Brian Tracy, who never finished high school, argues that college depends on your career. Law, medicine, and science require it. But culinary arts, journalism, and marketing don't. He points to Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, and Bill Gates as successes without degrees, and warns against going to college before you know what you want.
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you're doing, you will be successful. Hello, I'm Brian Tracy and today I want to talk to you about a topic that is becoming increasingly popular and that is whether or not you need a college degree to be successful. As many of you know, I never attended college and barely graduated from high school. I sometimes say that I was in the bottom half of the class that made the top half possible. Because of this, I'm always asked how I achieved success in a long, fulfilling career without attending college. Now, with the rising cost of a college education, this topic has come into the limelight, even more so in the past few years, with a lot of individuals wondering whether it makes sense to pay tens of thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars for a college education and whether or not it is really necessary in order to achieve success. If you are on the fence about the merits of a college degree, the first questions I would suggest asking yourself are what are my goals? What do I want to do for my career later in life? Now, if the answer to that question is that you want to be a lawyer or a doctor or a scientist, then the answer is simple and yes, you do need to go to college in order to pursue those career choices. It would be impossible to reach those goals otherwise. If your dream career is more along the lines of wanting to be a chef or a journalist or work in marketing, then a college degree may not be a necessary step in your career path. Even if college is not necessary for your desired career, one important thing to remember is is that there's a lot more to college than just the classes and the degree. It's an opportunity to get to learn who you really are and what you really want to do with your life and meet new individuals who could ultimately help you in your future career. So many individuals who went to college say it was one of the best experiences of their lives and taught them a lot more than what they actually learned in their classes. Now, for some of us, our future career goals and may not be as cut and dried if we don't know exactly what we want to do just yet. At the young age of 17 or 18, many of us don't know what we want to do for our career in the long term, and that's okay. I worked at odd jobs here and there and plenty of manual labor jobs before I ultimately discovered what I wanted to do for my career. The fact is, some people need more time than others to discover what they want to do with their lives. And rushing into college could potentially force your hand into a career you may not want five or 10 years down the line. Taking some time to truly figure out what it is you want from your life and career could be beneficial for some people nowadays, depending upon your field of choice. There are plenty of successful people without college degrees. That list includes Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Wolfgang Puck, Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, and many others. So the best thing you could do for yourself is not live your life based on what others think you should do and do what you feel is best for yourself. Just because one person went to college and is successful does not mean that that is the only path to success. Determine what is best for you and your future goals and and then pursue that no matter what the journey looks like. Keep in mind a quote from Albert Schweitzer Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you're doing, you will be successful. Now I'd love to hear from you. So my question today is what is your ultimate career goal that you would like to achieve sometime in the future? Leave a comment below and I'll be sure to follow up with you. Thanks for watching. And remember, if you want to change your future, take action and take action now. If you enjoyed this video and feel it was valuable in helping you achieve your personal or professional goals, subscribe to my Channel like this video and share this video with your friends or anyone else who might benefit from this information.
