So you got into college and are doing the degree of your dreams. Whether you’re studying business, law or entrepreneurship these are three courses you won’t be taught but definitely should be.
1. Common-Sense
As the saying goes, common sense is like a door mat. The people that need it most never use it.
But what is common sense? Common sense is a basic ability to perceive, understand, and judge things, which is shared by (“common to”) nearly all people, and can be reasonably expected of nearly all people without any need for debate. A recent survey suggests that 83 percent of the United States population lack any and all common sense. But, then again, did you know that 70 percent of all statistics are made up in the spur of the moment? Including that one. Joking aside though, and in all seriousness, a course in common sense would be a massive help to most. It seems that many lack not the actual skill (most people posses the skill), but the ability to utilize it effectively. Utilizing common sense would allow you to make effective calculated time saving and profit maximizing decisions. Ignoring common sense will get you the exact opposite.
2. Thinking Big
Don’t let small minds convince you that your dreams are too big.
One of the top reasons people fail is that they don’t think big. This is tragic. Since you will need to think anyway, why not think big? All successful entrepreneurs whether fictional television characters or real world people, say the same thing – think big! You are only ever limited by yourself. Donald trump, Richard Branson, Nick Woodman, the Wolf of Wall Street and Harvey Spector, they all think big. The only way you are going to make it big without thinking big is with a very large amount of luck. Why leave everything down to luck? That is just crazy. Are you afraid that thinking big and sharing these ideas is going to get resistance?
Winston Churchill once said: “You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” This quote holds true with our ‘Think Big’ theme. People need to be thought how to think big. Period.
3. Telling the Difference Between Assets and Liabilities
Money doesn’t make you rich – assets make you rich.
Yet another issue that many seem to struggle with. People seem to think some liabilities are assets and vice versa. Is you house an asset? Yes? It’s going up in value isn’t it? Well, are you paying bills? Are you paying for maintenance? Are you paying taxes and municipality fees? That’s a lot of expense. What income is this “asset” giving you? None? So how is this an asset? A rental property is an asset but your home isn’t an asset. It may be going up in value on paper but that paper value is only real once you can sell it and pocket the money. Until then your home isn’t an asset.
Lawyer and tax consultants bills are liabilities right? Well, not exactly. They may cost money but if you are running a big business, these people will save you far more than they cost by advising you on creative tax saving loopholes and protecting you legally. These are assets not liabilities.
The secret to becoming rich is simply to buy as many assets as possible and as few liabilities as possible. Before you can do that, you will need to know which is which. Hopefully this could be thought in college at some point in the future. Once people have a clear understanding of the difference between assets and liabilities their path to success will be significantly easier.
So good luck with college, it offers you a huge advantage over others – yet promises nothing. You may end up working for that first year dropout down the road unless you can get a grasp of these concepts that unfortunately are left out of the collage curriculum.
Image courtesy of: PromoMadrid @flickr
