Reconnecting...
Work Hard. Create an Internet Business. Get Ahead in Life.
When my parents grew up there was a great deal of opportunity. As the statement went, you could...
"Work hard, get ahead in life."
That was true, you didn't even need a high school education. Many of the most successful people of that generation started working hard while they were in high school to the point where making an income became more important than finishing off their education.
It wasn't uncommon to "drop out" of school back then (and in particular college/uni). There was a great deal of demand and through the 60s, 70s and even 80s there was plenty of opportunity if you were simply willing to work hard. Then things changed and there were new requirements.
The WAVE of Education.
That is the focus of my generation and to a certain degree, the existing generation.
"Work hard, go to school, get ahead in life."
But this very idea is becoming increasingly incorrect as we as a society evolve in a direction where "most" have a degree in something. It is hardly a competitive advantage these days to have a university degree, and when the government loans people money to educate themselves, and when most jobs require it, there are going to be mass amounts of people doing it.
We now see people with college diplomas and university degrees working at Starbucks and working "McJobs". I have nothing against this and I respect EVERY person that is working for a living, but it shouldn't be that way. You don't spend 4 years on a university education only to get a sub par job and one that has very little to do, if anything to do, with your desired path.
Instead, you have a flood of people out there graduating with a degree only to end up in mediocrity. Hardly "getting ahead" in life like we have been conditioned to believe up to this point.
This formula no longer works. There is a new formula, one that has worked up to this point and that will continue to work as long as humans roam the worth. It is...
Work hard. Create an Internet business. Get ahead in life.
There is a fundamental process to being successful NOW, is fairly straight forward. There is just one new element, that is replacing the "go to school". No longer do we live in a world where we can simply go to school and get great jobs or earn a great income.
And SCHOOL certainly does not lead to self fulfillment, as often times you don't get to dictate your career, you end up choosing one that either pays the best or in most cases, that you get hired for (even though it may not be doing something you love to do).
The formula is different now and it will be different moving forward. It includes "working hard", "creating an internet business" and as a result, you will be able to get ahead in life (and be fulfilled int he process.
Step 1: Work Hard.
It has always required "hard work". It did back during the industrial revolution, it did during the education revolution, and it does now with the Internet revolution.
If you are not willing to work hard, you are not going to "get ahead" in life and you certainly are not going to achieve the success that you are capable of. This goes for anything from relationships, to athletics, to becoming a scholar, to operating a thriving business. Hard work is KEY.
So if you are willing to work hard, read on. If not, then I am afraid you are never going to be able to experience success within the online world, or the offline world. Hard work and success go hand in hand and success cannot exist without the hard work ingredient.
The next element to "getting ahead in life" is starting an internet business. It allows you to qualify for all the aspects that are defined as "getting ahead" which I will be explaining.
Step 2: Create an Internet Business.
Creating an online business has never been more viable, for ANYONE. There was a point in time when it was actually quite a technical process to build a business. There are some very uplifting things that have taken place in recent years and are the REALITY of creating an Internet business. They are as follows.
- Never Been More Efficient. There has never been a time in our lives, or within any generation where you can create a successful and thriving business with such cost efficiency. And there is no other platform in the world that comes close to the thorough, comprehensive and technical "internet business" environment that you have access to here at WA.
You can literally create, run and maintain a business for the price of a membership here at WA and have EVERYTHING you need (for less than $1 per day). This is our new and very exciting reality as entrepreneurs. - You Can Follow a Passion, Hobby or Interest. The Internet has afforded us all with the ability to chase our passion or greatest interests in life, and pursue this as our "business".
This is something that has always been much more awkward to achieve, in particular with the high costs of operating a business within the offline world. Although you don't have the head in the direction of a "passion project" as your niche, it certainly can be your direction. - Continual Education. The Internet is full of resources and education, and here at Wealthy Affiliate you get an ongoing education that will allow you to continue to advanced your skill set (and ultimately your business) as time goes on. If you are constantly educating yourself, you are growing.
This creates personal and long term fulfillment as well as a great deal of value to your business. - Anyone Can Do It. There is no gap between who can accomplish success online and someone who can't. You see people of all origins, of all shapes and sizes, of all ages, with different personalities and characteristics building amazing business online.
