An Ongoing Debate

“A traditional college degree, be it from a classroom or an online extension program run by an accredited university, is not all that it was once cracked up to be.

No longer can a general degree catapult a graduate into a higher class in society based on the intrinsic value of the degree itself. Likewise, the sheer number of degrees being churned out has diluted their worth to the point where they hold little more value than the high school diploma of yesteryear. Many jobs for which graduates will attempt to enter upon graduation may not even exist at the time in which they enroll.” – Taken from Technorati

A while ago, one of my homies asked me to do an article on the subject of whether college was really worth it or not. This has been an ongoing debate that has only gained fuel with the rapid devaluation of many 529 College Savings Plans, shrinking wages, and slow job markets for grads. As both a degree holder and an entrepreneur, I would have to answer both yes and no.

Yes and No

The fact of the matter is that if you hope to succeed working for somebody else, a college degree is essential. Most companies use a degree as a filter when deciding who to interview and ultimately hire. Additionally, the contacts that you get within a company during an internship could mean the difference between a smooth transition into familiar territory and an uncertain employment future. And surveys have shown that the higher your level of attainment as it relates to education, the more money you earn. Its important to know that these figures apply to employees, not entrepreneurs.

On the other hand, if your goal is to be self-employed, there is nothing that you cant learn about running a successful enterprise from bloggers and websites, or from the hundreds of thousands of books available at Amazon. You dont need college.

Dont get me wrong, Im a firm believer in the importance of knowledge and educating oneself. However, I also believe that a great many college students would do better to invest the money they pump into academic institutions, or use that money to start a small business. Time and time again we have seen proof of the fact that a college degree is not a precursor to success when it comes to being an entrepreneur:

Herbalist Djehuty Maat-Ra runs a multi-million dollar herbal company on the west coast. He built his operation from the ground up without a college degree

$ Sir Richard Branson left school when he was only 16. Ironically, his first successful business was publishing a magazine called Student

$ Of course, we all know that Bill Gates never graduated. Im sick of talking about him and hearing about him, so Im not going to make this post a Bill Gates love-fest

$ In high school, Ralph Lauren was known to sell neckties to his fellow students. In his yearbook, he stated that he wanted to be a millionaire. He studied business for two years at Baruch College but never graduated.

$ Michael Dell started a computer company called PCs Limited while attending the University of Texas at Austin. It became successful enough that Dell dropped out of school to operate it

For a detailed list of very successful college dropouts, check out the College Dropouts Hall of Fame.

If you Must Go

I don’t think that college per se is a scam. I do, however, think that the price of college is a scam. Colleges, like all consumer products, are divided by price point. There are the low end products (community colleges), the brand name middle priced products (State Colleges), and the high end luxury brands (Private Colleges and Ivy Leagues). The problem here is that students are paying for the same information at state colleges that they would get in community colleges. Even worse, the loans that are given to these students are just as bad as the sub-prime loans given out during the housing bubble and could mean financial Armageddon for these students once they graduate. Heres what Kathy Kristof of Forbes Magazine wrote on the topic in her article The Great College Hoax:

Mindy Babbitt entered Davenport University in her mid-20s to study accounting. Unable to cover the costs with her previous earnings as a cosmetologist, she took out a $35,000 student loan at 9% interest, figuring her postgraduate income would cover the cost.

Instead, the entry-level job her bachelor’s degree got her barely covered living expenses. Babbitt deferred loan repayments and was then laid off for a time. Now 41 and living in Plainwell, Mich., she is earning $41,000 a year, or about $10,000 more than the average high school graduate makes. But since she graduated, Babbitt’s student loan balance has more than doubled, to $87,000, and she despairs she’ll never pay it off.

“Unless I win the lottery or get a job paying a lot more, my student debts are going to follow me to the grave,” she says.

