Advice on life decisions

Post Reply New Topic

Apparently, nowadays, I want to start a small business. Meaning I would like to purchase heat press equipment to start a garment printing business (I am talking about something which can fit in your house, for the time being). So right now I want to focus on that for the time being. But my parents endlessly get on my case about the fact that I need to keep up with my original goal of transferring to a 4 year college or else it is the end of the world. But here is the problem, when I was going to school, I didn't feel happy one single bit. Because I put a lot of pain and energy to study in classes and I barely passed many of my classes. I asked for tutors in Math courses, but my parents refused because they claim tutoring is too expensive and since they have a good education, it is enough. (But when you have family members help you w/ homework, it gets extremely stressful). So, I decided to take time off school to work and make money. Besides, most people who want to go to college usually work for someone else for the rest of their lives. I am not a person who likes to get ordered around by others, reminded to do things constantly, and deal with multiple rounds of interviews. So this is why I chose the self employment route.

Another thing is apparently, my parents keep on telling me, what happens if you make little or no money in what you are doing though. I have reminded them, I will eventually find another thing to make money in, self-employment wise. I also reminded them, I am considering to look into a Vocational Program in Screen Printing or Graphic Design and they still claim a Vocational Degree is not enough and I have to go get a 4 year degree.

The issue is, many of the 4 year degree general ed requirements will be useless for what I want to pursue, and most majors do not emphasize on Hands-On education, but more learning on how to take tests and quizzes (which I suck at, due to the fact that I am a visual learner) and doing unbearable loads of homework, plus dealing with tons of stress.

I am not going to take my parents advice, but I will give this new journey of making money on my own, see if it will work and trying many other options possible, even if the business ideas fail. I will try to find something I can succeed in eventually. But I will go back to school when I feel like. So tell me what you think about the attitude of my parents and what decisions I want to make. I want to get some feedback.

The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.

[John W. Gardner ]

IOW do what will make you financially solvent the quickest without hurting anybody in the process.

My advice kind of mimics your parent's advice. I think that it is perfectly fine to pursue your own business, but you need to have a backup plan, or something to fall back on. If you try 2-3 business ideas, and none of them are successful, that will be a lot of money and time wasted, and probably a fair amount of debt accumulated as well. At your age you have plenty of one of those things (time), but probably not very much of the other (money). Studies show that 8 out of 10 businesses fail within the first 2 years, so it is definitely a big risk, and I don't think you should put all of your apples into that basket. You should be working in parallel on some other form of employment, so that you will have options. That way, if your business ideas fail, you will have a job already waiting for you. And if your ideas succeed, then you can quit that second job and devote your time fully to your business.

A degree will open the door for more job options for you, since a college degree is all but required to get a decent job nowadays. I think that a vocational degree would work if that is the kind of job that you really want to do. Graphic design I think is more skills-dependent than degree-dependent, so a vocational degree may be ok for that (assuming you are highly talented). I don't know what screen printing is so I can't really speak to that. Most of the vocations that I would recommend are very manual-labor intensive, like plumbing, mechanics, construction worker, welder, etc. Those are all very stable jobs with great pay.

When you were in college, what were you majoring in? How far into your degree did you get? Most universities offer free tutoring services, so I don't know why your parents were concerned over paying for tutoring. College is a very stressful time for most people, but it is only a few years and the degree lasts a lifetime! It is certainly not for everyone though.

In the end, just keep in mind that jobs are a means to support yourself and gain financial independence. Also keep in mind that even as someone who is self-employed, you are still going to be be ordered around constantly and told what to do, by your customers!