Taking back the knowledge you have gained to this point.

1. I'd have skipped the Army, and gone to college, even if it meant ROTC, and joining afterwards.

2. Taken $1,000 and invested it in Microsoft.

3. Did I mention skipping the Army and going to college?

4. I'd have taken one of those football scholarships, even though they were to sucky (athletic) schools. (Ole Miss, Mississippi State, NLU, etc..) Who knows, I might have gotten a Sunday job out of it. (Right choice = College, Wrong reason + Football). Nevertheless, I was smart, so the academics wouldn’t have been a problem either; but I may have gotten a BS degree. (Physical Education, or something like that)

5. I'd major in Business management and minor in Information Technology, then got my MBA in Executive Leadership.

Trying to make up for lost time now (College-wise). This time next year I'll be in my MBA/JD program, if I can maintain this pace.
It's hard being a 3/4 - Full time student, as well as a full time employee, and a dad, father, and part-time employee too. I'm doign well, but I have friends my age that are execs, makign big $, to the tune of 250 - 300K/year. One just got laid off, but he gets his salary for 18 months, as long as he doesn't work for a competitor. He just hired on with another company making more $ than he was making at his old shop, with 16 months of salary still coming from the old job. I had no idea job/careers like that existed, being a country-boy like me.

The military is a good option folks, but- if you're joining the Army, let me say this- don't go in there thinking it'll be easy to get your degree while you're in... It won't be; the mission comes first.

My Uncle did it, but- I didn't consider the fact that it took him 20 years to do it.

 

Not get arrested on my 21st and 22nd birthdays.
Gain more real-world IT experience for my career
Not been so picky on who I dated or slept with.

 

I know that's right...
There's two or three I'd certainly revisit- that's for sure...

 

This probably sounds like a cop out but...I wouldnt change much.

The one thing for sure is the year and a half I spent in college on my parents dough would have been better utilized. I got poor grades, fell in love, got married and dropped out.

Now that I'm back in school I spent 2 years redoing classes (english 101, etc) that I had already taken. What a waste of time and money...and time is more valuable now then the money.

 

Yeah, my cousin did the same thing. She went to the University of Hawaii, and while my aunt & uncle were paying, she was goofing off, having fun, half-*** going to class, partying, etc... The semester ended, and she was failing most classes, and got put on Academic Probation. My Uncle said "Aw hell Naw" and cut her off. He told her if she went back to college, she'd be paying for it. Well, she wanted to go, so the got two jobs, worked her *** off, schooled her *** off, and guess what. With all that on her, her grades improved exponentially.

It's funny how when it's your money, you find a way not to simply throw it away.

Unless you're on crack like another friend of mine, but- that's another story...

So, you're in school too huh Vader?

So far, I have 115 Semester hours knocked out, but still about a year -18 months (39 hours) from graduation. I arrived at the school with 97 semester hours, they accepted 68 of them, requiring me to take 52 hours (minimum) in order to get my Bachelor's. I'm maxed out on management courses, but I had to go back and take core classes that weren't required in my AAS program. They told us "In Texas, you don't have to take any school's (Except UT and Texas A&M) core classes, they must accept our core as direct replacement for their core. (Apparently UT and A&M won't accept anyoen else' math & science).

Well, that's BS because I just finished another English course, and took a science last semester.

It's a private school- maybe that's why I got screwed. I was gonna go to SMU, but at 350/semester hour, plus books and fees, I decided to save SMU for my Employer's Tuition Reimbursement and my MBA, next year.

 

I wasnt quite that bad...I carried mostly Cs but I didnt go to class and frankly didnt care. The problem was that the school I'm at now wouldn't transfer anything less than a B....really sucked.

 

I would second putting off the Army for a while. I'm looking to ETS in a few months, and if I would have gone straight to college, I would be over half way done with medical school. Now I'm going to be almost 40 when I finish school, and thats assuming I can go to school full time, and still support my family. Sure most of my school will be paid for already, but when I'm making $500,000 plus a year, I wouldn't take me that long to pay off student loans.

