“[M]an, who has no automatic values, has no automatic sense of self-esteem and must earn it by shaping his soul in the image of his moral ideal.”
-Ayn Rand

Depression is on the rise. Self-worth is on its way out. Over 15% of people in developed countries are clinically depressed. People lack confidence in a manner that is simply shocking. We’re in the middle of a psychological crisis.

The Self-Esteem Crisis

So what’s the cause of this? Why are people so down about themselves? Here are some theories (that I disagree with) that are incredibly popular but fall short of the truth of the matter:

• It’s Just a Disease. While doing research for for the topic, I was alarmed to discover that low self-esteem is considered a disease. Coping.com argues that “Low self-esteem meets the criteria for an illness or disease.” Their reasoning was that low self-esteem wasn’t controllable, is “contagious” and often leads to death. At least they got the last part right.

• Not Enough Acceptance. One of the best “wrong” answers for the cause of low self-esteem is the lack of acceptance. If others don’t love you, your own understanding of self-worth goes down. This is true, in a sense, but it’s wrong-headed in its nature.

• Negative Thoughts. This is, by far, the biggest argument you can find in the self-improvement blogosphere. Negative thoughts are seen as the cause of all negative actions, negative consequences and negative facts. If you want more self-esteem, just think happy thoughts — your problems will be solved.

• It’s Uncaused. By far the most bizarre, millions believe that self-esteem isn’t caused. It’s just a simple choice that people make. “Hold your head up,” they say, thinking that the self-esteem crisis is just randomly caused, without any external cause.

So are these the causes of low self-esteem? Is it a disease, or is it caused by not being accepted, or negative thoughts? Or is it just self-induced by brute choice? Not a chance. Each of these “causes” are simply wrong.

The Flaws of The So-Called “Causes”

• The “Disease” Myth: This is just a play on words. It’s still “curable” by self-determination, and it’s not spread by germs. By giving it scary labels like “disease” we do nothing but encourage it, implying that there’s nothing one can do to boost one’s self-esteem. “It’s not your fault” is no way to handle personal development; honesty and responsibility are.

• The “Acceptance” Myth: In my experience, those who are literally spoiled with love end up with the least amount of self-esteem. Being loved doesn’t mean that you will love yourself. That’s just a “feel-good” logical leap.

• The “Negative” Myth: Thinking positive thoughts simply masks the underlying problem: viewing oneself to be negative on some level. One can’t force happiness, one must create happiness. Telling a slave to just “think happy thoughts” is no way to let him taste freedom. To be free you must break your chains.

• The “Uncause” Myth: Of course low self-esteem is caused by the person feeling it. The only question is … what caused them to view themselves in that light? Once again, this is a superficial view of a deep-rooted psychological flaw.

Unfortunately for millions of people, the above answers are simply wrong. To understand the real heart of low self-esteem, we have to shoot back to the basics. Why do people even function? Why do we live the way we do? Why do we make any decisions?

It’s All About Values

One of the things you’ll hear me say over and over here is that everyone acts to achieve their values. In other words, you do something because you want to achieve some lofty idea…period. You watch TV because you value entertainment/news/weather. You go to the gym because you value exercise. You buy ice cream because, well, you like ice cream. You vote because you have some sort of political or social values. It’s impossible to not make a decision without trying to achieve some sort of value.

Believe it or not, that’s a type of mini-philosophy. You have a goal, a system of thought and you work to make decisions to achieve that goal. That’s a philosophy, and everyone has one. Human beings simply aren’t equipped to function without some sort of philosophical compass. It’s just impossible.

Self Esteem and Self Value

If everyone was honest, they would admit that they hate some ideas or -heaven forbid!- some people. (Note: I’m using the word “hatred” very loosely here.) I won’t be discussing the ethics of hatred now, but talking about hate is ironically a great way to see what someone actually loves. Example: people hate cliches because they love originality. Though a bit obvious, looking at what we hate is an easy way of seeing what we love.

Low self-esteem is no different. It means that there is a lack of self-respect, a lack of self-confidence, and a lack of self-acceptance. There is a reason for this. Low self-esteem doesn’t just happen. Low self-esteem is not caused by germs. Low self-esteem is not necessarily because others don’t like us. Low self-esteem is not because we aren’t thinking happy thoughts. One’s lack of self-esteem shows what one values.

To understand the cause even more, think back to the concept we call “guilt.” Guilt is when we feel as though we have cheapened ourselves through an immoral action. It’s an automatic response to violating our own real value code. If you actually value honesty, lying will cause guilt.

In other words, we see ourselves through the lens of our values, just like we view everything else. We give ourselves self-value or “self-esteem” only on the basis to how well we achieve our own values. That’s just the way the human mind functions.

Self-esteem goes to a deep-yet-basic level. Low self-esteem simply means that one does not live up to one’s own standards. The standards might not even be conscious; the standards might be subconscious beliefs and codes that one has set for oneself without realizing.

How to Build Self-Esteem

There is no “happy” or easy solution to solving low self-esteem on any real level. It takes work, guts, responsibility and rationality. Rather than being “content” with who you are, you must either lower your values or live up to them. Lowering one’s values is outrageously difficult — “completely” lowering them might be impossible.

Boosting self esteem requires that you use reason to recognize if your values contradict. Do you value selfishness and selflessness at the same time? Do you want to have more … and want be content with less? Do you value honesty, but also social acceptance — to the level that you’d willingly “alter” your personality to please others?

Any of these conflicts, plus a myriad of others, leads to a value code that isn’t achieved. Whether you consciously realize the conflict or not, your subconscious mind knows that something is amiss. Your self-analysis will be honest on at least some level, destroying your internal dignity and lowering your self-esteem.

Who are you? What ideas do you think you represent? What kind of life do you want to live? If you couldn’t fail, what would you try? Go out and be that person. Life is all about achieving your life purpose. Your life purpose — the fundamental value(s) that you live for — is the most important thing you can ever know and achieve.

You can’t build legitimate self-esteem by pepping yourself up. You can’t build legitimate self-esteem by pretending that things are better than they are (out-of-control optimism). To have a “deep fix,” just read the tips below.

6 Ways to Boost Your Self-Esteem

The following methods for boosting self-esteem are written for someone struggling with self-esteem. Don’t take offense — they are given with tough love. I value those who suffer from low self-esteem far too much to give them an answer that will only make them feel better for a few minutes. Your goal shouldn’t be to stop hating yourself; your goal should be for your to be your own hero. Heroic living is too sacred to leave to storybooks.

• Have value-integrity. Stop caring what others think. This takes practice and will probably be the hardest thing you’ll ever do. Train yourself to become a type of social-Buddhist, detaching your own self-esteem to the whim of others. This is the first, hardest step to achieving self-pride.

• Accept responsibility. This is, on some level, your fault. It is painful to accept, but it’s true. Recognize that you and only you are responsible for your own self-perspective. How you view yourself is how you view yourself.

• Seek the truth at all costs. Reality is a brutal, tough yet concrete place. It exists, regardless of how we feel about its existence. This means that to accomplish any great thing, you must understand how reality functions. Make sure you look for the truth — even if it hurts. This is the first step to all self-improvement.

• Don’t abandon your mind. The only way to understand the truth is through reason. Make sure your values don’t contradict. Make sure your actions don’t contradict. When you start looking for contradictions, you’ll find them. Ask an honest friend what your biggest hypocrisy/flaws are. Rationally consider them, and make the right choice.

