My mother always encouraged me to go to college. As I said earlier, no one in my entire family tree had ever gone before. On our family tree hang dishwashers, maids, railroad employees, fruit pickers, and laborers. My mom didn’t want me to have to work as hard as she did just to make ends meet so she made a point to point out people who were laborers. She would say, “Son, in life you can work with your back, which is respectable but very tiring, or you can go to college and learn to work with your mind.” I didn’t even like yard work so I opted to go to college. I’m eternally grateful that I did. In college, I did learn to work with my mind and now I enjoy a life of ease, especially compared to the background I came from. College set me up to be able to do work I love. College was the best!

I almost didn’t make it to college. I almost didn’t get in. It wasn’t because of my grades, although they weren’t straight A’s, (or close) so that limited what colleges I could get into. And it wasn’t because of money, although my mother had ZERO dollars to contribute to my college fund (I was relying entirely on financial aid and a work-study job). I almost didn’t go to college is because the application process was completely overwhelming to me. I couldn’t deal with all the paperwork. It looked like paperwork higher and harder than Mt. Everest. The whole matter was made even harder by the fact that my mother couldn’t help me either - paperwork frustrates her and her records necessary for financial aid were scattered randomly through boxes hidden under our trailer house. So I was just going to blow off the chore of applying to college and do my best to ignore my future.

Then a miracle occurred in my life for which I’m eternally grateful. My friend Allison Yahna, who came from a relatively rich family, asked me what colleges I was applying to. “None,” I told her. “Can’t deal with the paperwork.” She tried to talk me into doing it all but I knew she just didn’t understand. I was wrong. She did understand and the next day, her mother called my house and offered to help me with my applications. I didn’t hesitate to accept this wonderful offer, and together, Mrs. Yahna and I filled out applications for two colleges that looked good to me. I first applied to Redlands University because they had a good track team (and I was a distance runner). And then I applied to Lewis & Clark College because that’s where Alison was going to go.

To my surprise, I got accepted into both and was offered all the financial aid I needed. (I shouldn’t have been surprised about the financial aid. It’s the rich who can’t get financial aid, not the low-income). I chose Lewis & Clark because when I took the campus tour I loved it. It was a four hour drive from my home town. I only went there a year and then transferred to San Francisco State University because after a year in college I knew more about what I wanted from college. (And I wanted an exciting city, less student-loans, and a larger course catalog). That’s my story.

Take Away:
- College will teach you to work with your mind, not your back.
- 4 year university, 2 year college, or technical school = all good.
- Don’t forget the Art colleges, Agricultural colleges, Design
colleges, & the Performing Arts colleges because you have so
many options.
- Seek help on application forms. Help is available with counselors.
- There is financial aid for you if you need it.
- The better your grades and scores, the more options you’ll
have, but there are plenty of great options for B & C gpa’s also.
- Get more education after high school; the more you learn the
more you earn.

Estimated Worth of a Degree in added income over 40 years:
High school diploma - $369,818 thousand
2 year vocational - $1.5 million
Bachelor’s Degree from college - $2 million
Master’s Degree (5-6 years of college) - $2.3 mill
Prof. or doctorate (7-8 years of college) - $2.8 mill

Being College Material
Hopefully, you haven’t been told anything false like “You’re not college material.” Remember, zero-limit living is YOUR choice, not someone else’s limiting belief. You belong wherever you CHOOSE to belong. With my B average and my slow thinking, I was hardly college material, but I chose to go anyway and once I was there I discovered that I was better than college material, I was success material. Whether you think yourself college material or not, there are books to help you be even better than “college material.”

1. Major in Success: Make College Easier, Fire Up Your Dreams
& Get a Very Cool Job by Patrick Combs (my first book)
2. Been There, Should Have Done That by Suzette Tyler
3. What Smart Students Know by Adam Robinson (paperback)

Barriers & Obstacles
Steve is an eighteen year old just out of high school. He’s attending the junior college fifteen minutes from his home. He chose it for convenience. But one day Steve was inspired by a friend to pursue his dream of being an airline pilot. He was bursting at the seams to transfer to a college in Florida his friend told him about that specializes in flight school. The same night he excitedly shared his dream with his mother, who loves him very much. But his mother responded,
“Oh Steve, becoming an airline pilot isn’t realistic. Not anyone can be an airline pilot or everyone would be doing it.” She didn’t mean to squash his dream or put him down, she only said it because she wasn’t a zero-limit thinker. Steve held it together and decided he didn’t need his mother’s approval. He only needed the $30,000 his estranged dad had long told him was saved for “Steve’s college fund.” So he called and told his dad his dream. His dad had apparently adjusted to the idea of Steve not needing much money for college since he was only attending a junior college. His dad said, “Steve, I’m not going to spend that much on your college. You’re fine going to the Junior College.” Moments like these in life are Defining Moments.

You will always encounter obstacles to your dreams. It is the very nature of life. Encountering obstacles is as natural as a butterfly having to struggle to break free of the cocoon. The question is, what are you going to do when you reach an obstacle like Travis?

When you encounter an obstacle, are you going to:
a) Give up and give up your dream?
b) Steel your resolve and find a way?

It’s important to stand up for your dream. Steve has many options. He can enlist friends of the family to help him persuade his parents. He can do massive legwork to research his dream college in Florida and make a stronger case. He can persist with his parents until they realized the endless depth of his conviction or the deep pain he’d suffer from their lack of support. Point is, there are always a lot of ways to fight for your dream.

In making my living as a speaker at college, I have personally been on over 500 campuses when you total the universities, community colleges and technical colleges where I’ve spoken. I’m now paid good money to advise people on how best to choose a college. Here’s my advice (in the form a checklist):

How to Pick an Amazing College Perfect for You!

____ Peruse amazing books that tell you about cool and unusual
colleges.
____ Give yourself permission to go to school out-of-state if that’s
where your coolest college happens to be.
____ Consider what dreams you may have about your career and
consider whether the college can help you specialize in your
dreams (but remember dreams change a lot in college).
____ Consider whether you feel you’d best fit in a big city, a small
town, or somewhere in between.
____ Set foot on 3 campuses: a 4 year college, a 2 year college, and
a technical college to see which one lights your fire.
____ Take campus tours of at least your top 2 choices and look for:
* A well-staffed, large and friendly career center.
* A great activities calendar (guest speakers, visiting
entertainers, bands, coffee house entertainment etc.)
plus well attended events. It’s no fun to go to colleges
with poorly attended special events.
____ A leadership office with a leadership program you can get
involved in.
____ Lots of students studying abroad for a semester.
____ Lots of diversity.
____ Course catalogs filled with classes that sound great to you.
____ A central place where you can always find lots of students
socializing on their breaks.
* At least one or two campus clubs that stir your interest.
* A strong study abroad program.
* Fascinating and passionate professors.
* Enough students looking relaxed and happy to indicate
that the school isn’t a year after year exercise in
competitive stress-management.
____ And finally - an indescribable good feeling you get inside
simply from the thought of going to this college.

Let’s close this chapter on a fun fact. The word “university” was originally chosen because its original meaning was “finding your place in the universe.” That’s a great reason to go to college - go to find your place in the universe.