Business Education comes from the passion of business

Let me begin this piece of journalistic writing by saying, I do not have a college degree in Business. I thought it was an arbitrary degree when I considered college, and I still think it's an arbitrary degree as a college graduate. I know those who have Business degrees think that my English Education degree is just as arbitrary. That's okay. Maybe college is not only overpriced and elitist - perhaps the whole concept of college is arbitrary.

Regardless what we think about higher education or degree certifications, business is business and we all know that there have been successful business people who had or didn't have a college degree. What is the main difference between an Entrepreneur and an Apprentice? The way I see it, an Apprentice works for an Entrepreneur, not the other way around. If you have to answer to anyone besides the customer handing you the payment, you are still an Apprentice. If your only manager or boss is the one holding the cash, you are an Entrepreneur.

I've been both. I've learned a lot about business in my years of schooling, jobbing, teaching, and running three of my own businesses. No, I've never been as wealthy as Elon Musk or Donald Trump, but I've learned about success and failure in the business world, even if my numbers were on the lesser side of high profitibility.

I did not start out in 1989 as an aspiring Entrepreneur. I was a nervous high school graduate who was happy to be a Jobber. I wanted to experience all that America had to offer, the finer things in life, but I wasn't very ambitious about it. For me, the comforts of home and the pleasures of family and friends were more important than the cutthroat politics and antics necessary to achieve some of the outrageous profit successes that the elitists brag about. The toughest failure that I had to survive wasn't about losing money or a bad gamble. The toughest failure that I had to survive was accepting that hard work and dedication are also a gamble in a world where even the safest road can be swept away while you're driving on it by an avalanche or a tree falling. They won't teach you about circumstances beyond your control in college while you're obtaining that certification.

Life is dangerous and risky. There's no safe place. Do it anyway, if you want to. Last year I was griping about how there were no opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs. That song "It's all been done" kept playing in my mind like a broken nagging record mocking my desire to open up an art gallery. I had spent the entire year of 2022 online at various websites learning how to buy and sell merchandise. I was not profitable. I had spent more money and time on my products than I ever got back. That was the expense of my education without sitting in a classroom or putting up a framed certificate on my wall. Am I saying that it can't be done simply because I failed on my first effort? No. I'm saying that I have a wealth of information to share with other aspiring entrepreneurs since I've put my own time and investments into a project that failed. Success doesn't teach you as much as failure. That's why graduation from this college or that college can not prepare you as much as being a real Apprentice.

I could tell you what I know about shipping expenses and how they help or hurt an online retail business. I could tell you all I know from experience and training about the value of customer service. I could tell you what the benefits are to having liability insurance for some businesses. I could tell you about negotiation and fixed prices. I could tell you about great start-ups and very risky start-ups. I have this information based on experience, even though I can not brag of a business degree.

I'm not going to tell you though. I'm not going to show you either. My knowledge and experience are very valuable. That information took years to acquire and I'm not going to share all of that with you in a little article that might make $1 if I'm lucky. No thank you.

If someone believes that my wisdom is worth listening to, I ought to be compensated. That's me, graduating from Apprentice to Entrepreneur.