Maximize your community college degree and leverage your resources with markwguay.com.

Five Steps To Maximize A College Degree

You've landed here because you want to maximize your education. Smart move!

College Inc by Frontline proves how more and more college students are graduating college with an average of 20-40k, if not more, in debt. And they can't find a job!

That's Crazy!

But you're not alone. Getting a college degree can be the smartest decision you'll ever make. Investing in educating yourself is the best investment one can make.

Saldy, college can be expensive and students can get little out of it. School is becoming more and more expensive with little return on investment.

This video and tutorial is about getting the most ROI - return on investment. Maximize your education.

Here are five steps to getting the most out of your degree:

1. Find your True Passion:

Most high school graduates think they know what they want to do with the rest of their lives. In reality, after just one year of college, most students switch majors. After graduating, many students realize that their true passion may be different than the degree they have. That's crazy!

Use the mandatory liberal arts core electives as a way to discover if you like different subject matters. For example, I couldn't stand Math yet found calculus enticing. Yes, I know I am a dork.

Take 2 days and plan out your life passion:

Day one:

Ask your family and friends throughout the day what they see as your strengths and passions in life. Take the rest of the day to digest this information.

Day two:

Imagine you're in a room that's full of everyone you love. What are they saying about you? What do you wish they were saying about you? This is your funeral. Eek! I know. Scary. But, take this imagery seriously. Write down what you wish they were saying.

Taking just two days to ask yourself the hard questions will save you ten years of going down the wrong path. LIke this quote? Tweet it here!

We live in a time where it's possible to follow your dreams more than ever. As Seth Godin says, “How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be remarkable?”

2. Maximize the Cost of Community College and Build Your Network

Start building your network

Get on LinkedIn. Trust me here. In the digital world, it's better to start building your professional presence as soon as possible. Do it now… See my profile here: http://www.linkedin.com/in/guaymark

Find like classmates that have similar passions as your own

Go to your professor's office hours!

Ask them career advice. Talk about the course subject. Ask about their life story. You will be wanting their letters of recommendation on LinkedIn after the course.

Organize or attend campus meetings based on topics you enjoy.

Do you like gardening? Join a green works club.

Music, technology…whatever. Build relationships with like-minded people and use those co-existing hobbies as leverage to build your professional network.

Make your own group and bring together the community. Use Meetup. It's super easy and effective.

Did you know?

Most community college professors also teach at a more expensive 4-year college. Take these classes seriously. Learn the material.

3. Think Like an Entrepreneur

Let's face it. A hobby is just a hobby until you can make a living from it. This is not selling out. This is being smart. Think food, shelter, water. Consider what you want - what you need - and define what "rich" means to you. Does it mean a lot of money, status, or getting to spend all your time with those you love and working with your passion in life? Define your own rich. Rich to one person is a Ferrarii, yet to another rich is a reliable bicycle.

Learn the simplicity of a business plan

What's your mission in a sentence or two?

What service or product will you create?

Where will the funding come from?

Find the best business

What companies are out there that support your passion?

Who do you know in this business?

Use LinkedIn to reach out to these people. Be personal in your message and professional.

What can you add to the business mission?

Option 1: Create your own business
You've landed here because you are considering community college. Smart move!

College Inc by Frontline proves how more and more college students are graduating college with an average of 20-40k, if not more, in debt. And they can't find a job!
That's Crazy!
But you're not alone. Getting a college degree can be the smartest decision you'll ever make. Investing in educating yourself is the best investment one can make.
Saldy, college can be expensive and students can get little out of it. School is becoming more and more expensive with little return on investment.
This video and tutorial is about getting the most ROI - return on investment. Maximize your education.
Here are five steps to getting the most out of your degree:
1. Find your True Passion:
Most high school graduates think they know what they want to do with the rest of their lives. In reality, after just one year of college, most students switch majors. After graduating, many students realize that their true passion may be different than the degree they have. That's crazy!
Use the mandatory liberal arts core electives as a way to discover if you like different subject matters. For example, I couldn't stand Math yet found calculus enticing. Yes, I know I am a dork.
Take 2 days and plan out your life passion:
Day one:
Ask your family and friends throughout the day what they see as your strengths and passions in life. Take the rest of the day to digest this information.
Day two:
Imagine you're in a room that's full of everyone you love. What are they saying about you? What do you wish they were saying about you? This is your funeral. Eek! I know. Scary. But, take this imagery seriously. Write down what you wish they were saying.
Taking just two days to ask yourself the hard questions will save you ten years of going down the wrong path. LIke this quote? Tweet it here!
We live in a time where it's possible to follow your dreams more than ever. As Seth Godin says, “How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be remarkable?”
2. Maximize the Cost of Community College and Build Your Network
Start building your network
Get on LinkedIn. Trust me here. In the digital world, it's better to start building your professional presence as soon as possible. Do it now… See my profile here: http://www.linkedin.com/in/guaymark
Find like classmates that have similar passions as your own
Go to your professor's office hours!
Ask them career advice. Talk about the course subject. Ask about their life story. You will be wanting their letters of recommendation on LinkedIn after the course.
Organize or attend campus meetings based on topics you enjoy.
Do you like gardening? Join a green works club.
Music, technology…whatever. Build relationships with like-minded people and use those co-existing hobbies as leverage to build your professional network.
Make your own group and bring together the community. Use Meetup. It's super easy and effective.
Did you know?
Most community college professors also teach at a more expensive 4-year college. Take these classes seriously. Learn the material.
3. Think Like an Entrepreneur
Let's face it. A hobby is just a hobby until you can make a living from it. This is not selling out. This is being smart. Think food, shelter, water. Consider what you want - what you need - and define what "rich" means to you. Does it mean a lot of money, status, or getting to spend all your time with those you love and working with your passion in life? Define your own rich. Rich to one person is a Ferrarii, yet to another rich is a reliable bicycle.
Learn the simplicity of a business plan
4. Supplement your Education.
I know…This is the last thing you want to hear. But I need you to trust me.
Use the free online schooling available to teach yourself specific skills that will build your identity and provide you with the tools you need to be successful.
Here's a few examples of free online learning
Creative live
Great 1-3 day intensive workshops with experts in the field
Coursera, Edx, Udacity, Khan Academy
These are MOOCs. Massive Online Open Courses. Typically several weeks long, use these to gain more credibility with a brand college certificate (i.e. Stanford, Harvard, etc). Also, you can build your LinkedIn network here. Think globally! It's just as easy to meet a neighbor down the street as it is a graduate in India. The power of the internet is a beautiful thing, isn't it!?
You're not spending a load of money on your college, so put aside money to enroll in workshops either online or in the nearest city. Hiring a coach that has already made ten years of mistakes to become an expert can help you do the same in just one year. ( Like that quote, tweet it here).
5. Choose a Smart Exit. You got your 2-year degree, now what?
- Leverage your killer GPA to get into a brand school (i.e. an ivy league) with the intent on using the school's brand to catapult you into a high-paying career to easily pay off two years of ivy-league debt.
Or
- Use your smarts to start something. Become an entrepreneur.
- - Read anything by Richard Branson, James Wedmore, Tim Ferriss, Ramit Sethi, among others and use their tools to create your own business. Hey, I'm not going to lie. That's what I did. And you're watching and reading this, right?
Or
- Travel to another country. Experience culture shock. This will take you out of your comfort zone and stress you to realize something new about yourself. Traveling can create an "ah-ha!" moment for many. It did for me. After you do this, revisit your life plan. I highly suggest checking out Michael Hyatt's Life Plan here.
"Life is a gift. Now, go make it count." - Michael Hyatt ( Click to Tweet)
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