• Live up to your values. The fundamental principle for viewing yourself as valuable is to live up to your values. Discover what you believe a human being should be like, then become that human being. Achieving what you value is the only way to a guaranteed rationally high level of self-esteem.

• Do something almost impossible. The long-term satisfaction of doing something few people can do is outrageously powerful. It’s a rational sense of pride; one that can’t be shaken for years. Find some sort of competition or skill that you can master — then master it. This might take years, but it’s worth it.

Last Thoughts

Remember that there is no “easy” answer or “quick fix.” Like most things worth doing, it takes time and an outrageously huge amount of work. But it’s worth it. Rationally analyze yourself, your values and how you can achieve them. Now achieve them.

What are some other tips for beating low self-esteem? Have you had any experience with it?

Related posts:

1. Reason 101
2. The Pursuit of Happiness
3. The Meaning of Life

During such an emotional time, it’s easy for us to lose our minds. That’s the worst thing you can do. When it comes to money, your best bet is to rely on your mind through reason and rationality. Using fear in this situation will do nothing but force you along a path of seeing your fears realized — losing your shirt.

And most importantly, don’t dump the money out of your investments because they took a dip. Don’t even do it if you think we’re about to see a 5-10 year “depression” — read below for the reasons.

Look Who’s Buying

Warren Buffet just came out and bought a 5 billion dollar stake in the financial firm Goldman Sachs. That’s five billion dollars he spent buying into the system that other are scrambling to leave.

His investing philosophy is nothing but the most basic, common sense: buy low. Buy a deal. When you see a deal, buy it. If it doesn’t surge in within 12 months, it will within 24. Just make sure you’re buying into a good company that will weather the storm, and you’re good to go.

Unfortunately, most people are completely ignoring what the money mogul is doing, and are just acting on the hype of the media. Whatever you do, remember: the media’s income SOARS during financial rough times. They eat crisis for breakfast. They love it when we become frightened and are glued to the TV sets. There’s a reason they’re encouraging pandemonium.

But to the point: if Buffet is doing it, that’s at least a little evidence that there’s some justification for it rooted in long-forgotten common sense. Of course, you shouldn’t blindly follow Buffet, as brilliant as he might be. The actual justification is found below.

Selling Now Messes Everything Up

If you sell now, you’re guaranteeing that you lose money. That’s a promise. If Wall Street recovers, you’ll know how to make money online. Actually, no you won’t. But pulling out now means you can’t make money with the crisis — it makes your losses concrete and unavoidable. This means you are giving yourself a 100% guarantee that you’ve lost during the crisis. That’s not a guarantee anyone can afford.

And your actions won’t just impact you. No, there’s even more of an impact: the economy gets weaker.

The market gets weaker the more people focus on selling as opposed to buying. Demand drops. Prices drop even more. Value plummets. It’s the old bank-scare — fear literally carves it’s deathly way through the finances of an entire institution, or, in this situation, the nation.

On the other hand, the cheap stocks can help you — but not if you are the one making them cheap. Read below for the why factor.

Don’t Let Current Value Matter

Remember, current value of your stocks don’t matter unless you’re a day trader. Do you buy and sell every day? Are you focusing purely on the short-game? If you’re looking for money in the long-haul, then bailing yourself out now is the worst thing you can possibly do.

Remember, the value of your stocks ONLY impacts your lifestyle when you sell them or when you receive money from them. That’s it. Period. For example:

John buys $10,000 in stocks in Potatoes Inc on a Monday. On Tuesday, the stock market takes a 30% dip. John looks concerned. Five years later, though, the economy is fine, and John finally cashes his stocks in. He had to wait 5 years. But, he didn’t lose his $3,000 that he would have if he’d jumped ship.

Also, he had no negative impacts at all. It was like nothing happened in terms of his lifestyle. Why? Because the value of those stocks didn’t matter when they were low, because he agreed to not sell out of fear. They didn’t matter because he decided to wait — even if it would be a few years. John refused to allow fear to cheat him out of his retirement.

Values WILL Come Back

Wall Street will recover. It might take a year, it might take two — it might even take a decade. If Civilization doesn’t collapse back into Stone Age 2, then Wall Street WILL come back. This means that, if you diversified, you should be just fine. You just have to wait. Patience is a virtue.

During the Great Depression, some people got rich. Read that again — the history books never mention this. Some saw that stock values collapsed, so they took their money from elsewhere, picked companies that would come back after the depression, and put their money in them. They became filthy rich. And you can do the exact same thing.

Want to see a real-life example? We’ve already talked about it — Warren Buffet is going to make billions upon billions because people are scared stiff. Buffet is going back to the basic, basic principle that we’ve heard over, and over and over:

Buy Low.
Sell High.

Settling for anything less will destroy your finances, weaken the economy and help nothing. Don’t abandon your mind during financial hard times. Instead, focus on expanding.

So buy Stocks. They’re cheap. Don’t let fear control your finances.

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2. Save Money or Make Money?
3. Where to Find the Best CD Rates

Not everyone felt that way, of course. Whenever a topic was brought up about some social ill — terrorism, war, crime or foolish laws — the girl on the left of me would always exclaim, “I just don’t get people! Why do people act that way! Ugh — people make no sense!”

Looking back, she was dead right.

Personal Development 101: Using Reason

This article is a bit controversial but is simply essential to any real amount of personal development.

We must use reason to consistently make right choices. The most important fundamental principle of smart personal development is the foundation of reason. If we abandon our minds, our choices become random and arbitrary. The consequences to our life, then, become almost like a game of chance without reason.

With reason, we are able to more adequately understand the Universe, what’s really happening around us, and how to maximize every situation to avoid unnecessary conflicts, harming others, and achieving our own values.

This is simply an introductory post on the topic of thinking reasonably, and will focus on the general collective evidence in support of a reasonable way of thinking. In future articles I’ll explain more connections in terms of emotional, relationship and financial success. But for now, let’s take a walk through history.

What is Reason?

“Reason” simply means honest, conscious and coherent analysis. Logic is only one part of reason. For example, a decision is reasonable if it is a logical conclusion founded on:

• Knowledge. All available information must be used. If one knows that milkshakes have over 1100 calories, it would be unreasonable to drink two every day while trying to lose weight. Utilizing known facts is essential to reasonable thinking. Using reason is, in its crudest form, simply piecing together information to concoct a coherent theory.

• Honesty. Denial on any level is the enemy of reasonable thinking. If one tries to “pick and choose” which facts to acknowledge, then there’s no point in reasoning — reasoning stops being a path towards objective truth and becomes a tool towards whimsical bias. Reality exists in a concrete state whether we like it or not; we might as well make the best of it.

• Integrity. Reason doesn’t fluctuate because of political correctness. If something makes sense, then it makes sense regardless of its popularity. Reasonable thinkers “stick to their guns” when they know their position makes sense and is true — otherwise, the point of reason is completely lost.

• Independence. Reason can’t be carried out by another person, but is an internal analysis. Trusting someone else can make sense at times when they have more available information (doctors, lawyers, etc), but not for everyday living or for achieving one’s personal goals. It’s not reasonable to blindly trust another’s judgment, given the necessary elements of integrity and knowledge. Plus, how does one determine who to listen to?

• Coherency. The basic function of reason is the organization of information so that you can understand what the truth is. The reason we call this “coherency” is because of the primary test to see if your thoughts are correct: are there contradictions? A single contradiction, no matter how small, proves that the argument is flawed and needs to be fixed, because the laws that govern the Universe don’t contradict.

