Mastery: 7 Steps To Go From Average Student To Authority Figure (While Doing Less) | Alex Winkler | Skillshare


Alex Winkler, Consistency is king


Alex Winkler, Consistency is king

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24 Lessons (1h 44m)
    • 1. Intro

    • 2. Class Project

    • 3. Setting Up - Our Problem

    • 4. Setting Up - Audience

    • 5. Setting Up - Credentials

    • 6. Setting Up - Motivation

    • 7. Self - Rethink - Beliefs

    • 8. Self - Rethink - Apprentice

    • 9. Self - Focus - Priorities

    • 10. Self - Focus - Present

    • 11. Self - Focus - Automate (Habit)

    • 12. Self - Focus - Deciding

    • 13. Self - Focus - Fun

    • 14. System - Variables - Dissecting

    • 15. System - Variables - IB

    • 16. System - Variables - AP

    • 17. System - Variables - DE

    • 18. System - Variables - CLEP

    • 19. System - Variables - SA

    • 20. System - Variables - Score Board

    • 21. System - Plan - Principles

    • 22. System - Alternatives - Ideas

    • 23. Synergy - Growth - Gather Teach Network

    • 24. Synergy - Authority - Putting It All Together

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About This Class

7 Steps To Go From Average Student To Authority Figure

If you feel stuck in the current educational system (if high school, university, or your current program) and you are ready to actually benefit from your current program (while doing less) this class is for you!

Your mentor, Alex Winkler, has spent almost a decade crafting the concepts of this course. You will learn the 7 step formula he has discovered from his own experiences hacking the system and refined it through interviews with students and professors. To get ahead faster while saving time and money.

In this class you’ll learn: 

  • Mastering your educational environment
  • (5) educational options you must utilize (if in high school or university)
  • How to become an authority figure
  • How to mold the system to make it work for you
  • How to save time and money in the process
  • Become a master by default (on autopilot)

You'll be creating your action plan to start making the system work for you during this course.

Even if you’re not in formal education anymore you can apply this 7 step formula! Simply replace what we review in step 3 with your current system pieces. Also, even individuals who already are "done" with formal education can benefit from these credit shortcuts to beef up their resume.

Pro Tip: Get involved with the course, ask questions and do the course project. You'll learn more in the course project video.

