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Tony Camacho, USA says:
I’ve been researching the best way to pursue a mobile lifestyle and am wondering if you think going back to school to get my BA in business with it leaning towards e-business would be helpful or just redundant?
It would take 24 months, I would get finance for the costs so I’d delay paying for it, and I can do it online, therefore allowing me to be mobile. It may help with my profile as a leader and mentor – not to mention the growth that would take place.
I ask this because there seems to be so many sources of mentoring, niche education sources, life coaching, etc. on the web that makes the traditional sense of education seem a bit outdated. I am 47, presently a self employed architect with a strong sense of design and a strong desire to help others. I need to develop skills that are mobile.
My question is: Should I go back to school, and if I were to decide to go back to school what should I focus on to develop skills that could translate well within an internet business model?
The Coach’s Answer
Cath says:
You’re right to wonder about the relevance of doing a formal degree, especially if you want to launch an online business. Educational systems and the opportunities to learn have been dramatically changed by the internet, as has the world of business, and the way that authority is developed online is often quite different to the offline world.
Resource alert:
“I am 47, presently a self employed architect with a strong sense of design and a strong desire to help others.”
You’re clear about your strengths, you’ve developed your skills through years of experience, and your desire to help others will be essential for your success as an entrepreneur. These are all important areas of resourcefulness that you can draw on as you decide the way forward.
While university can be a great “growing up” experience for kids fresh out of school, with your life experience and maturity, I’d question whether a degree would be relevant and worth the cost – especially if you already have entrepreneurial experience.
So what’s getting you stuck? There are only two things that ever get us stuck:
- Not knowing what we want
- Focusing on our fears
In fact, I believe that we always know what we want, and the only reason we think we don’t know what we want is because we’re afraid to want what we want.
So actually it’s just one thing that gets us stuck: fear. So what fear is getting you stuck?
“It may help with my profile as a leader and mentor – not to mention the growth that would take place.”
I have a hunch here that you’re feeling a little afraid about taking the leap and assuming that having a BA in Business would get you the confidence you want and that formal education is required in order to earn credibility and authority in the eyes of others. Tell me where I’m wrong…
Previous generations have placed great emphasis on formal education, and it’s a common assumption that people will be impressed by further educational credentials and letters after your name, but that’s an assumption that more and more people are questioning – especially online.
When it comes to starting and running an online business, your ability to get your clients the results they want is the most important factor in building your authority and your business, so any learning program that you engage in should be designed to give you the skills to deliver results for your clients and to give you the skills to create the system for delivering results for your clients.
A formal education will typically give you a full overview of your domain and then drill down into detail in all of the relevant areas – including areas that aren’t relevant to the business you want to start. This is because formal educational programs are usually designed for the masses, standardized and driven by the institutional curriculum, which is often driven by professional associations, international educational associations and sometimes legislation.
This is great for industries like law, medicine and architecture where there are a lot of black-and-white facts to learn, rules and policies to follow and you have to complete a specific curriculum in order to register with a professional body and practice your profession, but less important in the online world where the people who succeed are the people who invent new rules and ways of doing things, rather than following all the old rules.
While you might want to experience further formal education, and you’ll always learn something valuable from a formal education, you don’t have to have a formal education to create a successful online business, so don’t let that drive your decision.
Think about how quickly you want to be up and running – and think about what 24 months is worth to you. If you’re committed to learning full-time and you purchase short courses and coaching programs that are relevant to your learning needs, and create your own custom-designed learning program, you should be able to get an online business up and running and beginning to earn an income in less than 6 months.
Formal education can offer great mentoring and leadership opportunities, but you can always find these opportunities elsewhere in the community too, so you don’t have to go to university or college for that. You can join a community group, such as toastmasters, your local commerce association, or a sports team, or you can volunteer as a mentor for something like Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.
Broadly, the questions you’ll need to consider in starting an online business includes:
- What are my skills that I already have that I can use to help others?
- Who are “my people” (the ideal people you’d love to serve)?
- What do my people need? How can I serve/ help my people, using my skills?
- How/ where can I find my people? How can I make it easy for them to find me? (ie. a marketing plan specific for working online)
- What skills do I still need to develop, to make all this possible?
- What fears do I need to overcome, to make this possible? (Don’t underestimate the importance of this question!)
- What technology do I need to learn to use, to make this possible?
