The Education of Millionaires

My kids say I “Cry Book”. That I’m always telling them “You gotta read this book!” And it’s true. Not the cry wolf part. The “you gotta read this book!” part.

I read a lot of amazing books and it’s impossible not to become an evangelist.

But this book, for anyone who has college bound kids, is a must read. Or if you’re university bound yourself, or maybe if you are already in university and feel the bind. If you’re wondering if you’re in the right place. If you started out in Life Sciences and ended up in Latin American studies but really want to be a dancer and are working for a catering company to supplement your other part time work in the library, this book is for you.

Ellsberg, like Robert Kiyosaki before him, questions the relevance of much of what we study in school and in fact the whole higher educational system. I’ve read Kiyosaki’s rants about it and he makes a lot of great points but it was really only when I read Ellsberg’s book that it really sunk in that it’s true. The insistence that we go to university to get a good education to get a good job, is all one big (very successful) marketing job.

I’m indoctrinating my kids the same way. I have 2 university degrees from a very prestigious university. 3 of my kids are at the same institution with the 4th starting to send out applications as well. But will Caribbean studies or 20th century poetry really make any more difference in their lives than Trigonometry did?

The argument goes, university is not a vocational school. It’s a place to expand, to grow, to learn how to think. I know this argument because I spout it out too, regularly. But why, as Ellsberg points out, should our kids get into huge debt to learn that stuff, instead of learning that on their own, on the side, from the library and investing instead in stuff that will make their lives easier and better? Maybe stuff like how to invest, how to create a business, how to market, how to sell, how to speak in public effectively.

This book is full of captivating stories of high school graduates who did just fine, Dan Kennedy, Eben Pagen, Joe Polish, Frank Kern… I’ve met these guys, all hugely articulate, well spoken, well read, multimillioniares and in Kennedy’s case, a prolific author as well. Of course it’s not all about the money. But no one would argue that these master strategists were not educated. Made me think.

Please do not tell my kids about this post. I’m the daughter of a university professor, a Ph.D. in mathematics. I need to re-read the book again before I change the official party line.