Meet Your Teacher

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Alex Winkler

Consistency is king


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1. Intro: What's up, guys, I am stoked to have you here. Let me quickly introduce myself the course, and then we'll already get diving into the course project. No time to waste here. So first of all, let me switch over to the screen and I'm mostly going to be sharing here. This is the course. Suck your school dry. Seven steps to benefiting from school while doing less after months of revising, editing and getting feedback on this course, I was told to add this additional line, go from average student to authority figure. Let me quickly say, I'm so happy you're here because this is the course you want to be taking before you take any other course, especially if you're still in school, which in a way we all are. So let's fast forward here. I hope you guys can see my mouse and let's keep going. Who buy? So I'll be your mentor here for this course. My formal education flow. Let me give you guys a quick overview so you know, kind of where I came from. I grew up in Florida. I did IB International Baccalaureate. We'll talk a little bit about that later on. Api as well, which is Advanced Placement, et cetera. Because there's so many other little tips and tricks I did mini courses along the way that helped me graduate school early, even though I did three study abroad programs and to different universities. That's right. I was a transfer student. Oh, my Lord baby Jesus, that was intense. But we were still able to finish school early. Here it is by Mao's. Okay, gotta make sure I keep Nile now and I'm a trader since 2013. So I graduated high school in 2011. Just to give you guys a bit of a timeframe, there had been a trader pretty much ever since. I've been traveling, mainly Europe and Africa since 2015 now, I'm trying to settle down a little bit. Traveling gets a little hectic when you're when you're trying to trade some times. And I'm trying to be very community focused. Pretty much the last 23 years, I started a YouTube channel and a few other things because I want to grow my own network. And I kinda realized that mole makes it a little bit more fun than being a little bit of a hermit sometimes. So let's go ahead. Oh, this is me by the way, this is my odd and this is my brother. This is in bureau Beach, Florida were actually grew up, not borne by grew up. And let's go here. So this is my channel. If you guys are interested in day trading or other finance topics, go ahead, check it out. Otherwise, I just wanted to share this who I am a little bit and what I kinda do, I guess you could say my free time sometimes let's keep going. So what's this course about? Well, this course is all about mastering your educational environment. What does that really mean? Well, we're going to dive into a trust meal whole bunch more. You're going to really understand. But it's really, there's three different parts and we're going to go into the outline as well. I just can't wait to share it all with you. Who is this really for? It's all levels really. At first I was writing it for really targeted towards high school and middle school and high school kids because that's when some of the original concepts came together for this course. But then over time, I realized, oh my God, this applies to everything when I became a trader. I this, this whole, entire course, basically a relapse and I made sure to tweak some things. Why do I want to do this? Well, personally, these kind of methods and I'm going to be sharing with you guys have gave me so much more time in fulfillment. So I just and that's why I'm stoke right now to share with you. Then we'll also talk about our class project, the action plan to fill out along the way. So let's keep going here. These are the three parts that I'm going to be sharing self system in synergy. But before we do that, we'll do a quick little bit of an intro and we'll dive into a class project. What we want to be doing along the side. We'll talk a little bit about setting up just a few kind of points to have a bit more background. We have a section one, the self right here. We have afterwards, we, that's a part of two steps. So there's going to be seven steps total three sections, seven steps here section to the system. And then we got the three steps in the system. I'm not sure why they're not popped up there they go. Step 3, 4, 5, and then Section 3 is synergy up here, two steps in that one. And then we have a few golden nuggets. And this is how it all kind of focuses together. So you go self jag your system and your synergy. You'll understand a lot more what I mean by all these different things and how they all tied together and why they are also important. They're individual, but they're important. And that's why they all belong together. And then we'll go through a few gold nuggets as well. We have some interviews, little bit of resume building and some other things. They're pro tip, ask questions guys below the video, take notes and get involved. Not just in this course, both everything you'll notice how important is getting involved if you are interested in something. Yes. So next video, we'll dive right into the class project and then we'll go ahead and dive into the setting apart because that's what's next. All right, guys. See you there. 2. Class Project: All right, so really simple class project Here we go along one principle and one principle only, KI ISS. It's an acronym you may have heard before, but in a nutshell, it stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid, right? You never want to overcome, over-complicate something if it's your trading strategy or if it's coding. I've been encoder for over 10 years. You always want to take the simple path. You never want to over-complicate something because that means it has a higher chance of breaking what I like to do and what I want you guys to do on this course to see how it feels for you, is try taking some notes on a piece of paper whenever something stands out in clicks with you right at the end, we're going to have hopefully a few pages of these notepads full, not obviously the whole notepad, just a few pages. And then I want you to take a picture of probably the most meaningful note that you took. You could take a picture of the whole page. But if there's something that really sticks out shared with the class, write a little description why? Maybe the picture is going to show us share it all already. But I think that'd be the fastest way for us to all learn together here. And just one last time were not blast time. Let me share myself here. This is this I gotta say from school and then trading and then coding and all this stuff that I do. These no pets are my go-to. I absolutely loved these things. You could use different colors on them, obviously, these different colors, but they're just really clean, simple. And then at the end of the day I switch over. I go like that, I switch over, I use this little clip here to hold it down so it doesn't get too flimsy or, or in the way and it just is really clean and organized. If you guys don't have these yellow things, I would consider checking it out if you want an otherwise, don't. I also use Google google Docs for a lot of my note-taking. So either