What’s Your Goal? Education Can Get You There
Nobody wants to sit idly by and watch their professional life pass them by. Even if you are happy in your current role – making good money, working decent hours, have a great team around you, all the goals of a jobseeker – there’s still going to be some kind of nagging worry that “that’s all there is”. It’s only natural, humans innately crave growth and betterment. It enriches us, makes us better as people and workers. And we all have goals, whether short, medium, or long term. Whatever yours might be, the path almost always includes education.
Making More Money
Why do we work, really? There’s many reasons life satisfaction, the “thrill of the chase” in some cases, the general desire to do something constructive. But in most cases, it’s to pay the bills and to live the life we want to live. Part of that life might be the work itself. Whether it’s expanding a company you founded, branching out within your own role, or just being happy with what you have, we all want a bit more in the paycheck each week. And there’s a reason why people go to college beyond just the idea of learning for learning’s sake. You want a better job, something that might get you off your feet or into an air-conditioned office. You want responsibility. All of this comes from education, that demonstration that you know what you’re doing. And this isn’t just supposition – according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, people with an advanced degree earn nearly twice as much on average than those with just a high school diploma.
Not to say you need to go back to school – there’s cost-benefit to be analyzed there and college is getting increasingly expensive. Other pathways exist – certification, trainings led by industry titans, and just opportunities to expand your knowledge on your own time. While they don’t all come with a diploma, being able to speak up in a meeting and bring up a new idea can open eyes – and the pocketbook – of leadership.
More Responsibility
On the back of that, how does one prove that they’re willing and able to rise in the ranks of an organization? How do you prove the value to your boss? How do you prove to your customers you can do more for them? Anyone in sales will tell you till they’re blue in the face that you can tell a potential customer how great a product is as much as you want, but outside proof is a mile down the road while one guy’s “opinion” is still getting its shoes on. That’s what a certification, or just evidence of continued learning, does. It allows bosses, customers, and co-workers to see that you’re not just some bump on a log, you’re pursuing, growing, getting better and making sure you’re’ on the front line of the latest thinking. Simply put, if you want to be a leader, you have to ask for it, but more than that you have to prove that you’re worth it.
Building Your Own Business
Any new business is going to naturally be on the back foot compared to more established competitors because of a lack of institutional knowledge. If there’s no institution in the first place since you’re building it from the ground, the only built-in knowledge is what you bring with you. So whether before making the jump to strike out on your own, or in those dozens of extra hours worked to get a new brokerage off the ground, finding ways to stick out and make your mark are vital to the future health and success of your endeavor.
New ideas are what help you succeed in a market that has a handful of titans controlling a large chunk of your business. That’s where taking the step to new learning opportunities becomes so vital. Going in and just grinding is of course a way to succeed, but supplementing that hard work with exposing yourself to something new, larger ideas than just what it takes to survive in the day-to-day, that’s where you become great. No matter the goal, walk of life, or career, the great ones succeeded by out-learning their competition, not just out-working them. Be smarter, be tougher, and have better ideas than those who are fighting with you for business, and you’ll win way more often.
Networking
There’s a vital and perhaps least well-known way education can influence your future. When you go into a course, whether a short two-week long class or a multi-month cert course or whatever, you’re going to enter a cohort of others like you. People who want to earn more, grow their business, demand more responsibility, or forge their own path. There’s the idea that “your net worth is your network” so if that’s your goal, it’s important to surround yourself with fellow strivers. And if it’s just ideas you’re in search of, it’s not always just the instructor of a course that has the greatest insights. We’ve seen people who graduated from our CTB certification course who noted their favorite part was the sessions where they talked with other learners, that was where the real value lay. A lifelong learner searches for new ideas and perspectives each day, and those can be the most unlikely source. So get in the classroom and learn something new.
Whatever your goal or dream, it’s no secret that expanding your mind and exploring new ideas can be the path to achieving it. Even if the status quo is all you want (and, again, there’s literally nothing wrong with being happy where you are) the forces of entropy – that decay and chaos is only natural and it takes work to maintain order and stability, like how we have to mow our lawn at least once a week – are always there. Taking a few courses or reading a few articles is the bare minimum in any walk of life. So whatever your plan or path, finding learning that’s right for you is the way to start down it.