Regardless of who you are, where you are located, your quirks, your current skill set and what "motivates" you, an Internet business can be a vehicle to any level of success you are willing to WORK for.
When I look back to when I started out back in 2002, even things such as building a website or publishing content were very arduous. Something that I can do now in 30 seconds, could have literally taken 30 days when I started out.
That is the beautiful part about innovation and evolution. I am sure the same will be the case as we continue to move forward and as we continue to provide you with an environment here at WA that allows you to operate a business with much more efficiency in your respective online businesses.
Result: Get Ahead in Life.
The ultimate goal for us. Of course, getting ahead means different things to different people and as you evolve as a person, as you experience new things, as you have life events, "getting ahead" will mean something different.
Ultimately, we all want to be comfortable in life. We want freedom of time. We don't want to have to worry about paying our next electricity bill and car payment. We want to be able to travel. We want to be happy. We want to learn new things. We want to spend more time with our family and friends. We want to enjoy life and feel good!
These are some ideas of "getting ahead in life", and you likely share many of these. These are some of mine indeed, but getting ahead requires several things. It's not just money.
Having an Internet business will allow you to check of these boxes.
(1) Earn Money. There are 4 BILLION people online and over 550 MILLION products/services online that you can promote as an affiliate marketer. And that is just one of the many ways in which you can make money online. As you establish an audience, a brand and a reputation within the online world, there are going to be a wide array of "money" business models that you can leverage to scale your business. The sky is truly the limit.
(2) Be Happy. To be happy, you have to enjoy what you are doing. But also a critical component of happiness is solving problems, without this we are not going to be able to have the same sense of "purpose" in life.
Purpose is created out of self education and this is something that comes hand in hand with an internet business. You will be constantly learning, but doing so within a category that you love. And if you ever get sick of your niche or want to do something new, you can shift directions or create multiple businesses at any time.
(3) Flexibility. This is a big one for me and you will hear this as one of the big advantages to running an online business. Not only do you have time flexibility, you have location flexibility. You can work when you want, from wherever you want. All you need is a computer/phone and access to the internet.
To this day I still have to pinch myself that I am able to operate my business from my house, a coffee shop, while on vacation, on a beach, in a coffee shop in Italy, or wherever I chose. It comes with me, it allows me to work during any hours I want for as long as I want, and it gives me the flexibility I need to focus on other things. That leads me to...
(4) Family. Many people operate their lives going to work for 8 hours per day, commuting several hours per day in traffic, and then they are lucky if they see their family for a few hours at night to see their family, wife/husband, and children.
That is the OLD way of living and with an Internet business, you truly can spend more time with your loved ones. Work and family can co-exist and work does not need to impact the time that you get to spend with your family when you work online!
(5) Travel. There is a big world out there and there is a lot of beautiful places to visit, amazing things to see, and delicious food to eat. When you run an Internet business, as mentioned earlier, you can operate it from anywhere in the world that you want. It will also allow you to generate enough income where you can travel more frequently, and generate income while you are on vacation.
The Internet never sleeps, nor does your business. Every day is a work day, and every day is a day in which you can travel. The two will go hand in hand. It's truly one of the most brilliant aspects about running an Internet business.
So I encourage you and welcome you to move forward within the new world. The Internet. It is where we are at and I can't see it going anywhere.
As we move forward through the next 20-30 years, those that work hard and build an Internet business are going to get ahead in life. There has never been a better time and you truly have the KEY to the Internet world here at Wealthy Affiliate with the tools, services, training, live classes, expert coaching, and networking capabilities. As far as I am concerned, if you are not working on the Internet, you are investing your time in the wrong place.
As always, I would love your thoughts and feedback on the Internet business world, the role it is currently playing in your life and where you see the next generational jobs/opportunities headed.
We are moving more into A.I. and virtual reality.
The internet is a virtual reality and it is created and moulded by its users, US.
There is a massive move away from traditional retail and into a much more flexible way of planning our lives based on what we want do, not what the shops and businesses tell us.
It is a kind of freedom and we are part of this revolution.
I admit that it is harder than I thought but the pleasure of learning these new skills is almost a reward in its own right.
Then I still have my business and I can make it faster or bigger or even slow it down to a pace that I like.
