I didn’t go to Princeton, Brown, Yale, Stanford, MIT, or Cambridge. I actually went to McNeese State University, a small school surrounded by oak trees in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The school colors are blue and gold, and you just need a GPA of 2.35 for admission—which is equivalent to around a C. Just don’t completely fail and drop out of high school and you can get into McNeese State.
My SAT or ACT scores weren’t fit for an Ivy league school application. My resume at 18 just wasn’t good enough to be considered for a Harvard. I had too much time on my hands and no strong mentorship in my life, so I was busy becoming a problematic young adult. I would be disruptive in school and would get kicked out of class. By the time I graduated from high school, I had also fallen in with the wrong crowd: drinking, smoking and experimenting with drugs.
Drugs became a daily issue in my life. I started smoking weed at sixteen, and by the time I was nineteen, I was using anything and everything available. Short of shooting dope, I tried it all. I had developed a massive daily drug problem.
I was still able to graduate from McNeese State with an accounting degree that I had no intention of using—and $40,000 in debt. The thing is, you can get a diploma anywhere, but diplomas won’t get you rich. There are millionaires being made each day in this country, and you don’t need to go to college to become one of them.
Who would have thought I’d be a millionaire hundreds of times over when I was attending McNeese State?
It wasn’t because of what I learned in school that got me rich, but what I chose to learn after school.
The ROI on good sales training is much higher than any MBA program in the country.
Most people in college don’t believe getting rich is a possibility—they have the mindset that you can get $50-80K a year, maybe $100K—or shoot to be a doctor or lawyer—but making a million dollars a year is reserved for celebrities and professional athletes. The simple truth is that having a 7-digit income is not impossible, but it will require skills that Harvard won’t be teaching you.
Not once throughout my time at McNeese State was selling introduced as an option. I wondered how respectable and desirable the field could be if it wasn’t taught in school. If the subject isn’t taught college, it must not be a real career. Right? But the truth is no one taught me about money or investing or real estate in school. That doesn’t mean that those subjects aren’t valuable. Harvard won’t teach people how to make a marriage successful or how to raise children, either, and what could be more valuable than that?
No matter what your profession is, you will rely on selling to be successful.
*The politician wants to appeal to you and your interests so that you’ll vote for him in the polling booth.
*The employee desiring a promotion will have to sell the boss on his value to the company.
*The coach has to sell his team on the idea of winning the game.
*The real estate agent must convince you to buy a house or to give him the listing.
*The mortgage broker wants you to refinance for the third time.
*The banker wants you to invest money in the bank’s mutual funds.
*The waiter is selling the special of the day.
*The clothing salesperson wants you to buy the suit along with three shirts and two ties—and also wants you to apply for the department store’s credit card.
Selling never ends, and it includes everyone. It doesn’t matter if you went to Harvard or McNeese State, you will have to learn the art of selling outside of college to get super wealthy.
I’ve got many ways to help you learn how to sell.
Be great,
GC
