Tag / job

by Nathan Coumbe

How to get an education that pays during your quarantine

When was the last time you learned something new?

It was probably a few minutes ago when you read an article on your favorite social media site, and you weren’t even aware you were learning. Why not do it intentionally?

Learning and education don’t cease when school ends. If it does, you’ve made a choice, and you will quickly find yourself becoming obsolete.

No one cares about the degree you got 10 years ago. They want to know if you are competent in the areas needed to accomplish the kind of work you want to do.

Learning and going to school are not the same thing. You might have hated school, but you definitely love learning. School requires that you do things you hate, but you aren’t in school anymore. You can learn whatever you want to learn right now.

Always wanted to learn how to draw? Do you want to redo math, not because you have to but because you want to? Maybe you want to learn calligraphy or tennis. Perhaps you want to get a new job, but you don’t have the marketing skills needed by the company. Now is the time, and now you HAVE time.

Learning anything new is part of your ongoing education. Why not do it intentionally? What are you doing right now to invest in your own education?

I’ll give you some ideas.

How to learn for free (or at least cheaply)

  1. Read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. If you only do one thing on this list, do this one. The $10 you spend on this book will be the best investment you ever make. It will change your outlook on life, it will improve your relationships with other people, and it will revolutionize how you act.
  2. Take online courses.
    • LinkedIn Learning
    • Udemy
    • Coursera – want a recommendation? Seth Godin has the absolute best courses on Udemy. Start there.
    • Khan Academy (retake high school absolutely free and enjoy it this time)
    • CreativeLive – learn how to draw, take stunning photographs, start your own creative freelancing business, and so much more.
    • Massachussetts Institute of Technology OCW (seriously, take actual courses from MIT absolutely free)
    • edX – Speaking of great schools, this website lets you take real, full courses from Ivy League schools from the comfort of your living room for free. No strings attached. If you want a certificate to hang on your wall or post on LinkedIn, you can pay a small fee and get proof that you completed Ivy League courses.
    • HubSpot Academy – become an expert in marketing for absolutely nothing.
  3. Read books.
    • Libraries still exist. Even if they aren’t open right now, you can download e-books for free from every library in the country. Go read books on subjects about which you are curious. It doesn’t cost you a dime.
    • Download the Kindle app for free on your phone. Then buy The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Seriously. You can buy books on every subject imaginable for less than $10 each. Most of the time you can get them for $5 or even $0.99. There is no excuse for failing to read. Swap 30 minutes a day of mindlessly scrolling Instagram, and you will become an expert on a subject in a matter of weeks or months.
  4. Subscribe to magazines.
    • Read the Harvard Business Review. It is well worth $18 a month. Get an entire master’s degree in business for what you spend on lunch.
    • Success Magazine and Inc. are two of my favorites. The former will inspire you to live your best life; the latter will give you much-needed insights on how to succeed in any work or business.
  5. Listen to podcasts – again, FREE.
    • “Akimbo” by Seth Godin
    • “48 Days to the Work You Love” by Dan Miller
    • “EntreLeadership” from Ramsey Solutions
    • “On Leadership with Scott Miller” from Franklin Covey
  6. Watch TED Talks and documentaries on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video.

There is no reason for you not to come out of this crisis with new skills, new knowledge, and an unofficial masters degree in one subject or another.

Be proactive. Take control of your education today.

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Note: a few of the links above are affiliate links. I get a small commission if a purchase is made. This does not affect you in any way.

by Nathan Coumbe

Networking is terrible, but there is a better way.

Networking – the idea of surrounding yourself with lots of people who might be able to open doors for you and help you get jobs – is a terrible practice.

It sucks.

The premise is flawed; it goes against every notion and every principle of decency and humanity. To effectively network, it seems one must adopt the mindset of, “What can this person do for me? How can she connect me with the HR department at [insert famous company]? What resources can she offer me so that I can get better (more marketable and attractive to potential employers)?”