Reason is the crux of personal development, healthy individuals, a healthy society and success on any significant level. The abandonment of “common sense” is the leading cause of nearly all social and personal problems. In direct contrast, a life founded on reason leads to a coherent lifestyle, emotional stability, trust, healthy relationships, happiness and creation.

Intellectual “Humility”

Reason is primarily concerned with understanding reality, and supposes that reality exists outside of our minds. There are two basic positions when it comes to how we view reality:

• Reality is Concrete. If you jump from a plane you’d better have a parachute, regardless of how you “feel” or believe about the ground below. Reality won’t stop functioning the way it does because of your mind. Reality exists, regardless if you do; if you die, reality will continue. For an example of a rationalist, look to the scientists of society.

• Reality is Relative. You can change reality if you have a positive outlook (Positive Thinking), or if you wish something is true something really hard and often (the Law of Attraction). For extreme examples of people who place beliefs over reality, think of the parents who refuse to allow their children to see doctors even when they are terminally ill. Our beliefs have consequences, and sometimes those consequences are extreme.

Reasonable living supposes that we are not gods, and that reality won’t fluctuate depending on our moods, our religions, or our beliefs. Reason argues we should change our beliefs and feelings in line with reality, because reality certainly won’t change for us.

This isn’t to say that our outlook isn’t important. Stay tuned for new articles coming soon about a rational approach to the Law of Attraction and Positive Thinking. Both can certainly be helpful for achieving one’s goals — if understood correctly.

The Role of Emotion

Unfortunately, one of the most common myths of reason is that somehow one must never feel emotion if one is to be reasonable or logical. This is simply not true. Reason is how we know something is true — it doesn’t mean that we don’t feel anything. It’s very possible to rationally analyze a situation and to feel extremely passionate as well. We can certainly feel emotion while reasoning; we must accept that emotion should not be the means to the conclusion, but a consequence of the conclusion.

Along those lines, some of the most emotionally powerful instances of my life were those that were founded upon reasoning. Several years ago, when I was still piecing together my thoughts on personal development, I reached a powerful milestone; I was finally comfortable with doing something out of self-interest. Before this one moment, I would feel guilty whenever I enjoyed any activity.

Once I made the emotionally agonizing decision that making an action out of self-interest was justified, I decided to do something extremely small to prove to myself that I truly believed it. I decided to spend an entire evening simply enjoying myself with trivial amusements. I bought an iced coffee, a pizza and watched a “fun” movie alone. Though for most this would have been a silly way to live “selfishly,” it was an incredibly huge step for me in my journey of development.

It was one of the most emotionally powerful experiences I have had. It wasn’t powerful because I was living irrationally; it was powerful because I had decided to consciously and rationally alter my value code and live up to it. Emotion and reason, both in their proper place, are a powerful combo for a life well lived.

Case Study: Scientific Advances

The most important advances of the last century are the scientific achievements. The life expectancy has sky-rocketed in Western society, and great leaps are being made to find the cure for aids and the cure for cancer. It’s only a question of time before we unlock the weaknesses of both of those diseases, maintaining an even higher life expectancy.

Even beyond the basic need of survival, science has vastly increased the comfort level with widespread entertainment through Television, movies, radio, music and the Internet. Science is completely founded upon reason.

If not for knowledge, medicines could never be invented or cured. If not for honesty, we’d still think the earth is flat. If not for integrity, pain killers wouldn’t exist (pain killers were thought to be evil by many fundamentalists at the time of their invention). If not for independence, we’d see the complete collapse of all scientific endeavors.

Instead, through an appeal to rationality and comprehensive analysis, we see success. There’s a reason for it: emotions don’t help us determine what is true. Science gets results because science understands the system of reality. Science and reason are essentially of the same concept — coherently and honestly organizing information.

Oddly enough, millions see science as essential to the advancement of civilization, but see personal reason in a completely different light. It’s absurd to suppose that the same source of the advancements of civilization can’t also be a source for personal advancement.

If you want to lose weight, you look primarily for a scientific method for doing so. Scientific methods simply include acknowledging how the body operates. For example, focusing on intaking less calories through dieting, or on burning more calories through exercise; both are scientific means to losing weight, and are almost certain ways to do so.

A Society that Rejects Reason

The Age of Enlightenment is one of the most crucial turning points in the history of mankind. Throughout the 1700s, a philosophical revolution took place in the minds of millions. Dumping a blind faith in organized religion (such as the Roman Catholic church), the people turned towards reason and critical analysis.

It was upon this philosophical foundation that Western civilization came to see great advances in science, business and economy. Life is good when people think. The industrial revolution, consumer choice and an outrageously increased standard of living were the direct consequences of the philosophy based on rationality.

Since that time society has abandoned the concept that rational beliefs are the only beliefs worth having, and has moved into a more “Postmodern” society, where reality is now seen as flexible, truth as non-absolute and rationality as “cold” and unnecessarily crude. And there are consequences.

We are told “love isn’t rational”; divorce rates escalate.

We are told “morality is flexible”; kids kill kids.

We are told “happiness is an emotion”; depression stats explode.

We are told to trust our emotions first, as though we are internally created with an obvious sense of right and wrong — even though society has nearly an infinite ideas as far as what this even means, with dozens of religions, hundreds of sects and millions of people caught up in the intellectual-emotional war. Each of the thousands of “sides” simply tries to scream the loudest, claiming to appeal to basic emotions.

We’re seeing the consequences of abandoning reason. One of the “givens” of society is that “not everything makes sense,” giving an excuse for purely emotional decision making. Without a concrete reason (hence the term “reasoning”) for our actions or beliefs, we become whimsical sheep. Instead of following or concocting beliefs out of thin air, regardless of how “cold” it feels, we must come to terms with a need for rationality and reasoning.

What Next?

As I said before, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to understanding rationality. I’ll be writing more and more instructions for living reasonably; if you haven’t subscribed, make sure you do — you won’t want to miss the free guides.

Also, stay tuned for the next article in the Personal Development 101 series: understanding the need for a purpose in life — an ultimate goal that will take pain, work and years to achieve.

Related posts:

1. How to Kill Low Self-Esteem
2. The Creator Personality
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Happiness is not primarily a question of attitude, but is primarily a question of consequence.

Happiness is more than just an attitude, an outlook or a feeling – it’s something much more fundamental. Until we understand this, there’s no way to achieve happiness and get society out of the depression rut.

Is there a general principle to the cause of happiness, or is happiness simply a game of luck? Can money buy happiness? Acceptance? Why are some people depressed even though they have many friends? In this article we’ll analyze why someone becomes happy as opposed to sad, and why some actions lead to more happiness than others.

I firmly believe that the root of happiness is achieving one’s personal values, and I’ll show why below.

Short-Term Happiness

Happiness is primarily an emotion of satisfaction. It means that one is satisfied with life, an event, themselves or something else. Put bluntly, happiness is what we feel when we get what we actually want — not what we think we want, but what we actually want.

The same brand of short-term happiness can be caused by a good meal, a great hug, a caffeinated beverage, a good story, winning the lottery or saving 15% on car insurance; the possibilities are, of course, limitless.

So, this turns us to ask why on earth these events or things caused any level of happiness, short-term or other. The answer is simple: we liked the events and things. Happiness is getting what you like, whether it’s personal, social or material. If you value money, then making money increases happiness to a certain extent. Money can’t buy happiness or make you happy, but it can certainly make you more happy. The same for movies, hugs, food, hot cocoa on a winter night, or any other thing that causes short-term happiness.

