Why College Makes No Sense

Real World Careers: Why College Is Not the Only Path to Becoming Rich
by Betsy Cummings

A Great Career-Without a College Degree!

Possible? Absolutely! Today's job market has lots of room for people who leave school early or don't plan to go to college at all. According to recent studies by the Department of Labor, there is no clear correlation between a college degree and financial success. In fact, you can earn a great living-and even get fabulously rich-running your own business or with a high-paying job in the construction industry, the restaurant business, information technology, and many other fields-without graduating from a four-year college. Now, in this provocative guide to no-holds-barred achievement, business journalist Betsy Cummings shows you how to identify your passions and take charge of your future.

Chapter 1

Tim Jordan never planned on enrolling at a university for seven years. But if he had continued down the academic path he began in the early 1990s, that's about how long it would have taken him to earn a college degree. "I didn't have a focus for school," he says, in an understatement.

When three years of study left him with a solid C average and an accumulation of credits alarmingly short of what he needed to graduate, his parents finally cut him off. "They pretty much said they didn't plan on me going to school for seven years,? Jordan says. That was in 1991. In college, Jordan and a friend had started a small business doing odd construction jobs around town? fixing a porch deck here, repairing a fence there. It was enough to bring in forty thousand dollars a year, and lay a foundation of construction skills. But it was also an indication that money could be made without a bachelor's degree.

So when Jordan had a falling-out with his partner, he left the business and school at the same time, hoping to jump-start his career with the knowledge he'd gained to date. He landed a job as a hospital maintenance worker in Morristown, New Jersey. Not the most auspicious start, perhaps. But a year later, still loping along in that position, Jordan was open to other options and was eager to listen to a friend who suggested he consider a new career. One day during a community softball game, that friend approached Jordan with a proposition. "He was in the mortgage business," Jordan relates. "He said, "You know so many people. Why don't you give it a shot"?

Jordan was as familiar with mortgages as he was with college commencement. But he decided to find out more. And here's where his motivation - inspired by life experience, rather than the classroom - kicked in. In a business where pay is 100 percent commission, a newcomer like Jordan couldn't afford to quit his day job, so to speak, and launch into another one sight unseen. He was terrified to commit solely to becoming a broker, but with a full-time job that offered an uncertain career path, he figured he had nothing to lose. So he continued to work his hospital maintenance job while he spent his nights at home as a representative for Central Mortgage Service Corporation, dialing one number after another, hitting up area residents who might be in the market for mortgages. Unable to make cold calls during the day, Jordan hired a telemarketing firm to do the work for him, then would take the contacts they drummed up and spend four hours a night working warm leads.

Jordan knew it was crucial to land his first customer? Most mortgage clients are drawn in through referrals. But he didn't know when that would be. Patience and determination were crucial to making it happen. His very first client, it turns out, was one of his best friends. That certainly generated some referral business. But it didn't guarantee the stream Jordan had hoped for. And the company wasn't necessarily paving the way. "They threw me to the wolves," he says of his first employer. "I had no idea what I was doing." Sitting in the home of one of his earliest prospects one night, Jordan recalls thinking he wasn't leaving without asking for and getting the business. "I was twenty-five years old and this lady is thirty-eight with kids, looking at me trying to sell her a mortgage," Jordan recalls, laughing. "She knew I was trying so hard. I was in her house for two and a half hours. I was not leaving that house without that mortgage.? The woman was impressed with Jordan's initiative and was willing to use him as her broker. She just needed to ask him one final question: "Does this mortgage require an escrow"? Jordan stopped cold. "I had no idea what those were." But he wasn't about to lose the business. He took a chance and told her he was sure his company could provide escrow services should her mortgage need them. Turns out, his company could.

For a solid six months Jordan scrambled, educating himself about escrows and everything else he needed to know along the way. He continued to work nearly forty-hour weeks at the hospital, spending nights and weekends securing mortgages. The struggle paid off. In less than ten years, Jordan built his practice into a three-thousand-client business that averages a million dollars a year.

In that time, he worked for two different mortgage companies before becoming a partner in a third and building it into such a large entity, it was acquired in 2005 by another fi rm for sixteen million - much of that landing in Jordan's pocket. Going to college, Jordan says, served little purpose in launching his career other than building a few contacts to help spread the word about his mortgage broker services. "I could have probably gotten A's, but my attention span for focusing on school . . . it was never the environment in which I learn," Jordan says. "I am 100 percent money-motivated."

The Right Motivation

Like Jordan, too many college students don't find the motivation, inspiration, or career momentum they're looking for in a university lecture hall. Isn't it better to recognize that early in your academic career and find another path than it would be to spend four years hauling through analytical geometry or introduction to digital architecture, waiting for the moment of inspiration? That Jordan skipped college and found vast financial and professional wealth is surely an anomaly, right? Wrong. Certainly four-year graduates with new diplomas and hundreds of credit hours sweating it out over calculus equations and quantum physics theorems have plenty of job opportunities ahead of them. But studies reveal a somewhat pessimistic future for many college undergraduates? or at least for those who finish. A recent survey by the Web site CollegeGrad.com found that more than half of all college graduates feel it's more difficult to find a job today than it was a year ago. A similar survey by the same site found that nearly 20 percent of college graduates said they were underemployed, complaining that even entry-level jobs can require some experience - a vicious catch-22 that frustrates recent grads.

College advocates say a degree can give you the mental boost needed when looking for a job. If you have a diploma, the theory goes, then surely you have the skills and talent to be a solid performer. And that builds confidence for newbies on the job. But plenty of college graduates leave school knowing full well that the slip of paper in their hands doesn't guarantee their success - or attest to their true abilities or intelligence. And their peers who have spent the last four years working and gaining bankable skills on the job may have far more to offer.

© 2007 by Betsy Cummings

About the Author

Betsy Cummings is an award-winning business reporter who writes for the New York Times, Adweek, Smart Money, and other business magazines. She lives in New York City.