Considering the fact that you wont land a cushy, high-paying corner office job the day, year, or decade after you graduate coupled with the massive amounts of debt that you will leave school carrying leads me to give you the following advice: Dont shell out for State or high profile colleges. Attending a community college for two years and transferring to a four-year college or university could save you a bundle in tuition costs ($30,000 or more, according to the MSN Money article, College for Half Price). You can also save hundreds upon hundreds of dollars by CLEP-ing out of courses (the CLEP program lets you study material and then take your final exam instead of actually going through the course. If you already know Marketing, you can save a lot of time and money by just CLEP-ing and moving on).

Once you are in the work force, companies will sometimes reimburse you for pursuing higher education, so get hired first, then worry about that MBA (The only MBA Im interested in getting is a MASSIVE BANK ACCOUNT! But that’s just me).

So to answer the question posed by this post: Is college really worth it? The answer is ‘yes’ if you want to work in someone elses company and no, if you want to run your own. And if you must go to college, save money and time by starting out at community college, CLEP-ing subjects, and scraping up grants and scholarships to save money while avoiding student loans.

The Wrap Up

Its important that you decide which path is right for you. Being an entrepreneur is difficult to say the least. You will have to work around the clock, sacrifice time and energy, find out all the answers on your own, and learn to live on an unstable income. Sometimes, it will feel like you are flying by the seat of your pants. If all that isnt enough to dissuade you, as an entrepreneur you will statistically make less early on than your college graduated counterparts. But for all the risk involved there is massive reward, and over time you are statistically more likely to become very rich as an entrepreneur versus as an employee.

On the other hand, as an employee you enjoy a set schedule, set pay, set benefits, and a routine life. Your destiny within your company is not in your hands, however, and there is little chance you will be any more successful than the man at the desk next to you. There is nothing wrong with choosing either path as long as you know yourself.

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This isnt going to be an easy concept for alot of you, but it is essential that you stop living a lie if you wish to truly conquer your world. It is the man and woman that defines their personal truth and lives by that truth that has the most potential for power.

Make a personal resolution to live whatever truth that you wish. If you want to be a millionaire, if you want to help other people, if you want to be any specific kind of professional, you have to live that truth every day. Your every thought, word, and deed has to be in line with the truth you wish to live. That is the source of personal power. Good people like Mother Theresa and Malcolm X, and bad people like Adolph Hitler and Idi Amin (who until his death held the belief that Uganda needed him) had one thing in common – they lived their truth. Because that, they reached the pinnacles of power and people followed.

The Opposite of Living the Truth

The opposite of living the truth is obviously living a lie. Pastors who preach the piety of poverty and live in luxury live a lie. Politicians appointed to protect and defend the Constitution and then manipulate existing laws for their image and benefit live a lie. Self help gurus who dont help other people live a lie. Hypocritically acting in ways that are not consistent with your words and not holding up your end of promises and contracts are a few other examples.

Contrast that with Christians that live meager lives who help all they can, revolutionary voices that speak out against politicians in their own parties who abandon the standards set by this country’s founding fathers, and the Millionaire Mentors, whose goals are to help 100 people become millionaires (instead of making a million dollars for themselves).

People work jobs that they hate, doing things that dont match their skill sets whatsoever. If that defines you, you need to make plans for moving into a career field that reflects the truth you want to live. You cant truthfully say you are a deal maker and a business man if you clean warehouses at night. You cant truthfully call yourself a singer or dancer if you dont live the life of a singer or dancer. You either live the truth, or live a lie.

If you have  read The Evolution of a Hustler, you know the story behind how I came to be an inmate. There was a time that I called myself a Marine, but didnt live the principles that Marines are known for. My behavior revealed the truth, that somewhere along the line I rotted. You need to ask yourself if  your behavior is really the truth that you want to live.  The good thing about the Marines is that it provides young men and women with a pre-defined truth; a standard that determines ones personal conduct at all times. Similarly, religion provides a frame of thought that provides followers with a truth. The bad thing about religion and organizations like the United States Marine Corps is that demagogues (false prophets) are given places to hide. Dont be one of those people. If you  hope to get anywhere, be brutally honest with yourself. Honesty is more than a word. Honesty is a way of thinking that is reflected in your actions. Your actions then reinforce your truths, which then further influence your actions.