Long-Term Happiness

But, of course, the above examples are causes of short-term happiness. Someone can be simply miserable with their life and still crack a smile at a joke or laugh while watching a comedy. It’s not so much the short-term stuff we are looking for so much as the long-term cause of happiness.

Oddly enough, long-term happiness is extremely similar. After all, happiness is, simplified: “What you feel when you get what you actually want.” Short-term happiness is based on time-restricted events. For example, having a cup of hot-cocoa can only cause a short-term of happiness because the cocoa was short term. The same for the hugs, movies, and any other cause of short-term happiness.

This means that the key to long-term happiness (or “real” happiness) is rooted in timeless causes. Short-term values like material things cause only short term satisfaction.

Timeless values include lifestyle values. For example, a lifestyle of personal development, productivity and creative living is constantly achieved. If you achieve your lifestyle value, then life itself is your cause of happiness, leading to long-term consequences.

Internal values such as honesty, rationality, “the truth,” morality and other fundamental values go a long way, as do large “causes.” But simply, the bigger the value the bigger the satisfaction once it’s achieved.

Concluding Thoughts

Happiness is the emotional result when we get what we actually want. It might be short-term and caused by small things like TV, food or beverages; it might be long-term and caused by lifestyle or internal values.

This causes us to move to the next issue; one that is often overlooked by psychologists, philosopher and social experts. It’s a bit politically incorrect to say these days, and is founded a bit on the principles that the founding fathers’ often believed, but is something few “experts” say in this Postmodern age.

The next article is extremely important to understand, and regardless if you agree or not, you’ll be sure to find it interesting.

Related posts:

1. Life Purpose 101
2. How to Kill Low Self-Esteem
3. The Meaning of Life

Philosophers have provided many potential answers, some orienting towards a god, others towards the soul, and others towards the natural existence. My belief rather transcends the others. The meaning of life is found when we achieve our values. Our emotional response to these achievements is what we call “happiness.”

My answer is so fundamental that it seems to be obvious. However, with outrageously increasing rates of depression and a whole culture seemingly hooked on anti-depressants, perhaps it isn’t so obvious after all.

Widespread Depression

The Western world is filled to the brim with luxuries, material products and tools for easy living. TV, the Internet, nicer vehicles, multi-million-dollar movies and mainstream music are all easily accessible to anyone who wants them.

And we’re miserable. About 15% of people in developed countries are depressed.

The causes to this emotional epidemic are often debated. Many suggest it’s mostly a biological disease. Others suggest that it’s just because we think negative thoughts, and “positive thinking” is the cure-all of depression and sadness.

Regardless, depression is on the rise even though positive thinking has exploded in popularity. I know several individuals who have literally become obsessed with “positive thinking” over the years. I’ll be writing more about this soon, but the approach simply doesn’t work. They are miserable. They spend their times trying to convince themselves that things are better rather than actually making them better.

So how can one find meaning in a world of Prozac? What’s amiss? What’s the answer to fulfillment? Why are we even here? These questions are the source of empty days and sleepless nights. This isn’t to say there hasn’t been countless attempts to answer the frustrating question.

What Does “Meaning” Even…Mean?

In the 4-Hour-Workweek, author Timothy Ferris presented a great point: the “meaning of life” question is almost self-defeating. It’s vague, implies that there must be some objective “meaning,” and even somehow emotionally suggests that if there isn’t one, then life is not as valuable.

Timothy went on to answer the question literally, which gave me a chuckle: “The meaning of life is…”, and he went on to define “life,” emphasizing the “meaning” aspect of the question. It does seem a bit vague, which is one of the reasons we often hear “fluff” answers to the pertinent question.

To make things clear, for the purpose of this site, “the Meaning of Life” shall mean “why we should decide to continue living and functioning.” Perhaps the age-old question should be, “What is the justification for life?” But regardless of the semantics of the words used, we need to understand why we wake up in the morning — and why we should.

Do we have some object to achieve while on earth? It’s been often said that on one’s deathbed, one’s life story echoes with clarity, and we realize our biggest mistakes. With that thought, let’s look at the popular beliefs regarding the “meaning of life,” to see what the right last words are.

Popular Opinions on the Meaning of Life

The following “purposes” for life are not all that there are, of course. There are literally millions, if not billions of possible answers to the basic question regarding life’s meaning. My answer is not listed below — my belief is a little more fundamental. I’ll describe in just a bit.

• Live for Others. The purpose of your life is to serve others selflessly. Your goal is to end your life being able to say, “I served others well.”

• Live for God. The purpose of your life is to serve God well. As the Westminster Confession of Faith reads, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy Him forever.” Typically, the incentive for serving God is found in both spiritual and physical means, such as threat of a fiery hell, a beautiful heaven or peace on Earth. Your goal is to end your life being able to say, “I served God well.”

• Live for Acceptance. The purpose of your life is for people to accept you (as a friend, as a success, etc). Action should constantly be for the opinions of other people. Your goal is to end your life being able to say, “I was loved.”

• Live for Materialism. The purpose of your life is found in new clothes, nice cars, big TVs, huge houses and diamond rings. Your goal is to end your life being able to say, “My toys are bigger.”
• Live for Self-Indulgence. The purpose of your life is found in whatever you want on impulse. See something you just can’t live without? That’s what life is about! Life is about alcohol, promiscuity, parties and a mixture of acceptance and materialism. Your goal is to end your life being able to say, “That was fun.”

• Live for Survival. Life has no real purpose other than continuing the survival of the species. Your goal is to end your life being able to say, “We aren’t dead yet.”

• Live for Nothing. Some individuals claim that there is no meaning to life, no life purpose. There’s really no point.

• Live for [INSERT VALUE] There are, of course, thousands of other thoughts on this topic. Interestingly enough, nearly every one implies another even more fundamental meaning, as we’ll talk about below.

Do these “meanings” have anything in common? Are there any real reasons to believe that any of the above ideas are the real purpose for life? Yes and no.

The Fundamental Value

Of course, rather than just sift through plausible answers to the question, we should have some sort of justification. And what are the justifications given for the above meanings?

Living our lives serving others, we are told, causes us to feel great fulfillment. We feel better about ourselves, about others, and about life. In other words: the best the “serve others” philosophy can do is tell us to follow the path for the sake of empathy. In the end, it still comes back to us having some sort of incentive (enlightened or otherwise) to take action. “Service”, ironically, is founded upon personal incentive — selfishness.

The “self-interest” theme is found in all of the other life “meanings.”

“Serve God or you go to hell,” the religious explain, beckoning you to appeal to your own selfishness. Heaven is a great place, so you should follow God. You don’t want to go to Hell so follow God. God has a great plan for you. Follow God so He can love you. Each of these religious appeals is an appeal to self-interest.

This is not at all to suggest that it’s wrong to follow a religion out of self-interest; self-interest is simply the foundation of these appeals. This means that, if anything, the religion makes sense because it appeals to your self-interest.

Of course, this begs the question: “What is “self-interest?”‘ That’s a complicated way of saying that selfishness is when you do something because you want, or, more exactly, self-interest is an action one takes to achieve one’s values.

Being “selfish” does not necessarily mean harming others or not loving anyone else. That’s silly. It’s very possible to help others while still acting selfishly. For example, one can selfishly create a business for profit, yet still offer great deals and service, in turn helping others. Selfishness simply means “self gain.” Few philosophies or religions, if any, attack the idea of enjoyment, happiness or simply getting what you want. What these belief systems do attack is the idea of harming other people.

