A Graduate's Guide to Life: Three Things They Don't Teach You in College That Could Make All the Difference

INTRODUCTION

Within the pages of this short book, I’m going to give you a recipe for becoming successful. This recipe only has three ingredients: an understanding of reality, an understanding of competition, and an understanding of wealth. These concepts are not complex, so it won’t take us long. You’ll see.

I’ve gone through a lot of formal schooling, worked at a major law firm, started several businesses, taken a company public, and worked with leaders as diverse as the president and the pope. And I discovered that, oddly enough, these three ingredients for success are not only not taught in college—they’re not really taught anywhere! Those who are happy in life usually stumble upon them eventually, but many folks never learn about them, and many learn them too late. I believe the sooner you know them, and live them, the happier you will be.

So first, a question: How many of you and your friends were told as you headed off to college that these would be the best four years of your life? By the way, this is a rhetorical question. In other words, I aready know the answer, because I have asked numerous groups of college students this question. The answer is: all of you. All of you were told, by someone, perhaps your parents, that your college years should be the best four years of your life. But you know what? It is horrible advice! Truly terrible. It can send you down the wrong path and have negative consequences in your life.

In the following chapters, I’ll show you why and give you a better alternative. Let’s start by taking a look at the first ingredient in the wealth recipe: an understanding of reality.

AN UNDERSTANDING OF REALITY

Seriously, do you really want to think that your college years are the best years of your life, and the rest of life is all downhill? How does that make you feel? What a ridiculous strategy for life!

Why do people say this? Well, there are a variety of reasons that we won’t go into in this particular book. Interestingly enough, the folks who tell you this may include your parents and other adults who care deeply for you. Suffice it to say, when folks say this, they are not thinking clearly about human nature and happiness.

All you have to do is ask yourself, Do I hope that my college years are the best years I will ever have, never to be matched again for the next seventy years I live? Or, while college might be a wonderful experience, am I actually hopeful that life will continue to get better—and happier?

Aren’t those two questions remarkably easy to answer? Of course you don’t want college to be the