Editor’s note: I’d also add that deciding upon the “type” of location independent business you want to run is important from the start – a service-based or product-based business or a combination of both? This will depend upon whether you want to sell & deliver services or products.
Most of this information is covered in the LIP Guide To Business course, so that’s a great place to start.
My sense is that formal education will teach you that these are the questions you need to figure out, but the “new” ways of learning, such as coaching, will help you to actually answer these questions for yourself.
If you’re self-employed already, you may be familiar with having worked through questions 1 to 6 before. For an online business, the main thing that makes it possible is the technology, so perhaps this is the main area where you need to develop your knowledge and skills. The LIP Guide To Business gives great detail on the technology you’ll need to learn in order to make your business location independent.
In summary, my general advice in these high-change, fast-paced times, and especially when it comes to setting up an online business is prioritise imperfect action and real-world feedback over perfectly researched and documented plans.
My sense is that formal degrees tend to still prioritise perfectly researched and documented plans, and that, as you already sensed, the “new” ways of learning will help you to prioritise action, application, real-world feedback and results instead. Ask yourself, if there was a solid, valid, quicker, and probably cheaper way to establish a location independent business, would I still want to go to get a BA in Business?
And here’s the Twitter-style answer:
You don’t have to have a degree to have a successful online business. Identify your learning needs and customize your own learning program with the focus on learning by doing.
If you’d like help overcoming a specific challenge in your life, submit your “Ask The Coach” question here >>>
I very much agree with you, Cath. Over the 10 years that I've been coaching people through http://www.drcoach.com I can't tell you the numbers that have felt that maybe they could start "if only I took this course" or "if only I had that degree". What I've witnessed time and time again is that those people who do go after the further education are no more confident afterward than they were before. It's not about pedigree. It's about who you are inside.
On the other hand, I have also seen people who could talk their way through anything or sell anything without any qualifications whatsoever. Again – it's about what is inside.
Working through the fears. Taking small steps of action to increase confidence, and being willing to fail and try again are the real keys.
@Nunomad: "Working through the fears. Taking small steps of action to increase confidence, and being willing to fail and try again are the real keys." I'm totally with you here. For me the ability to hanlde your own fears is everything!
I agree 110% Cath! There are certainly careers, trades, etc that require higher education… Doctors and Lawyers or such (to quote Willie Nelson). But for many online businesses, you qualifications come in the form of results. What do your clients need, what have you done for other clients, and how comfortable that you can deliver for them.
I’d tell Tony to put himself out there and gradually work himself into location independent living. Now the nature of Architecture may mean that his clients will prefer for him to be “on site” but heck Tony, if you’ve been an architect for 20 years… think about products that will help young architects, or architects who work in whatever your area of expertise has been. Develop and deliver seminars, webinars, and books… those things certainly support a LIP lifestyle!
Great post, great advice, and best of luck Tony!
@jtrigsby
Just to add my view to the block I am a lot younger (22) but I did actually make the decision to go and get a degree in a fixed location. I actually made the decision for a whole variety of things. Most of my business skills if I'm honest have been patched together from wokring within businesses, tons of self-education and ultimately starting my ownbusiness. I felt that whilst I have been growing, acquiring a solid foundation in my areas of interest may prove beneficial whilst allowing my ideas and skills to bounce around with people in a similar area. I am also building my business alongside, you may call me crazy, and as such will have built not only on my knowledge but also my professional life by the time I leave. The resources available to you whilst studying are plentiful and you have the support of tutors from many different backgrounds.
The other bonuses which also played a big part in my decision are my later opportunities to get skilled visas in other countries should I chose to settle and also in case I do end up in a position where a degree is required to work in my field. Personal ideas and cultural norms do evolve over time and who is to say that in 10 years I will not require a degree for a shot at a position in a company who will look at it favorably.
I will admit that I wasn't completely enthused at the idea of staying in a single location for the course however I will still travel though my spare times and already have plans for an extended working holiday for early next year. The best thing you can do is whatever works for you and aligns with your core values and future goals.
Interesting article.
@jtrigsby: Great idea!
You said:
I couldn’t agree more! In my fiction I currently never feel stuck because I know what I want and I’m confident about my writing. In business, however, like almost all new business owners at times I fear the time it takes to build a successful income stream and so find myself stuck – and the only way to get unstuck is to do something – take an action that advances my goals and shows me that yes, things take time but there is always something I can do to create progress.