If anything, one can selfishly love others. The two are not opposite at all. The philosopher Ayn Rand explained:

“Love is an expression and assertion of self-esteem, a response to one’s own values in the person of another. One gains a profoundly personal, selfish joy from the mere existence of the person one loves. It is one’s own personal, selfish happiness that one seeks, earns, and derives from love.”

Everyone Tries to Achieve Their Values

One aspect of human behavior is simply nonnegotiable: People will always act in the cause of self-interest. One of the basic principles of economics is that everyone acts in terms of incentives — they act on the basis of potential gain. The gain might be financial (business leaders making a “profit”), emotional (we show love to others because we enjoy loving them) or other incentives. Regardless, the incentives are there.

Acting in “self-interest” simply requires one to focus on one’s own values. The cause of your values might be external, such as a God, a social group, the government or some other source. Regardless of the cause, the values are still yours.

Values might include “receiving love”, “protecting family”, “spending money”, “taking care of your body”, “drinking alcohol”, or anything else, big or small. The values don’t necessarily have to make sense to exist, but they are still individualized to every person. All of your actions reflect an appeal to these ideas; you act to achieve your own values.

Fact: All people act to achieve their values, pure and simple.

Every action you have ever taken was a reflection of your own values. Babies explore to satisfy their curiosity; men watch football to satisfy their value of competition; teenagers chat to satisfy their value of companionship; etc, etc.

This is why all of the above philosophies appeal to self-interest — it’s impossible to not. Even when a beggar asks for money, there must be some sort of incentive to the person who gives. You might feel duty to the poor, you might feel empathy towards another human being or something different entirely. Regardless, there still must be some correlation between what you do and what your values are.

Last Thoughts

This is just the beginning of a series of articles on what “happiness” really is, how to fulfill your life’s purpose, and how to live the way you need and want. Just remember: every action you take says something about your internal belief structure. This is why we hear “ideas matter” all the time. Ideas do matter.

Interested in learning more about this view of satisfaction? I’d love to have you join the journey. Just enter your email below and I’ll make sure you get the updates to the series.

Related posts:

1. Life Purpose 101
2. The Pursuit of Happiness
3. How to Kill Low Self-Esteem

But we aren’t talking about money in and of itself. Is it okay for you to amass wealth? Is it moral to own a BMW? To have a bank account with enough funds to allow three other people to retire? Shouldn’t you give your money away when you spend it? Aren’t you an evil, unfulfilled person when you do well?

You aren’t evil if you are financially well off. It’s perfectly moral to be rich. In fact, it’s part of the American Dream. If you believe serving others is the foundation of morality, it’s still moral; wealth almost automatically ends up helping others. That’s just how the economy works.

Below are five reasons I support the idea of building wealth here at Personal Development.

1. You’ve Earned It

As we discuss in Why Some People Always Succeed, success comes to those who focus on creation. Always making things better, trying new ideas, focusing on productivity; the creator nearly always succeeds in the long run.

On a similar note, the opposite individual will not succeed. Short of winning the lottery, lazy, uncreative people never become wealth. They never build a passive system of income (something I’ll be writing about in the future). People who don’t create won’t win.

This means one fact: if you’ve built your wealth, you deserve it. With a few exceptions (an inheritance, the lottery), those who have built wealth did so by helping society as a whole, strengthening the economy, creating jobs and helping others.

Reality rewards creators. There’s a reason high-paying jobs are high paying. CEOs, investors, webmasters, managers, business owners, authors – all of these individuals build wealth through creation.

If you end up rich, chances are you’ve earned it and then some.

2. Don’t Worry, Be Happy

One of the most puzzling myths in our culture is as ironic as it is puzzling. Western society is the richest society in the history of the world, yet it’s uncommon at all for individuals who live in the relative luxury to make claims such as, “Money doesn’t buy happiness.” Of course, they are absolutely right. Money is a tool, and can’t guarantee happiness. There are many rich people who are unhappy. There are also many poor who are unhappy as well.

This doesn’t mean, however, that money can’t increase your happiness. Money isn’t everything, but of course it helps.

SmartMoney Magazine actually wrote a bit about this in one of their recent articles:

“It may not be comforting to folks who aren’t minting cash, but the rich really are different.”There’s no group in America that’s happier than the wealthy,” says Taylor, of the Harrison Group. Roughly 70 percent of millionaires say that money “created” more happiness for them, he notes.”

Interesting word choice, isn’t it? Money “created” happiness for people who created money. Creation is one of the fundamental “purposes” of all persons. I’ll be talking about this in the future, so make sure to subscribe at the end of this article.

In the end, it should be fairly obvious why creating significant wealth can lead to at least an increase in happiness. You don’t have to worry about credit card debt, making the mortgage payments, saving enough to stay in style. Money makes life easier.

3. Being Rich Doesn’t Harm Others

There seems to be a rather baffling view when it comes to money. Perhaps we should blame it on the educational system; the view could be extinguished with a healthy dose of basic high-school level economics. The view is this: If someone is rich, that means someone else has to be extra poor. This simply doesn’t reflect the way the economy works.

An “economy” is basically money flow. It’s a question of how money moves from one person to the next. Just being “rich” doesn’t mean that the poor have less money, or that someone else will be struggling. There are several reasons for this, including more than even those listed below. The few listed below are just the tip of the economic ice-burg for why every economy simply benefits from the wealthy.

No Cap. Put simply, there’s no reason to think that because someone has two dollars that someone else is two dollars short. The reasoning is simple: the impact of every dollar is much, much bigger than the “static” amount of money that exists.

For example, I have a couple of hundred in my wallet. By the end of week, I’ll have spent it and someone else will have it. Next week, another person will have the hundred. After that, another person will have the money, and so on and so forth. This means that the “real” impact of every dollar is much, much greater than whatever is sitting in my wallet.

If I have ten bucks or a thousand bucks, in a few weeks someone else will have it regardless. This is money-flow. Rich people aren’t financial black holes, sucking money from the economy. If anything, the rich are often the creators that we talked about in Why Some People Always Succeed.

New Business. If everyone is barely scraping by, paycheck to paycheck, new businesses won’t be created; there wouldn’t be enough money saved up to handle the necessary costs. “Risky” ideas that only venture capitalists would support will never happen, period. Eventually, the economy will collapse without growth.

This means the exact opposite happens with the wealthy, supposing a free enterprising system like the one in the United States and a lot of Europe; the wealthy can launch businesses much quicker. The same goes for you. The more you have the more you can create. The more you create the more the economy benefits.

Jobs, business, choice; these are the end result of creators doing what they do best: create, build,
produce and achieve.

In short, if you are wealthy, it’s not because you are evil and want to suck money away from everyone else while laughing evilly on the way to the bank. Creators always end up creation creations which in turn cause more creation.

4. Got Money? Give More

In an odd paradox, the “super poor” often get more money due to some people having a boat-load of money. The lower and middle classes are usually focusing on making ends meet, as we talked about in “Save Money or Make Money.”

One of the consequences of working just to stay afloat is that there is rarely enough to pass on through charity. Almost all of the inheritance will go to making sure the kids and family have a little to make it on. Almost all of the week’s earnings go to food, transportation (I spent $4.08 on gas, today), housing and other basic expenses.

