Is money the only measure? Is it even the right measure? This is why I have a problem with the narrowness of evaluating such things by how much they cost or how much they'll bring you. I grew up with nothing. Actually, being from a broken home on welfare, food "stamps" and Medicaid, I grew up with less than nothing. So, I'm very cautious when it comes to spending, even at my advanced age. But.... What is money for? We use money to buy experiences, experiences that generate memories that will stay with us for the rest of our lives. I would think where one goes to school and what one studies and otherwise does there would be one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences. If you're young, spend money. When you're approaching middle age, save it. When you retire, spend it again. Yes, I'm familiar with the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement. But those people miss out on a LOT of experiences when they're at the age they can enjoy them most. The concept treats work as some sort of drudgery one must escape as soon as possible, when they could treat work and play as one thing. (Work/Live Integration, not work/life balance.) But how? By seeking out work that, in sync with Ikigai, meets these four criteria: What you're really good at. What you love to do. What people need from you. What you can get paid to do. If you do that, you're not really working. It's something that's difficult to "retire" from. And the sooner you can find Ikigai, the sooner you will be acquiring experiences along the way, and not just putting them off for the very few years of your "healthspan" you'll have remaining. (I'm a Certified Professional Retirement Coach and I work with people on this very issue.) I received my education (BSc and MBA) in business. Thank goodness my career had other ideas and I thrived in the talent development field for decades. (I specialize in developing successful managers into strategic leaders.) And I didn't earn a decent salary until I was 45. But I had some amazing experiences along the way, and eventually was able to set enough aside to make retirement possible. I recently had a huge blow when my major client--the one I'd foresaken other consulting opportunities for--shut down its spending on external consultants and contractors. That had become 90% of my work (and revenues), and I'd hoped I'd be doing it until I couldn't. (By "couldn't," I thought I meant my own aging and limitations, not their financial crisis!) At 66 I'm faced with a dilemma. Do I build up my practice again? Do I hobble along with the little bit of work I have left, a sort of semi-retirement? Or do I pack it in and get in line at the Social Security office (if it ever reopens)? After getting past the shock of what seems to be the end of a 25-year-old relationship with that client, I've made my decision. Ikigai. You can, too. Work towards the future, but don't forget to live for today. And don't listen to that transactional noise about degrees and schools. Do what you think is right for you and live it out while you can.
Tacking on.... Okay, I can tell the story now. Back in 2019, I decided I'd had enough of running the bureacracy. (I was a GS-15 in the federal government, but bureaucracies are everywhere, as I saw in the military, academia, and the private sector.) Instead of giving my employer my "all," I wanted to give my clients my "best." So, I set out to design a consulting practice. One of the keys to establishing a successful consulting practice is to define your niche, your specialty, your offer. I identified three: distance education, talent development, and strategic leadership development. Well, having three niches is the same as having none, so I had a decision to make. I was educated in all three and held certifications and/or certificates in all three: BSc and MBA in Business PhD specializing in "nontraditional" higher education Doctor of Social Science specializing in human resource development (talent development) Certified Professional in Talent Development (ATD) Professional Certified Coach (ICF) Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) and SHRM-SCP (since dropped) Professional Certificate in Online Education (U. of Wisconsin-Madison) Art and Practice of Leadership Development (Harvard University) So, I settled on strategic leadership development and began to design. I self-published a book on Amazong (Purposeful Leadership Development) and went about gaining clients. But....then I got a phone call. It was the president of Bellevue University, wanting to ask me a question. (I don't recall anymore what it was.) She and I had gone back two decades and I'd designed and taught courses in a couple of their degree programs. Anyway, after answering her query, she asked me what I was up to. I told her I was designing a consulting practice and she asked me how much per month I'd need for the university to retain my services. I gave her a figure (raised dramatically over the years since) and she began paying it. That, and some business I'd developed elsewhere filled my dance card and, after a year of doing it and my job with the federal government, I decided to leave public service and focus on my consulting practice. I enjoyed the flexibility, fewer hours, and focus on delivering the best I had instead of running someone else's organization. I did some work for their continuing education department--coaching nearly 100 executives and senior managers for a company they were supporting, plus teaching some non-credit courses to the same group. And then they asked me to re-launch the Human Capital Lab. This was really in talent development, taking me out of my niche, but the work was good (and so was the money). So, I let the strategic leadership stuff stall, working with just a handful of clients and doing no business development. I was happy to push things through the Lab, and was even going to launch an executive education program under its banner...until the university got into a cash crunch and canceled their external contracts--including mine. They put the Human Capital Lab on the shelf (even though the website doesn't indicate that and still shows me as the Executive Director--which I am most certainly not any longer). Unfortunately, I had neglected the strategic leadership development niche--which is where I belonged. So, now I'm updating my consulting practice website, updating my book, and strategizing marketing efforts. In other words, the things I was doing when Bellevue and the Human Capital Lab came along to re-direct me. I've also become a Certified Professional Retirement Coach, working with several clients to help them through various career/life transitions they're facing. I hope I can get back into it all. Why write this? Oh, heck, why not? No particular purpose.
If you're thinking of starting a family, do that while you are young. Don't put it off "until the time is right". The "right" time will never arrive and we get old quicker than you think.
As someone who had kids young, I strongly second this! Raising kids takes a lot of a lot of things, but the most important of those things is energy, and for that, the younger you are the better.
