times, what well-meaning middle class people do is "save for college". They put aside money - maybe between $300 - $1,000 in a college fund depending on how early they get started. Well, what tends to happen is they continue this saving process for several years (e.g. up to 18 years) with the hopes that it will be enough and have slowly accrued enough interest to pay for their college.
Well, during those 18yrs the children ask for things like: an iPod, a laptop, a computer, a trip to Europe, Asia, Africa, etc. and what do parents say? "We can't afford that!"
We don't want to follow this habit. If you think about it ... saving even $500 per month is $6,000 per year. That could be 2 quality family trips to the Carribean, Africa, Europe, Latin America or anywhere to expose your children to new paradigms, new realities, different problems and solutions throughout the world. Moreover, you could take them to New York to see a Broadway play or L.A. to see a film production studio. There are innumerable things that you could do to invest in their education TODAY. Not some time in the future.
Moreover, we plan to expose them to other business owners, entrepreneurs, and the like locally. We plan to use technology to leverage the education they receive in the traditional school system.
Those students that are becoming multi-millionaires before they graduate high school are doing so with a lot of love and support and investment from their parents. Teach them financial literacy and how to take calculate risks. Explore their creativity every day and teach them to dream BIG!
"Your success is directly proportional to the amount of time you spend doing what you do after you do what you are expected to do!"
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