How to Build Up Your Life from Nothing.

Metallicman ^ | 10JUL18 | editorial staff

[vannrox]

Here are my thoughts on what a young man can do to build up his life when he exits school. It does not matter if the school is college, High School, or elementary school. There comes a point in time when you need to make the transition from a student to a worker.

Everyone has their thoughts on this. Here are mine.

What Can we do?

If you are a millennial, and you do want to work and provide a living, but cannot then you need to seek out help and advice. Do not try to do it on your own. Ask for help. Keep asking until someone helps you. People will brush you off. Ignore them. Get answers get help.

Do not be passive about it. Ask for help. Go to different people. Go one by one. Keep on trying. Keep going until you have someone willing to help you.

Don’t try to do it the hard way, on your own. Seek guidance. Go to a favorite uncle. Ask your father, or your grandfather. Ask. Never be afraid to ask. Talk with other men. Heck, I am always willing to take hardworking people under my wing.

I spent three days a week for 10 years educating myself in the public library, and it's better than college. People should educate

[gaijin]

Education is GREAT.

Is COLLEGE the best place for it, these days..?

I have my doubts.

[Jamestown1630]

This is an excellent article.

My advice to young people has always been to take any job you can get, and learn everything there is to know about it - Make Yourself Valuable, by being supremely knowledgeable and reliable.

My brother's advice has always been that '80 or 90 per cent of everything is whether people LIKE you and can trust you' - so the advice to always be positive and kind is very valuable.

[ConservativeMind]

I enjoyed that. I agree with almost all of it.

I loved the obit!

[Jamestown1630]

The ‘About Me’ section is interesting, and perhaps a work of art...

[SamAdams76]

My advice to young people has always been to take any job you can get, and learn everything there is to know about it - Make Yourself Valuable, by being supremely knowledgeable and reliable. My brother's advice has always been that '80 or 90 per cent of everything is whether people LIKE you and can trust you' - so the advice to always be positive and kind is very valuable.

That's pretty much it. I didn't need a college education to quickly get to a six figure salary. Be dependable, be positive and forget about the limits of your job description, learn and volunteer for everything that makes you more valuable and useful in the work place.

If you want a promotion, take on the responsibilities of the position you strive for. It will make you a no brainer for the position when it becomes available.

[Jamestown1630]

Excellent advice.

(And, when appropriate to the circumstances, always dress for the position above yours ;-)

[hinckley buzzard]

Get a CDL and a job driving local delivery for a year or so. Then get on with a freight company driving a big rig for 60-80K a year. Then get your own rig and make 100K a year.

Any questions, snowflake?

[PGalt]

Some very good advice there. Thanks for posting. BUMP!

[mowowie]

bookmark

[InterceptPoint]

My advice to young people has always been to take any job you can get, and learn everything there is to know about it - Make Yourself Valuable, by being supremely knowledgeable and reliable.
+++++++++++++++
Spot on.

My slight variation on your very fine advice: I tell young people to get so good at your job that you are “invaluable”, that the business you work for would suffer if you left.

Knowledge is indeed power, even if you are just flipping burgers.

[Vigilantcitizen]

A job can be taken...

But a TRADE cannot.

My best friend of 40 plus years quit school in 10th grade and went to work building decks at 16.

He started his own contracting company in 2005. At his peak. he had 12 employees and cleared almost a half million a year.

[Jamestown1630]

Exactly right. And somebody who starts out at MacDonald’s has just as much possibility ahead of him as someone who has a University degree.

It’s all in the individual and their personal gumption.

[palmer]

Make Yourself Valuable,

It's funny but every time I talk to self-proclaimed "failures" (people who do job interviews but never get offers) they have a raft of excuses about their age, being out of the workforce too long, etc. I ask them how they offered to make themselves valuable to the company where they were interviewing. They typically have no answer.

[Jamestown1630]

They are carrying their insecurities and convictions regarding their imagined shortcomings into the interview; and those insecurities are sensed.

It’s a good idea to learn everything you can about a company before you apply - read their annual reports, read news items about them; find out what the company is really All About, and be able to talk knowledgeably about it and how you might benefit the company - or at least show that you understand some of the basic concerns and that they are interesting to you and that you have some knowledge of them.

Too many people come out of school thinking that all companies are basically the same, and that their own schooling has prepared them for ‘anything’. But every company is actually unique. You need to KNOW about them, before you can confidently apply and interview.

[yldstrk]

Great post

[gattaca]

bmp

[dan on the right]

Just sent to my son who is finished with College at the end of the Summer (God willing!)

[MayflowerMadam]

Also, take on the projects and tasks that nobody else will do.

[LoveUSA]

My daughter went right to work after receiving her Bachelor's degree. Her friends all went on to get Master's degrees. When they berated her for not advancing her college education she told them " two years from now I'll have 40k in the bank and you'll be 40k in debt".

My daughter said that shut them up.