I think I am lucky to be here in this time and in this virtual place.
Reply
I was quite artistic and had my sights set on a Computer Graphics degree, but my parents did not want me to be a "starving artist" so I got funneled into a Computer Science degree. This was during the late 90's early 2000's.
I graduated just as the plentiful jobs all but seemed to vanish, and ended up taking a role as a Computer Operator just to get my foot in the door. I spent years in IT support, dealt with my job being outsourced, and finally saw the writing on the wall and worked on transitioning into Marketing. I had landed my first job as a Marketing Analyst, less than a year before my diagnosis.
Had it not been for WA, I never would have even considered following a marketing path, and even now, many of the skills I have learned here at WA, like SEO have become critical in many aspects of my online endeavors.
I know I have disappeared many times since my start with WA in 2009, but I always return as this is truly the best resource for achieving online success, provided you are willing to put in the work to get there!
I had finished all my course requirements and I just assumed I was done and they would send my degree. But no, I had to chase after certain people to get documents signed to get my degree.
I thought to myself, ain't this a bitch. I spent all this money on college, and finished my course load and now I have to chase down people to get some stupid paper work signed so I can get my piece paper?
I said screw that. I never followed up again. I knew I didn't need their stupid piece paper. I got all of my jobs as an adult because I had learned the skills that WA teaches. Employers were always impressed that I had created my own site and was getting traffic and money from it. So they appreciated my real world experience over that piece of paper. I could have saved myself thousands of dollars if I had realized sooner that this internet marketing thing was going to take off. lol
That said for certain industries that piece of paper is necessary. I just find it amusing that people can justify paying for college and putting themselves in years of debt for the chance of working for someone else the rest of their lives. But they can't justify investing in a WA membership that costs a fraction of a college education. You hear nonsense like I'll pay for WA if I see I can make money. But you'll pay for college with no guarantee that you'll get a good job. The school system and society have done a great job in training people to be employees.
So I'm happy that WA can give folks a different path outside the matrix.
Then when they actually get a job down the road, they are hit with insurmountable debt, that can take the rest of their life to pay off.
It should be:
Work hard. Go to School. Get a job. Pay off Your School for the Rest of Your Life.
That is what people are doing in the puppy mill of an education system we have these days.
Like you said, real life skills are valuable and can get you hired anywhere. Sure, some places of employment require a degree, but many more would rather have "skills" than theoretical knowledge.
Yes, $200K to become a teacher and make $40K a year is hard to defend economically and with common sense. I advocate thinking through what we are advocating before we paint with such broad generalistic strokes, yes?
Obviously there are exceptions to the rule like you mentioned. I didn't get a sense he was making a broad stroke statement. But there are a lot of people getting degrees that are proving less useful and it's not the only path to succeeding in life. There are other paths now and that was the core of the message that Kyle was relaying in this post and it's what I got from it.
A college education is meant to broaden knowledge and understanding in order to develop more well-rounded, thoughtful, and understanding people. Regardless of the job/profession you choose more knowledge is always better than less knowledge.
This is part of the problem, we have lost the understanding that there is an intrinsic value to things more valuable than the pursuit of the dollar. It's a shame and part of the decay undermining our society today.
Does it mean that is the best way to get educated in these fields? No, probably not. 8-10 years to learn a craft is not unreasonable, but the applied aspect of the education comes post that typically so in theory, up to that point, it is all theory.
So I wouldn't argue that some trades require that level of education, I would argue there are better and much more cost efficient deliveries of that education.
The Internet affords us all to get more educated with every day that passes. If you aren't, then you are not moving forward as far as I am concerned and I personally make a concerted effort to learn new stuff every day.
You can't work hard, go to school, and get ahead in life any longer. That is the point I am making, as this is far from the truth. Education (Uni/College) have streamlined their processes and their "business" to the point where it has become a printing press for degrees, which have become somewhat worthless because of the volume of them being handed out.
This is what I love about WA. You get a top-notch education at very little cost and depending on how hard you work, you can build a very successful business for yourself and enjoy life the way it was meant to be lived. The sky's the limit.
I truly hope everyone can see the benefit of the internet world and take advantage of this amazing platform!
Cheers,
Suzanne