Re-Programming Yourself

In place of whatever undesirable truth that you used to hide, adopt and live by new truths that will affect your actions and your way of thinking. Do you want to live as a thief? Do you want to live as a con-artist, a fake, or a demagogue? Of course not, who does? The secret to abolishing those old truths is to define the truth that you really want to live and replace those old and undesired behaviors. Determine what you are not, then determine what you are. By verbalizing the truth to yourself, you are reprogramming your brain using a technique called Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP for short – more on this later).

“I am not a thief. I am able to find ways of making more money than I ever could stealing

“I am not a fake. I am who I am and the world can appreciate it or go to hell”

“I am not a failure. My actions today will reveal me as the success that I am”

” I am not lazy. I get more done than anybody that I know”

“I am not a demagogue. I embody the principles and philosophy of my school of thought always”

This isnt fake it til you make it. This isnt acting the part. This is living the part. This is walking the path.

Define your truth, and then live the truth.

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When I talk about making it rain, Im talking about money raining on you – not you throwing money on other people. For the entrepreneur and hustler, sales equal money. Website traffic equals money. Contacts equal money. Action equals money. One sale, one website visit, one contact, one act could mean the difference between a flood of money or a drought. Lets make it rain.

You don’t need an office. Your car is your office. Your briefcase, your backpack, your lunch table is your office. Customers wont come to you – you have to go to them. If they are on the basketball court, in the gym, at the club, in doctor’s offices, in chat rooms, in hotel conference rooms, at conventions then GO THERE! The phone is for followup calls, not initial contact. Its easy to hang up on a telemarketer. Its hard to be rude to someone standing face to face with you.

Hit the streets. Hustling is a numbers game. Get in customers faces, ask 33 customers a day for a $1000 sale and you get $10,000 per month. If you are making it rain, your schedule is 24 hours per day. Your workday is all day. Your work week is all week. Vacation time and family time are off limits, but every other time period is free game. Fish every lake dry, then find more lakes. Then come back and re-fish your old lakes. New customers come into the market every day. If you are selling milk, and I just bought milk, Im not a customer right now. If you come back in a week, you will have a sale. “NO” REALLY MEANS “NOT RIGHT NOW!”. If you cant close a sale, then close them on a follow-up phone call or appointment.

ABC = ALWAYS BE CLOSING

What do you do? Whatever that is, let everybody know! If you are a blogger aka freelance journalist, tell everybody you meet and know. If you sell chicken, tell everybody you meet and know. If you sell jewelry, books, T-Shirts, DVDs, organic fruit, sex toys, dog collars, or billboard space, tell everybody you meet and know. If you specialize in something, be proud of it and be known for it. Have you made a single penny online? Are you a dancer? Are you a political pundit? Tae kwon do red belt, youth counselor, member of the Farmers Association? Whatever is unique about you, make it known. Otherwise, youre just another salesperson. Just another hustler.

And make no mistake about it – EVERYBODY IS IN SALES, WHETHER YOU KNOW IT OR NOT! You are selling yourself to get a promotion, you are selling yourself to get more men or women in your life. You are selling yourself to make more money, to win friends and influence people. That means ABC (always be closing) applies to you. Close your boss (“Heres why I should be a floor manager immediately…”), close the opposite sex (“Im impressed with you, so lets exchange numbers and meet wherever at whatever time”), close friends (“Youre good people, why don’t you stop by the house and watch the fight Friday with me and a few ladies”).