Take, take, take, take. It’s a very common practice in Social Networking – some will say, “Use [pick your Social Media poison] to grow as many potentially helpful connections as possible so that maybe one of them can help you get a job at a certain company.”

The selfish focus, the mindset of “me,” is horrid. What is worse: it often backfires and alienates those you are attempting to use for your own selfish gains.

You think these “connections” can’t read right through your message? You’re wrong.

A new way to network

I propose a new way to network – go on your LinkedIn profile and start going down the list of connections. For each one, ask yourself this question: “Can I make a contribution to this person today, and if so, how?”

One important note: this requires a paradigm shift – a genuine change in your way of thinking (here’s a post about paradigms). You cannot adopt this posture while thinking in the back of your mind, “How can I contribute in a way that will get me something later?” You haven’t actually changed anything about the process that way.

If you really want to test this out, find someone in your list of connections who truly cannot “do” anything for you, in the sense of making a connection, giving a recommendation, or helping you get a job. When you find this person, ask yourself what contribution you can make: maybe it’s a simple message of gratitude for something they posted; perhaps it’s asking how their business is performing during the current crisis.

It doesn’t have to be much – it only has to be genuine. Only you will know if your intentions are pure.

“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

–John F. Kennedy

JFK said it well, and the same message applies to networking.

Ask not what your connections can do for you; ask what you can do for your connections.

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by Nathan Coumbe

How much is enough?

I asked myself this question a few days ago and elaborated on it in my journal. Specifically, I was asking myself, “How much money do I need to make to feel like I am making enough?”

Honestly, making more money right now would not bring me any more happiness. It’s not money that my conscience is crying out to gain: it is meaning, purpose, the ability to use my God-given talents and strengths to serve and help other people.

The income I make now is actually more than enough to satisfy my needs at this moment. So why am I not doing something that fills my cup?

Have you ever asked yourself what enough is? If you made $40,000 a year, could you live on that if it meant you were doing something you cared about so much and so thoroughly enjoyed you couldn’t dream of doing anything else?

My answer is yes. Yours may be different. At a certain point, making more money is just making more money. Studies tend to cap the increase in happiness that comes from money at about $75,000.

So what goal, idea, or passion is the quest for more money preventing you from pursuing?

Are you, perhaps, an artist who wants to paint? A musician who wants to play and teach? Or are you, like me, a teacher who simply wants to teach?

Ask yourself this question: could you, honestly, make a living knowing the starting or average income that job in your head receives? Could you survive, or even thrive, if it meant you were doing what you felt passionately called to do?

The irony is most of the time when you quit pursuing money and start pursuing passion in the service of others, more money than you imagined comes into your life.

How much is enough? Could you make it doing what you love?

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by Nathan Coumbe

College isn’t the only option

A common theme today is the thought of going back to college in order to change careers or move up the ladder.

“Man, I really hate my job. I think if I went and got a degree in [insert field], I would be able to get a better job.”

“I want to change careers, but I will have to go get a master’s degree to make that happen.”

“The only way that I’ll move up in this company is if I go get my MBA.”

I’m sure you’ve heard dozens of similar comments. While this may be the prevailing idea on how to get ahead, it is wrong.

If you hate your job and want to change fields, or if you want to move up the corporate ladder, you may actually need to increase your knowledge, skills, and abilities to do so. However, a college degree does not necessarily equal increased knowledge, more skills, or higher-level abilities.

One reason is that our culture is changing so quickly; businesses are rising and falling at unparalleled rates; technology is moving so fast that the information you learn over 18 months in getting an MBA is often obsolete by the time you finish the degree. Another reason is that sitting through lectures on subjects day after day doesn’t prepare you to do the work required in the job you hope to take.

A Modern Education

So what to do instead? Well, lucky for you, there are a number of new tools at your disposal:

  1. You have books.
  2. You have the internet.
  3. You have a mouse, keyboard, and screen.

We live in a time of unlimited information – if you want to learn how to do something, a quick Google search will return more information than you could possibly consume in a lifetime.

