When I was growing up, no one ever pushed me to go to college. My parents graduated from high school, got married, had kids, bought houses and worked in very stable jobs for most of their lives. We lived a pretty good life.
Not knowing anything different, after graduating from high school, I decided to attend a junior college and get a degree. I learned about the latest languages of the day IBM 360 Assembly, COBOL, RPG, FORTRAN, BASIC, Pascal and APL. After earning my degree, I got married, had some kids, bought a house and worked my way up the ladder. Along the way, I had to update my knowledge with C, C++, PHP, VB.NET, SQL, HTML, XML and XHTML. I learned each of these over the course of several years as needed by the jobs I performed.
Knowing what I know now, I would have done a few things differently. I tell people who are just graduating from high school or are still college age and haven’t yet established their career or families.
Do it in this order the first time:
- finish your education
- establish your career
- have a family
Here’s why:
- your education is the key to your career
- education demands a lot of your time, when you’re younger it’s a lot easier
- establishing a career requires lots of your time & attention
- some relationships may not survive this
If you’re college age and you listen my suggestions, you will thank me. Congratulations.
If you’re beyond college age, make sure your kids, grandkids, nieces & nephews read this. You might be one of those who didn’t quite do it in that order. I’m in that same boat. It’s not an easy road, but the journey will be worth it.
Till next time, share this message with everyone you know.