When it comes to sales – ask for the order! Most salespeople set up meetings with potential customers, everybody is all smiles and giggles, and then the salesperson leaves without asking for the order. The customer knew you were a salesperson and, therefore, you were going to ask them to buy. Maybe they had already decided to buy before you even showed up! But since the salesperson didn’t ask for the order, the customer is left thinking “WTF was he even here for?” Meanwhile, the salesperson thinks he has had a successful appointment. Ask the customer to buy when you first walk in their door. If they reject you, come back with “I was just kidding, of course youre not ready yet, because I haven’t shown you what my product can do for you”. Then, instead of launching into a pitch, find out whats important to the customer. Get into their world and into their head. Think like them so that you can get them to think like you. Then ask for the order again.

After asking for the sale, be quiet. First one to talk looses. Heres the right way to do it:

The Hustler: “Ok, you like this and that about my product. Lets get some paperwork done. How does that sound?”
Customer: “…………………………………….”
Customer: “Lets do it”

Heres the wrong way:

The Buster: “Ok, you like this and that about my product. Lets get some paperwork done. How does that sound?”
Customer: “…………………………………….”
The Buster: “bbbbbut if you want to think about it I will come back”
Customer: “Let me think about it”

Make it rain in good times and bad. Just because you are on a hot streak doesn’t mean you can sit back and relax. Work consistently. If you put in 8 hours during the bad times, put in 8 hours during the good times. If you make fat tips or commissions one week, don’t take the next week off. Again, work consistently. If you are doing what you love – then this will be easy to do. If you hate what you do, this will be impossible – therefore, you need to quit! It makes no sense for you to get paid to do what you hate when you can get paid doing what you love. I had to keep a job that I hated until I built up my income streams doing what I love. Its called “straddling”. You keep one foot in the job and the other in your passion.

Every person you meet is either a customer or knows somebody who could become one of your customers. Therefore, keep them in the Blackberry. Call them every other week to find out whats going on in their world. Ask them about their wife, kids, probation officer. Ask them about their jobs, recreational activities, their goals. Ask them if they have reconsidered buying from you. Ask them if they can give you the number to somebody who can use your product right now. Do this every day for 10 people that you have met in the past. If you don’t have 10 people to call, go meet 10 people.


Let me wrap this up by putting it in terms that most men can understand. Have you ever seen another man who was shorter than you, had less money than you did, and was only average in the looks and height department but still had more and better quality women than you did? Its because he hit the streets, the clubs, the parks, the mall, asked for the number, asked for the date, asked for the open relationship, and provided social value to the woman (If you have one quality woman, other quality women will see that, making you instantly more attractive and socially valuable). Dating is a numbers game. Talk to 1000 high quality females, and if you have a 1% success rate, you have 10 high quality women you could be kicking it with. Even Forrest Gump had better than a 1% success rate. Same thing with making it rain.

Sounds hard? It is.

Early to bed, early to rise, get your hustle on and monetize.

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I’m going to open up a few free spots for anyone who would like to sponsor World Domination with Arthur Pledger in order to get your blog or business some free traffic.

What you get is a 125×125 ad ABOVE THE FOLD, FREE OF CHARGE in my sidebar. I don’t care if your blog tiny or gargantuan. I don’t care if you have 2 page views per day or 2 Million. This will give me a chance to figure out this whole sponsorship thing, while you get some free exposure.

You’ll need to provide me with the 125 x 125 banner for the ad. Depending on how well this thing works out, I will select four additional sponsors for a total of six to run, free of charge, until April. You will pretty much be approved as long as youre not a spammer or pedaling something I wouldn’t approve of (sex toys, escort services, etc).

Here’s how you do it and what I need if you’re interested

If you’re interested, please email me with the word “Sponsorship” in the subject line

• Write one paragraph for me on something you did in the last year that you’re proud of.
• Your website URL
• A description of your blog and/or business
• Why you’re interested
• Your pitch: why should it be your ad?

At the end of April, I will send you a bill for $5 to keep your banner on the site. If youre getting decent traffic, pay for the banner. If not, you can bail. No risk, no hard feelings. I will be making my banner choices in 5 days, SO HURRY UP AND ACT NOW!

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