How College Keeps You from Making Money

Education can be a barrier – and not in the way you think

I’m about to teach you how to overcome your education.

You read that right – it’s not a typo. I said overcome your education and that’s exactly what I meant.

I realize this flies in the face of everything you’ve ever heard since childhood. We’re programmed to respect education, to value it as the great equalizer of society, the way out of less than desirable circumstances, the key to a successful life. Those of us who didn’t have much of it, at least in the formal sense, usually feel like that’s a liability – something, in fact, that we have to overcome.

But I’m telling you for once that the shoe is on the other foot. In the quest to achieve financial independence, I think formal education is actually an obstacle. The more of it, the bigger the hurdle.

Now, I may be biased. I’m one of those who didn’t get much formal education. I left school at 16, and haven’t set foot in a classroom since – except when I’m teaching hundreds of people who want to learn how to make millions of dollars like I have. And maybe I have a little chip on my shoulder about it. When I dropped out of high school, there were plenty of people telling me what a loser I was and how I’d never amount to anything. When I was getting started in business, I often felt intimidated by the MBAs and lawyers and CPAs with their fancy degrees.

But then I started to notice that most of those people didn’t think like me. In fact, sometimes it seemed like they didn’t think at all. They’d spent so much time being taught what to think that they didn’t know how to do it on their own anymore. They couldn’t ‘think outside the box,’ as they say. They’d done what the world told them they needed to do to be successful, and they were bound and determined to stick to that plan. Any ideas about alternate routes just didn’t compute.

After many years, I came to realize the truth: formal education doesn’t teach you how to make money. There’s no Money Making 101 or Financial Independence 201 in any course catalog. There’s no Bachelor of Science in Positive Cash Flow. A person with a college degree (or multiple degrees) is no better suited to achieve financial independence than a high school dropout. And in fact, it may be even harder for a college graduate to overcome the additional programming they’ve been subjected to that tells them to stick to the beaten path to ‘success.’

That’s not to say that people with advanced degrees can’t be successful real estate investors – of course they can. But in my experience, it’s often more difficult for them to get over the initial hurdle of believing it can be done, and done by them. They’re more likely to question, to over-analyze, to doubt, to drag their feet, to listen to the naysayers all around them.

But the goal of financial independence appeals to everyone, whether they’re in a 9-5 job that requires a college degree or not. When you work for someone else, you’re still dependent, regardless of your education. And real estate investing offers a path to financial independence for anyone who is willing to put in the time and effort – regardless of their education.

So if you don’t have a degree, don’t let that stop you. If you have a degree, don’t let that stop you, either. Either way, your education has absolutely no impact on your ability to be successful as a real estate investor. You’ve just got to teach yourself to believe that.

Russ Whitney story is proof in becoming financially independent or build a nest egg so you can enjoy your retirement years.If you want to learn first hand from Russ Whitney. Visit us at: http://russwhitney.com/