Now take a look back at someone like Warren Buffet. When he dies almost the whole 50+ billion are going to charity. The same goes for Bill Gates and a slew of others. There’s a reason hospitals name wings of new buildings after successful individuals, there’s a reason we see scholarships named in the honor of a rich person: being rich means you can help in a big way.

This isn’t to suggest that I’m trying to paint wealth as something purely selfless. Of course it’s selfish to make money. And that’s a good thing. Just read below.

5. Everyone is “Selfish”

This is the part where we’ll focus on the personal development side of the entire idea. Nearly everyone in popular culture claims to support “selflessness” while condemning anything done for “profit” or “selfishness.” The idea that “selfishness” = “evil” is so entrenched in our culture and society that challenging is considered absurd.

A few months ago I watched a video on YouTube where a young philosopher was attempting to explain why selfishness can certainly be justified. A video response to the philosopher showed someone passionately against what was being argued. The entire response looked something like this: “You can’t just be selfish! I mean, it’s just that it…just, well, it just sounds so selfish.” There wasn’t a reason given.

The truth is, everyone is “selfish” to a certain degree. I’ll be writing a more detailed article explaining this in the future, but for now, let’s just take a step back and look at, well, everyone.

TV is not necessary; neither are computers, snacks, desserts, “fun books”, most magazines or nearly every hobby in existence. Is it wrong to utilize these things, or take these actions? It would be hard-pressed to find anyone who would suggest so. Even still, these things are certainly selfish.

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying oneself. We’ll be going into more detail about this in future articles so make sure to subscribe. I’d love to see your thoughts, so stay tuned.

Being rich doesn’t require that anyone is harmed. Wealth is built through helping others. Creators deserve to be wealthy; creators have earned their wealth. Having wealth means you are more able to help others.

Bottom line: whether you want to help others or help yourself, being wealthy gives you more potential for doing accomplishing your goals.

Related posts:

1. Save Money or Make Money?
2. Personal Finance: Don’t Be So Defensive
3. The Creator Personality

True. Everyone should live below their means, in a way. But the expression is wrong headed because it implies focusing on “living below” rather than “earning more.”

This article will argue that rather than focusing on spending less than we earn we should focus on earning more than we spend. — for example, we should try to make money online. Semantics aside, this attitudinal difference is vital for long term material success.

The Perspective of a Miser

The perspective of the miser is someone who has determined that they’ll make ends meet by making it easier to meet them. Skimping out, drinking water, smaller meals, slower internet, hunting for cheaper gas; these are “defensive personal finance” measures.

Of course, these measures do work. That’s a given. You are most certainly going to have an easier time when it comes to paying the bills if the bills are smaller — this is especially true if you make money online.

“Making ends meet” is the art of making sure your financial income is the same or better than your outgo. As long as your needs and your earnings are at least matched up, you’re good to go.

Sort of.

If you focus exclusively on “making ends meet” you’ll be working harder in the long run. The reasoning is simple: your needs are relatively static. You need food, housing and transportation. Your income is typically also fairly static: you get a paycheck.

Focusing on “saving” your way to real success within a long period of time is possible with almost any income. It just costs more in terms of lifestyle. For the lower-class, investing means smaller meals or some other inconvenience.

Is there a better way to focus? Absolutely. But first, let’s do a background look at a specific kind of individual: the creator.

The Perspective of a Creator

There are dozens if not hundreds of “personality type” quizzes that can be found online. I admit, I’m often a sucker for them. But the profound difference between people isn’t usually listed in the test results because not any one personality typically succeeds. You can do well as an extrovert, an introvert, someone who focuses on sensing or someone who focuses on intuition. Almost any personality can succeed by focusing on its strengths.

But there is one way to almost guarantee success, and that is to adapt the personality of a creator.

A creator is someone who simply can’t function with the “same-old, same-old” and demands creating solutions and increasing efficiency at everything.

A creator is someone who feels like every action they take must bring about both short-term and long-term results.

A creator is someone who feels like wasting time and effort is a great crime, and seeks to maximize his or her time on earth.

For a more comprehensive analysis of the creator personality, read Why Some People Always Succeed. I detail exactly what I mean by a “creator.” The article is a must-read for anyone who’s tired of not reaping the benefits of financial success.

Choose Now: More Pain or More Money?

What I’m about to say does not mean you shouldn’t try to cut expenses for the sake of your budget. This is a necessity for most people. If you’re at a place where you need to drink water when you eat out, that’s perfectly fine and you should certainly do so.

The following is simply the proposal of a different perspective.

Warren Buffet didn’t become Warren Buffet because he only drank water at McDonald’s. (Though, to be fair, Buffet does routinely shop at Sam’s Club, a discount warehouse. Not the usual for a guy worth 50+ billion dollars.)

Steve Jobs didn’t become Steve Jobs because his car had above-average fuel efficiency.

No, the successful don’t get that way by skipping meals, or eating cheaper. That’s a way to make ends meet. It’s important for many (or most) people. But it’s not a good long-term game plan. It’s the best way to live in regards to the next round of bills.

The key to financial success isn’t about scrimping and cutting costs. That’s how you stop yourself from going bankrupt. Not going bankrupt is a lot different than being successful.

How to Make Money

There are always principles to how any function operates. Just ask a mathematician. These principles work in business, personal development, personal finance, basketball, style; you name it, there are principles. Here are some of the essential principles of building wealth:

• Become a Creator. Creators create where ever they go. They walk into a room and have to make one thing better before they leave. They spend all day focusing on productivity. They don’t get hung up on email, or funny vids on YouTube. They can’t help but rise to the top.

• Dump the Shackles. Society is filled with weird beliefs and presumptions that are simply foolhardy. I’ll be writing more about the following specifically, so make sure to subscribe. Each of these shackles, if believed, can destroy your financial future, period. Thee following “shackles” are completely wrong:
  1. You aren’t self employed.
  2. Not everyone can be rich.
  3. Wealth “just happens” to some people.
  4. You can’t “get rich quick”, and anyone who says so is a scammer.
  5. You can’t do well without a college degree.
  6. You shouldn’t focus on money.

• Build a Network. Remember, an economy is a social structure. Making money requires other people. If people like you, they’re more likely to give you breaks, do business or help you out. Besides, networking can’t hurt you.

• Passive. Income. A passive income is an income that’s going to come in even if you decide to take a 6-month break. Investments, owning a “hands-free” business, a website; all of these are fantastic ways of building your income. The great thing about a passive income is that it always grows. You can only move up.

Thinking beyond the culture norms, networking, focusing on a long-term income model, constantly looking for creative ways to be productive are all vital elements of building wealth. Master one, and your income will increase over the long run. Master them all and nothing can stop you.

Don’t focus on being a miser. Focus on being a creator. Don’t focus on scrimping your way to the top. Just build your way there.

Related posts:

1. 5 Reasons You Should Get Rich
2. Personal Finance: Don’t Be So Defensive
3. The Creator Personality

The creator is someone who always adds value. Always. The creator is constantly putting something valuable together, whether it’s a product, a job or a plan.

Creators can’t help but succeed because our economy rewards value; if one makes something valuable then people will want it. When people want it, they’ll pay. Value and profit go hand-in-hand.

Building wealth requires having the mindset of a creator.

This isn’t just about starting a business. This article will focus on how to be a creator in the “everyday” workplace. No product-line required.

Value Creates Profit

Our economic system rewards value. A product will not exist if no one purchases it and no one will purchase a product if they don’t believe it has value.

