Month: December 2013

True sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

    It was the end of the first half of sophomore year of college when I got my progress report: C, C-, C-. I was taking all upper division Physics classes and things were not going well. The classes were interesting and fun and I was doing horribly because I had no idea what I was doing there. I was unmotivated to continue. What was I doing? Why was I doing this? I was studying haphazardly, barely opening the books and barely trying at the homework. College was all of a sudden hard and I couldn’t answer the question of why I should put in the effort and something just clicked: I should do what my friend was doing.

      Nancy was going through a difficult time and took time off. During her time off and just like many famous people the likes of which include Steve Jobs, she took a couple classes at a community college and traveled to India. I stole her idea and didn’t enroll for the next quarter, I didn’t even go back to my job at the lab, I just took time off. I wanted to have nothing connected with my old life.

     Did I travel? No.. I wish… Instead, I took Chinese and weight training at a community college and I found a job at a MotoPhoto where I helped develop film.  I was quickly fired from that job for being late four out of five days my first week (my lax schedule at the engineering lab made me forget what it’s like to have a schedule) and after much job searching, I found a job at an Italian deli and later a second job as a parking lot attendant.

    The deli was bad. Because I was the only one who spoke fluent English, I answered phones and chopped lettuce for the sandwich line. Just like in the movie “Coming To America,” I was promoted to making sandwiches and breakfasts. I liked the people but I hated answering to a terrible boss for  minimum wage. By the time I got through my third week working 80 hours a week doing mind numbing work, I knew I needed to go back to school.

    That is what time off is about, it’s about figuring out what you want out of life so that if you know what you want to learn, you give it your all. In all honesty, after coming back, there were some classes where I did better and some in which I did worse and some I had to repeat multiple times. The important part was that I was willing to do it because I had a goal which I did not have before taking time off.

    I’m telling you this because I feel that you need to remember that there is another option during times of spinning wheels. Don’t pick a major unless you’re sure that it is what you want to do because as long as you have doubts, you will not apply yourself and you may come to regret it later. Of course some people will doubt themselves no matter what. That is natural but for those people for whom it is a constant thought, it is important to recognize that those doubts have to do with liking what you’re doing and future prospects. If you are not sure you will be successful, you need to remind yourself that the field you are in does not define your success, only your willingness to work does. However, if you’re not ready for school, if you’re not ready to work hard everyday to learn what you need to to be successful in your field, you should not be there and if nothing seems to help, you might need time off to figure things out.

   Maybe my reason for going to college was not the best. I didn’t want to be the best engineer, I just didn’t want to make minimum wage for the rest of my life. I didn’t want to become like some of my co-workers who worked hard without a prospect of a future. It was too hard working so many hours a week and not being able to save money. This was while I was single and with roommates, I thought about prospect of family and outlook became even more dim. By going back to school, I was able to get a much better job and have much more choice today. Because of my time off, I came back to school re-focused, re-freshed and  I was no longer taking my education and job as a student for granted.

Gap Year

    By 2006/2007, some colleges began to offer time off before first year of college as some do in Europe and Australia where they call it “gap year.” Some kids, who have the means, take it to travel the world while others work to save up or volunteer. If you’re intelligent enough, you can probably do the same thing and get someone to pay for it. The Blue brothers (not from the movie) who came to own General Atomics,  as students of Yale University in the sixties, paid for their flight across central and south America by writing articles for travel magazines. Additionally scholarships and fellowships exist to pay for travel and adventures.

     Another choice is to volunteer in places like Guatemala, I met lots of people while traveling through central America however it does often cost money to do that. I met two girls: Julia and Jane from Seattle in Nicaragua who were biking with two guys from San Francisco on the Island of Ometeppe in the middle of lake Nicaragua. They were there for two weeks to travel and then were to spend two more working in the fields of Nicaragua. I met a girl who quit her fashion career in Sao Paulo to work the fields on a kibbutz in the desert of Israel. And a good friend of mine Michael left his job for sever months to help build a school in Africa. School is work and sometimes you need to re-orient yourself, quit and see if your compass is in the right direction. Most of the time people come back to the same thing. Partially, because what they are looking for can’t be found somewhere else.