So, if you want to level up your skills and abilities, or learn about a new field of knowledge, read five quality books on the subject. Take notes; talk with others about what you are learning, face-to-face, over Skype or FaceTime, or even through email. Doing this, you will quickly become an expert on the subject. At the same time, you can go on Udemy, CreativeLive, LinkedIn Learning, or any other online learning site and take free or low-cost courses at any time, on any subject, at your own pace! Many of these courses rival those on a university campus. Now that I think of it, you can also take a lot of free courses from reputable universities online if you really want to go that route.

What is education for?

I am by no means discounting the value of a college education. I just want it to be known that it is not the end-all, be-all for finding a better job or leveling up your career. There are so many ways to get the education that you need; it would be shameful not to look at all your options.

The purpose of furthering your education is not to get another degree; it is to develop the skills, abilities, and knowledge to do the work. If getting another degree gets you there, then go that route (and don’t borrow money to do it). But I must emphasize this: you do not need to spend 18 months without working, sitting through a lecture on soon-to-be outdated information, all to get a piece of paper that tells people you are qualified in something. Employers don’t care – they want to see projects, portfolios, and results that you have created.

So, if you want to step into graphic design, start reading books on the subject, learning web design at Codecademy, taking art lessons, and buy some online courses on the subject. If you want to get into marketing, start marketing for someone or something you believe in on a volunteer basis while you read books by Seth Godin and Donald Miller. Then, sign up for an Akimbo workshop and learn as much as you can with other people. You will spend less time, substantially less money, and learn as much, or more, than you would sitting through years of lectures.

Learning how to do the work is what’s important; how you do it is not. Let’s stop thinking that another college degree is the only way to get where you want to be. If you can show someone that you can do the job, you are qualified.

Go learn something.

by Nathan Coumbe

Solve interesting problems

One of my passions, and pain points, is the state of modern education in the US. Everyone knows that it’s not working well: children are leaving schools, both public and college-level, less prepared for careers than ever before.

The reason is simple: schools are operating on outdated modes of education in which students are taught to sit still, obey, memorize lots of information, regurgitate it on a test, and then promptly forget everything they just memorized.

The creative ones, the wiggle worms, speakers, artists, drawers, engineers – they are all stifled in the name of obedience. Yes, I realize that to have 35 kids in a classroom, you can’t have them all doing their own weird and wacky things, but answer this question for me:

When was the last time you got paid to regurgitate information on a standardized test?

What is school for? Seth Godin asks this question often. I believe the answer should be to educate and prepare children and young adults to create, innovate, contribute, and solve interesting problems for society. It is not about asking, “Will this be on the test?”

None of the “tests” you face in real life are multiple choice, with answers you found in a textbook and memorized only to forget them a hour later. When an irate customer is standing in front of you, there is no clear, right answer. There is an answer that might make things better or not; it’s up to you to figure that out.

When a new idea is dropped on your desk by a leader, you have to collaborate with your team, find and utilize resources, synthesize information, and come up with a solution for the project. How is memorizing a bunch of unrelated information that is kept separate from other information in the spirit of division called “subjects” helpful in this regard?

Why not instead teach people how to solve interesting problems? Teach how to find answers to questions on their own, how to create connections between information across varying fields and periods of time, how to think, and more importantly, how to learn when formal education stops.

Greg McKeown triggered this train of thought for me in his book Essentialism when he wrote the following:

“What if schools eliminated busywork and replaced it with important projects that made a difference to the whole community? What if all students had time to think about their highest contribution to their future so that when they left high school they were not just starting on the race to nowhere?”

Greg McKeown, Essentialism

The Industrial Age in the United States has ended; factory work is quickly becoming a thing of the past, as much as parts of our culture want to hang on to it. Our schools cannot continue teaching in the same mold as as they used to, when everyone eventually went to work on an assembly line. Employers no longer need cogs in machines; they need creative thinkers and problem-solvers equipped with the skills of communication, collaboration, analysis, leadership, and learning (yes, it is a skill).