The iPod, best-seller books, designer clothes and other products only exist because people will purchase them. Make a cruddy product that simply doesn’t work to any extent and you won’t do as well as you would if you offered value.

Coca-Cola got where it’s at today because of a consistent taste and because of incredibly creative marketing towards the start of the mega-company’s existence. Value created profit.

The Internet was a mess before Google decided that a search-engine based on rewarding “popular” content would be valuable. Value created profit. A lot of profit.

When it comes to business, there’s an entire branch dedicated toward convincing people that the product is valuable. Marketing is founded on this premise: you should spend money (give us profit) because we’ll give you value. And it works.

People like value. People flock to value. People pay for value.

This isn’t just for business owners. The principle is much, much more basic than that. Understanding and emphasizing value is the crux of all achievement by anyone, not just for a business operator.

Creators Eventually Succeed

A creator who works as a webmaster who has a website is constantly adding valuable content to his website. This in turn will cause other webmasters to link to his website, which generates traffic, which causes more links — you see the point. Considering traffic means money, that’s success.

A creator who works as a grocery stocker is constantly analyzing how the organization of the store-rooms is done, looking for ways to add value to the system. The stocker will be promoted because people who promote value help the company. The higher he goes, the more profit the company makes.

A creator who works in an office discovers more efficient ways to use the technology and actually “get things done”…within reason.* With such efficiency more opportunities and resume’ builders will come along. Remember, the more you get accomplished while at work, the more responsibility you can take on. This is long-term prep for a job transfer.

Creators can’t help but succeed. If they’re workers, they’ll become managers. If they’re managers, they’ll become owners. If they’re associates, they’ll become partners.

Become a Creator

Want to do well? Become a creator. Becoming a creator is outlandishly difficult; it requires completely throwing off the typical “worker mentality” and replacing it with the philosophy of achievement. Read below for tips on how you can start looking at the world through the eyes of a creator.

Don’t Watch the Clock. Have you ever been to a store that closed a few minutes early, because the manager stepped out and the employees wanted to quit a bit early? The employees might think they are acting selfishly and are getting what they want. They aren’t.

The “clock-watcher” mentality is the anti-thesis of the creator. The creator goes to work for the ability to add value as habit, not to work just long enough to run out the door the moment the clock strikes five.

Keep Your Eyes Open. There are always dozens of ways that we end up wasting time and doing thing inefficiently. The key to creating a more productive workplace in order to free up time and get noticed by superiors is to constantly look for those flaws. You know they’re there; what are they?

Do Something Weird. Weird things can save time and create “something from nothing.” I once found out a friend wanted a website designed, so I volunteered to do it for $250, about half of what she was prepared to pay. She was delighted, of course, and I promised to have it done within 24 hours.

One small glitch: I don’t know how to design websites. So I Googled “outsource web design” and found an incredibly professional firm that agreed to do it for $75. Within 24 hours I made $175 because of 3 emails. In a few days I’ll be talking about outsourcing, so make sure to subscribe so you can read it; outsourcing can literally change your life.

Be the Best. Nearly every work-force has different levels of workers. The better and more knowledgeable the worker, the more likely that worker will be seen as the leader. Be the best, get the best.

Give Up Lunch Hour. If you spend an hour every single day brainstorming how you can find away to build a passive income source (I’ll be writing more about this as time goes on) you’ll find one eventually. If you spend an hour every single day in conversation with your significant other, you’ll build an incredibly stronger relationship.

Want to learn the guitar? An hour a day is more than enough time. Want to build a high-traffic website? Five hours per week is more than enough time as long as you don’t hurry. (I’ll be writing more about building a high-traffic website business later on!)

An hour every day is a lot of time. Over a year, it’s hundreds of hours. Over a lifetime, it’s literally months of potentially pure productive action. Don’t waste your lunch hour just mindlessly munching; find a way to turn that hour into something productive. The results will be nearly instantaneous.

You can eat and achieve at the same time.

The Results of Productivity

My father is one of the greatest success inspirations I ever hope to have. He’s been the master of getting “little things” constantly done so he has time for the “big things.” He married my mother when he was 19 and broke. They worked on discovering productive ways to get things done ever since.

I didn’t come up with the above ideas; my father lived them. He moved from the DJ of a small AM radio station to the manager of all of the radio stations in the area in just a few years. He now owns his own radio incorporation known by nearly everyone as being the most professional “get it done” business in the state.

There are literally millions of individuals who have done the same. I have yet to meet a self-made millionaire who didn’t succeed in the same manner. Learn to be a creator and create your own success.

Related posts:

1. Save Money or Make Money?
2. 5 Reasons You Should Get Rich
3. Rethinking College, a Series of Articles

“The debt is just short term”, “it’s the only way to get the job you want”, “you’ll never make any money without a degree” are common college myths. Let’s discuss the most important: whether a college degree is worth going into debt over, and what the alternatives to college debt are.

College Is Expensive

Education costs are spiraling out of control. A recent report by CNN’s Money Magazine even quotes the former U.S. Department of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education as saying:

“If college costs continue to escalate at this rate, you may reach a point where the investment simply isn’t worth it.”

Have you reached the point where spending the money simply isn’t worth it? How do you know when you’ve reached that point?

It doesn’t take a PhD (pardon the irony) to acknowledge the incredibly increasing costs of a college degree. Money Magazine reports that the college costs are increasing four times the rate of inflation.

Private institutions charge an average of over $20,000 per year for tuition alone, meaning lifestyle costs aren’t factored in yet. All in all, going to school can cost up to $50-100,000. In order to understand this number, let’s take a step back and analyze three factors.

College Debt Ruins Lives

These aren’t just scary numbers; behind every debt statistic are thousands ruined lives. Take Kristin Cole, for example, as reported by The Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Kristin Cole, 30, who graduated from Michigan State University’s law school and lives in Grand Rapids, Mich., owes $150,000 in private and government-backed student loans. Her monthly payment of $660, which consumes a quarter of her take-home pay, is scheduled to jump to $800 in a year or so, confronting her with stark financial choices.

“I could never buy a house. I can’t travel. I can’t do anything,” she said. “I feel like a prisoner.”

The college myth proclaims that the debt is just short-lived. For many, this simply isn’t true. SmartMoney reports:

Vickie Hampton, an associate professor of financial planning at Texas Tech University, knows that being well educated can make you poor. A colleague of hers, she says, racked up more than $100,000 in debt while earning a Ph.D. in English. “There’s very little probability of her paying that off in her lifetime!” Hampton says.

Lifelong-debt is no laughing matter. College debt is destructive on two levels:

• Current funds. A portion of your paycheck will go to the debt, meaning a house, nice car and everyday luxuries simply might not be open to you for years.
• Future Funds. A dollar of debt is an anti-investment. Over the course of one’s life, investing $1 at 18 or so means having roughly $10 at retirement given 5-8% return. This means that spending $100,000 for college is actually spending $1,000,000 in terms of actual spending money later on. That’s without factoring in interest, meaning the actual figure is much higher.

But the college myth proclaims that it’s a necessary evil. Without that degree, you’ll be financially backward for the rest of your life, so goes the myth. This simply isn’t true as we discussed earlier in the article Most Don’t Need a College Degree.

So what are the alternatives to college debt? Is there a way of getting the degree without racking up the costs? Remember, debt is always a choice because there are always alternatives to debt.