    One other opportunity, which I call fake time off, is Study-Abroad. You continue to take classes, you get to experience another country and another culture, you get to travel and you don’t loose time. Most people who do it do not have an epiphany, do not change course and generally have the money to afford it (or at least exploit the love and well wishing of their parents) to finance their trip. My best friend went to Costa Rica (where he lost his virginity) another classmate of mine went to Australia, and another to Italy. What most people will say is that it is the time of their life. While coaching wrestling I met many foreign exchange students and I hosted some of them and some hosted me when I went to their countries. What I noticed among them all is that they were all strong individuals who had the ability to be far from family, be independent and open themselves up to new experiences. If you are not that type of person, then I recommend even more that you do it.
People who come back from study abroad, lack that timidness and fear of traveling to far away places. They are not afraid of language barriers, customs and just facing the world. They are worldly and more mature people. So grow some new neurons and experience life! What else will you do with your life? Play video games? On the other hand, those who wanted to study abroad but never died recall it as their biggest regret of undergraduate education.

Word of Caution

How to pick one.

Double major or minor.

What to do if you feel you need to switch.

My phone rang at nine am on a Tuesday morning, rousing me from my sleep. It was my friend and business partner’s  distressed mother asking me if I could speak to her younger son. He was starting his second year of college and had no idea what he wanted to do. He called me a week later and explained that he is considering physics but wasn’t sure if he would make money at it. To me that signaled like a path of mediocrity. I asked him: what is it that you want to do? He really didn’t know, he just knew he wanted to work with other people. I gave him some suggestions of how a technical degree could come in handy and how he could do something with other people with that degree. But essentially I said “find something that you love and pursue that, you will make far more money doing something you love than doing something you tolerate.”

I have met PhD students whose funding was cut off after four years and could not get their PhD. I’ve met students who were going through the program for ten plus years and I have met students who got on the bad side of a tenured professor who would fail them and get them nearly expelled. One must navigate and tread the waters of University politics carefully.
You must never burn a bridge, no matter how shaky and keep focus at all times.
You will work like a slave for virtually no money but in the end you will be smarter, better and richer. So focus on your passion, don’t let others dissuade you and dig in. Others have done it and so can you.

This is why you have to apply to a company where you really want to work and to a company that you really believe in. Because you cannot fake enthusiasm, you cannot fake knowledge. Learn about them, know them, ask lots and lots of question and never be afraid. Fear will loose you the interview, fearlessness will just keep you from getting the wrong job. As Steve Jobs said “Keep looking, never settle” if you find your passion you will have the motivation to keep going and never stop.

Where to work:

Medium Companies

Small Companies

Christine is a smart go-getter. Her parents came from Vietnam  during the war. Her mother survived the war as a flower girl and when she arrived in the states she had no education and put Christine and two other daughters through high school in Baltimore. Christine was the oldest and the pride of the family having graduated at the top of the class and earned a spot at the prestigious University of Southern California. Christine moved to the other coast and trained to become a famous architect. She took a a year to study abroad in Italy to study how the masters built their masterpieces. She was a favorite of many of her professors and was offered jobs right out of college. She traveled the world and worked in South Korea for one of the top Architecture firms. She traveled alone through middle east on a fellowship to study middle eastern native architecture and design. She came back to jobs waiting for her in a depressed market and within a year brought her fiance from Tunisia to live with her. At the age of 27 she was earning good money at a good firm doing what she loves. She had many opportunities thanks to her studies and was living together with her fiance in a studio barely big enough for a bed, a desk and no kitchen. She has no car and sends most of her money that she makes to a bank. She has a wonderful life on one hand but her future is far from comfortable at the moment. At the age where she should be able to put money away for a wedding, for a house she is barely making ends meet because she has over $200,000 in loans which she did not realize she would have or how she would pay back. She told me that she does not regret her decision to go to an expensive school given the opportunities she now has but the debt obviously weighs her down considerably.

In 2011, colleges are financed through a form of predatory lending that is similar to the lending in the housing market, except it is worse. Unlike your college loan, with a house in foreclosure, you can walk away from your debt. The college loan creditors will pursue you across space and time: garnishing wages and collecting to the end. You can escape kids and spouses, but you cannot get away from college debt.