 

If I could go back to 18.......oh where do I begin?!!!!!! Just kidding. Of course I would like to change 1 or 2 things, but then life would be different now. And some things now are pretty good.

 

I am pretty happy where I am at right now.

 

Dang, I have a "yeah" for everything...

My wife's best friend took her S.A.T. (Sweet *** Time) finishing college, takign roughtly 10 years to finish her degree (28-29) then she went to medical school, and finished that in another 4-5 years, then had 3 years of residency. Her starting salary at the first hospital (rural Kansas) was $30,000/year (1998). I was thinking, "Damn, I'm makign more than that with a high-school diploma."

Fast forward to 2005, and she now has her own practice with 2 nurses, and one admin working for her. After expenses (which includes the employees salaries, and her malpractice insuarance) she still brings home nearly $18,000.00/month. She makes so much $ she's not enrolled in a 401K, it's called something else, some other kind of "K".

She still works in the Bay area, hardly any expenses, single, no kids, no puppy, no strings. She still lives with her Mom, but that's by choice.

We tried to get her to move out here, telling her about the real-estate advantages. So far, she's staying in Cali, where the average 2 Bedroom, 1 bath is $660,000.00. I told her for that kind of money in the DFW, she could have a 6 BR, 4.5 bath, 5,500 square foot home, with a yard, and a 3 car garage, and still have money left over for a BMW 750i.

If you have a shot at medical school, do that ***** man...
She said one of her instructors told them about the hard work, and the long hours they were going to endure for the next 8-10 years to become doctors; he motivated them with this sentence.

"Live like no one else will for 8 years; to live like no one else can, for the rest of your life!" A very powerful statement.

Man, if someone had told me that in April of 1987, who knows...

 

I might have put off getting married for a year and played junior college basketball. Otherwise, I would have to say my life has been better than I deserve.

 

Oh yes, I agree...
I've done more, and certainly have more, and make more than I ever thought possible. I'm doing pretty well and I'm cool with that. It's just that my expectations for earning potential was artificially low after growing up in a community of mostly teachers, farm-hands, and a few farm-owners, only a handful of which owned a house anything close to what you see in the Plano/Allen/Frisco/Richardson/North Dallas area.

My expectations were based upon not having a firm idea of how expensive things were once you get out of rural Louisiana. I have a friend (attorney) that just bought a huge home, with a massive yard and guest house in Ferriday, LA and only paid $110,000 for it. Something like that here would be $450,000 and in California or in the northeast, closing in on a Million, especially with that much land. Being in the Army didn’t help that perspective because there’s no need to know. Everything’s paid for (Gov’t Housing) or assisted with (BAQ/Separate Rations). Worse yet, I did not accept the conventional wisdom of the importance of a Degree, and what it could/would mean.

I knew a lot of people with degrees that were not outwardly smart, or intelligent in actions or in words; only durable, which is to say they got their degrees, showing they can set a goal and stay the course to attain it. I met a lot of officers in the Army, which only put icing on the "A degree doesn't mean you're smart" cake. Getting out of the Army, and starting a career making more than anyone I knew back home, including those with degrees, only put more icing on an already over-sweetened cake.

It wasn't until the "bubble" popped (2000/2001), and company's started shedding excess weight, that I realized how important a degree was. It may not be important in your current job (doing the job is important); but, if you ever get laid-off, it could become very important, because now-a-days, many postings say, "Degree Required".

That's why I tell every young person I meet who is facing the decision: Go to college. Everyone that made the decision not to, I tell him or her to get into management as soon as you can. Once you've held the job/title- you can get it again, and again. Degree or no degree.

But, to do it the right way, go to school first.

 

I'd have not borrowed all that money for college that I now have to pay back.
But I did meet my finace at college, so I guess it was all worth it.

 

I would have never got on that skateboard.

 

Wanna go that route eh? I would never car surf at 40mph.
Oh! Oh! I would have never taken Whiskey to boy scout camp.