Alternatives to College Debt

Debt is most certainly not the only option when it comes to paying for college. If anything, college debt should be the last option. I personally chose to go completely without debt — I’d choose no degree over substantial debt for a degree.

As far as the actual alternatives:

• State Schools — State schools average a little over $6,000 per year, with private institutions at over $20,000. Less prestigious? Probably not $50,000+ worth.
• Community College — Community colleges can be extraordinarily cheap because they serve in the function that a real college should: to give anyone and everyone an education. No elitism, just a cheap education. Don’t think that it’s so less prestigious that you can’t make it in the real world; some places, including Stanford, accept some community college students.
• Pay-As-You-Go — This seems to be a forgot method. Paying for a year, taking a year off, saving money and paying for another year. It might take a few extra years, but the end result is absolutely no debt. Oddly enough, this can actually be much, much cheaper than going into debt.
• Scholarships — There are literally tens-of-billions of dollars in scholarships. The VFW, Target, Wal Mart, Coke, almost every company and organization gives out scholarships. If you have a great writing ability, there’s almost no excuse for not making use of the scholarships. In the next article I’ll show how you can search for your own using online databases, so make sure to subscribe.
• Don’t Get a Degree — I’ll be one of the few who would actually suggest this: statistically, most of the readers of this article don’t need a degree to become successful. Most people don’t have a degree, and if you decide that entrepreneurship is for you that’s another reason to not worry about the expense. Instead of paying for your degree, you could save the 50k and put it towards starting your own debt-free business.

Significant debt isn’t necessary to get a degree. Using the methods above, one can completely skip the decades of having the debt on the back of one’s mind. Debt destroy’s lives and ironically destroy’s one’s ability to succeed, if the debt is large enough. Don’t go into debt for college unless absolutely necessary.

I’ll be writing more about rethinking popular college beliefs, including specific ways to find great scholarships regardless of your skills or portfolios. Make sure to subscribe below!

Related posts:

1. Most Don’t Need a College Degree
2. Rethinking College, a Series of Articles
3. Save Money or Make Money?

My reasoning was fairly simple, though the reaction I get from most people is something along the lines of: “What? You can’t be serious! A college education is the only way to make money! People without degrees fail!” Heeding this fear-mongering myth, many students my age are spending $50,000+ each on their degrees; some will spend more with graduate and post-graduate studies. But is it worth it?

College has become a kind of a rat-race; the value of a degree is often based on social perception rather than concrete education. The nicer the college one is accepted to, the better one looks, the more likely one is to get a job — at least, thus goes the general belief. This is actually not entirely true, as we’ll be discussing in a bit.

College Isn’t Necessary for Most

Of course, a degree is sometimes necessary. Doctors, lawyers, engineers; many occupations require a degree. But you don’t need a business degree to get into business. You don’t need a degree in web design to get into web design. You don’t need a degree in philosophy to flip burgers. Just kidding!

Degrees can certainly be helpful, but for most it’s simply not needed. Jobs that require degrees are a minority, not a majority of jobs.

Bottom line: chances are, you don’t need a degree. But, in some industries, most individuals have one. The only question is: did the workers in the industry really need the degrees or did the workers just end up with one? This of course, begs another question…

…What Are Employers Actually Looking For?

My father is a businessman, working years in sales and management. He worked his way from the bottom to the top, mastering every step of the journey until finally owning his own business, an oldies radio station in a resort community nestled in the Ozark Mountains.

While I worked in his office I had the opportunity to talk with several millionaires and a great many other successful businessmen. Small talk, when involving at least one teen, almost always gravitates toward the topic of college plans so it was no surprise when the topic came up with these individuals as well.

Surprisingly, nearly all of the successful people smirked at the idea that a college education is necessary to succeed in business. “Nobody,” they said, “cares if you went to Harvard. Your boss just wants to know: do you know how to do your job? If so, you’ll do fine. Period.” It’s no wonder that they had their position, as some had degrees in business, and couldn’t point to a single place where the degree was helpful.

As the old adage goes, “Good help is hard to find.” It’s true. In some regions, over-employment is wrecking havoc on businesses; there aren’t enough workers to go around. Any young individual who knows how to get the job will not be looking for a job.

This isn’t to say that unemployment isn’t also a problem. Any business owner or manager can tell you that it’s easy to have plenty of applications but few individuals with what it takes to get the job done up to standard. We may or may not have an unemployment problem, but there’s always going to be a shortage of great workers who desire excellence and apply themselves in everything they do.

Of course, having a degree can certainly help you even get the interview when applying for a job. More on that below.

Why Degrees Help Your Salary

There’s an incredibly strong correlation between having a degree and having a high paying job. Note: that’s a correlation. This doesn’t mean that the only reason those with a degree are getting paid more is actually the degree.

After all, who’s more likely to go to college and graduate with the degree, a self-starter or someone with little work ethic? The correlation is largely caused because self-starters are already more likely to attend college in the first place and would have been likely to succeed anyway.

Along those same lines, in order to understand exactly how a college education will help you earn more, we need to see when and how that happens. We know the degree probably isn’t going to magically give you a higher wage. We know the degree isn’t going to mean that you will master your profession; a degree won’t do the work for you.

The degree can increase your lifetime earnings by:

• Giving You an Interview – By opening up jobs that you wouldn’t have had the resume to otherwise even send in an application. Basically, a 4-year, $50,000-150,000 resume stuffer.
• Giving You “Experience” – By giving you knowledge of the field, you’re more likely to start with higher wages than someone without a degree. Basically, it gives you a head start. But is it a four-year head-start? That’s a gamble.
• Giving you the Access to the Field – Of course, there are some fields that one simply needs the degree to enter, period. Law and medicine are two classic examples.

It can’t be denied that college can be helpful and is often vital to getting a job in a highly competitive field. But looking at the actual root of this helpfulness can bring us to much cheaper and less risky alternative.

Like what?

Several months ago I read the story of a budding businessman who wanted a job with a high-class firm that was simply out of his reach. But he got in. How did he do it? The same way you can: Offer to “intern”, free of charge, for a month. That’s an almost guaranteed way to land any job. It’s a way of getting past the “must pay employees” law that exists: offer to work for free.

Once your employer sees that you mean business (no pun intended), there’s no way they’ll let you leave. Think this sounds expensive? College is much worse. A month without pay might mean a $4,000 cost to you. College would take four years and at least $50,000, without scholarships.

Sometimes “oddball” alternatives get the same results with $40,000 and four years to spare.

Let’s Be Smart About This

A friend of mine recently told me the story from when she worked at McDonald’s back when she was still in high school. Someone came along and applied for a job. Under “educational experience”, the individual listed a 6 year degree in Calligraphy.

They hung the application on the wall and had quite a few chuckles.

They laughed because the degree was absurd and stereotypical. There are precious few things one can do with a degree in Calligraphy. Spending $50,000 was probably a bad choice. The individual could have simply learned the trade without the degree, and saved thousands.

Don’t go to a degree it isn’t necessary. If it is necessary, and you can make your money back with a typical job in the field you’ll be getting your education in, then go for the degree. Just rationally analyze your situation, your goals and the necessity of the degree, and you’ll be fine.

Find time to browse through the absolute student’s marketplace where one can sell used college textbooks through the sell back program at Valorebooks.com!

This is part of a series of articles on Rethinking College. Make sure to read the other articles in the series to learn more about how to make rational choices about a college education.

Related posts:

1. Don’t Go Into Debt for College
2. Rethinking College, a Series of Articles
3. Save Money or Make Money?