In short, we need to teach people how to solve interesting problems.

by Nathan Coumbe

But I want it all!

Our choices seem unlimited, the resources at our disposal infinite (at least compared to other countries), and our interests are wide and varied. It’s no wonder so many of us still don’t know what we want to do when we grow up. We have too many choices, too many roads we could take.

I’m slowly coming to the realization that I cannot do it all. The many passions I have, the countless skills I want to learn, the dozens of projects I want to start and complete…there isn’t enough time in the day. My choices are either pick something, or a few things, or stop working and do a dozen things. Even then, I still wouldn’t have time to do everything (and unless one of them made money, I’d have a whole mess of problems to deal with).

At some point we have to start focusing on something. It might be the wrong choice – but you won’t know until you try. It’s that fear, the fear of making the wrong choice, that keeps us paralyzed; it keeps us from making any significant progress. We are so caught up in the future, that if we take this one path, we might fail. We might not enjoy it. Or worse…

We might get so far along the path and succeed that all the other things fall by the wayside. All those other things you wanted to do don’t happen. How horrible!

Well…maybe.

by Nathan Coumbe

What would you do all day?

If you had all the money in the world, or if money was not an issue, what would do all day?

Cats on stacks on stacks!

In the search for a meaningful career, most everyone has been asked the question, “What would you do if money was not a factor in your decision?” I have been wrestling with that question ever since I had to declare a major in college. 

For the past year, I have been struggling not to define a career, but to understand my vocation, my calling in life. This question was one I asked of myself over and over again, with rather disappointing results. The answers are always the same: read books, learn new skills such as jiu-jitsu or computer programming, study history, play music, increase my education, spend time exercising…countless other hobbies and passions could be added to this list, so I will not bore you with them. The problem I have with that question is that money is a factor in this sort of decision, so I have never really been able to take money out of the equation. 

This idea took on new life for me when somebody added a twist to the question. A friend of mine named Lindsey Strahan, who is a fantastic artist and up-and-coming graphic designer, had this same discussion with me. However, she added something to the question: if money was not an issue, what would you do all day long to help other people? The moment that she asked the question a switch flipped in my brain. 

Serving other people is what a person does with his or her calling; we cannot work or exist in a vacuum without others. We live in an interdependent world, to take a word from Dr. Stephen R. Covey and his 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Therefore, our callings, and by extension our careers and jobs, must serve other people in some way. I am not saying that we must all be involved in customer service, but to be viable in the market, our ideas and passions must help another person. 

With that in mind, I started brainstorming about what I would do all day. I realized that while on the surface all of the ideas I listed above seemed unrelated, they had a common thread weaving through them: I would spend all day learning and researching new things, new ideas, and new passions. My DISC personality profile, my StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment, and every other aptitude or personality test I had ever taken all become much clearer. I already knew my strengths, and I have always known my passions, and so I had a clearer answer than I had ever had before: I am called to be a fountain of knowledge for other people. 

This simple statement could be satisfied by so many different careers – I could be a teacher, a professor, a researcher, a librarian, an information broker, a consultant for people who need to learn how to combine this skill with that area…the possibilities are seemingly endless. There is no need to be tied down by a specific job title or role. I now know “who I want to be” instead of “what I want to be,” an idea presented to me in Dan Miller’s 48 Days to the Work You Love. Now I can make decisions on how I will make money based on my newly refined idea of my own vocation.

I hope that my struggle to answer this seemingly easy question will help others to find their vocation. So I will pose the same question to you, the reader: if money were not an issue, what would you spend your time doing to help other people? Think on that, write it down, and please feel free to let me know. I would love to hear what you’re called to do in this world. 

Until next time, keep digging!

P.S. If you would like more help finding your calling, I highly recommend Dan Miller’s book 48 Days to the Work You Love as further reading. One of my college professors referred it to me, and it has radically changed my life! It’s one of the best things I have ever purchased. Also, I really encourage all of you to follow Lindsey Strahan on Instagram @very.lindsey. She is a great artist and a wonderful friend. You will love her work!