And there I was, watching one of my favorite YouTubers, a genuine maestro of photography, videography and this thingamajig we call droneography.
By and by, over the past couple years, I have watched over 100 of this man’s videos, most of which are between 20 and 30 minutes. And in perhaps the 99th video, he revealed how, when he was a mere 18 years of age, his dream was “to go to college, get a good job, and retire one day.”
There was only one problem: He didn’t come from a rich family and couldn’t afford the $20,000.00 per year fee the college he wanted so much to attend, demanded. Nor was he into getting student loans.
So he blew off the idea of college, bought some courses on his favorite subject, along with cameras, tripods, software and so on, then began practicing what would become his craft. And today, he is crushing it.
This story has a few similarities to my what my son, Frank, discovered while attending college, and getting his sheepskin earlier this month.
What did my son learn in college that taught him what to do and how to do it, business wise? In his own words, “almost nothing.”
Yet, he is already gainfully employed, by himself and by another company whom he does some work for each day, without having to go anywhere.
Now let’s go back to the earlier days of his-story, to take a closer look at some of the moves Frank made, while attending baseball on a college scholarship. [Yes, you read that the way it was intended.]
First, during the schlock downs, when baseball was cancelled, Frank came home and took his classes online. During his spare time, he got a job, and he saved his money from this job to purchase a camera, tripod, software, courses on how to shoot pictures, movies, and videos… as well as how to make money doing so.
Second, he shot pictures and videos for me, as well as his fellow students, and found some other clients while he was out in the field, working.
Third, he continued to learn about marketing and selling.
Fourth, he asked me for further instruction on writing copy, specifically, email copy.
Do you see a pattern here between the YouTuber and my son?
Although they took different paths, both have acquired and are continuing to acquire the skills that will make them money, OUTSIDE of the college classroom.
And that is the way it really ought to go for most people.
If you want to be a college professor, then you follow the A,B,C’s laid out for you. Same goes for becoming a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, etcetera. But if you want something more than a J.O.B. (just over broke), you’re going to need to take the horns off the bull and steer your life by yourself.
In so doing, YOU can become a professor of another order, a bonafide worldwide expert, a person who followed his or her dream in a way that is not laid out for you in school, but is by other professors, who figured out this school of hard shocks, by learning what other pioneering outer-whirld professors uncovered.
Am I saying that you should not go to college?
Of course not.
There are reasons to attend college, and as much as some people will hate me for saying so, going to college to play sports is as good a reason as any other. The great Dick Butkus, Hall of Fame linebacker for the Chicago Bears, was condemned for saying he went to college to play football. That was back in the 1960’s.
Did he care? Not one iota.
Did it hurt him, career-wise, after football?
Again, not one iota… as he went on to star in films, movies, commercials and much more.
By now you might be wondering what courses I recommended for my son, when he asked about copywriting.
I’ll give you a self-serving, 100 percent shameless answer, which you can uncover by clicking here.
Matt Furey