or whichever you guys feel more comfortable with, that's what I personally would recommend in case there are going to be questions below. Let's keep going and move on here. 3. Setting Up - Our Problem: All right guys, Let's keep chugging along. So that was the class project and just a quick little pro tip here. Whenever you feel like it, feel free to pause, reflect, and just word vomit, put words on paper, interests me that will sometimes spark some new ideas and just really keep your brain in a relaxed state of mind because now you don't need to use your hippocampus to remember basically what you just heard, but it's on papers. You can free up your mind for other activities. So now let's talk about the problem. Primary, secondary in upper education schools in the US had become so fundamentally untrustworthy, wasteful in almost every aspect. The input and output ratio of high schools and major universities have become dangerously backwards, or it's evolved by the time many people graduate their institutions, many individuals have no idea how to apply their minor or major equally worrisome, it's very normal to find students who know less about what they desire to do after college then before they enrolled. This sucks because a skill set and a sense of purpose are two major selling points as to why people attend schools in the first place. However, if you found this course, odds are you probably already know this and or half at least realized there must be a way to remove all the fluff. And then after he looked around for help, you've probably realized that when it comes to the educational system, it's a massive beast. It's hard to figure out where to start. That even if you know the right people when it comes to getting it right the first time, you're probably out of luck. The good news is, there is hope. And the reason you got hold of this course is so you can better prepare yourself for speeding through a very bureaucratic in slow moving organism. It's time we prepare ourselves to tame the beast. Here I'll lay out the structure of this book, how and how it can help. And then a bit about myself in the very beginning as well. So you guys know a little bit where I'm coming from. You'll quickly learn a waste to reduce the workload and time drain of traditional learning institutions. If that's college, if that's high school, if it's if that's on your job, if it's studying for an exam, the list is endless while getting way more out of them. That's really the key park we want to be doing, what we want to be doing, but none the less time in a more beneficial time. Alright, so while most of this course was written a year after I graduated from Student Life, which again I said was in 2011 was when I graduated high school, I began getting comps concepts of this book since my first year in college, after I was horrified, literally horrified about the inefficiencies throughout my high school. I even wrote a chunk of this book in class when I was mainly working on my business but still passing with mainly A's in graduating earlier without too much focus on school. At first, all the options you can take might seem overwhelming, but don't worry, it all becomes fairly simple once broken down, most of the constant complaining done by major, the majority of students is due to a lack of planning, reinforced by procrastination, with the exception of science majors honestly hats off to you guys. I wouldn't even know where to begin. A critical theme with this course is that you can take these methods you learned here and apply them to any field of studying this, my opinion is the best part school at its core is simple. The way to maximize your return is by making the system work for you. You make this school your workhorse, and not the other way around learning things of your interests. While others are complaining that they don't have enough time. This book will take you through creating this structure in seven detailed steps which are divided into three main sections. Self system in synergy, each step will evolve off the last and capitalize on different areas. All steps sync together and the true benefits come with mastering them all. I divided the seven steps, like I said before in three different sections. Let's do a quick little overview on each one. We have self here, we're going to first take a step back. We're going to examine the school structure and learning as a whole. From there, we need to make priorities. We only have so much time every day. So we need to pick wisely 0 in your energy output, focusing on less, but with much more intensity, this will yield a much greater returns for you and unlock new doors. We're going to dive into the system for, we are going to review popular and less orthodox forms of education. You can capitalize on slowly starting to map out the message methods that will help shed the wasted time, energy, and money so abundant in our school systems. Methods that you could start implementing it now or by latest next semester if you are a student, once we have laid out your FastTrack plan, will look for alternatives. Ways you can keep bending the plan to help your goals, to help fill your goals with ever more purpose and power. Then synergy. In this section, we'll be connecting a lot of doll dots from the other two sections. Here, we will combine what you learned in self and system to make one plus one equals three. We will do this by uncovering how to learn the inner workings of your establishment and the individual players. We will then cover how to become influential by expanding your network and to start bending the establishment to work in your favor. It's a critical phase to go from stuck or average to top tier. 4. Setting Up - Audience: All right guys, Let's keep moving on and now let's dive into intended audience. And this is the section we talked about very briefly in the intro video. But now I want to talk about intended audience from individuals at different points along their life. So initially, the intention of this course was targeted for us high school and undergrad university students. But the process of this course, the process this course teaches, has universal applications, a resource you can apply two scenarios outside of simply School, after working with dozens of individuals and proactively evolving ideas, everyone can benefit from the contents in one way or another. Of course, if you are still a priori or early college, in pre-order early college, you can benefit additionally from the college prep strategies, such as getting rid of your GE requirements, your general education requirements or prereqs as a referred to sometimes, which we will dive into later in this course. Nonetheless, a senior in college would still have time to apply specifics from this book. Either way, it will give you the right mindset and framework for any situation, especially bureaucratic educational ones. Okay, so the first one is as a pre high-school students. So this would mean you're probably still in middle school. You'll be able to capitalize on the main lesson of this book, something you will be able to use the rest of your life. This strategy that has been developed through interviews, experience, and open discussions is what is pivotal in all great people and finishing school quicker. As a high school student. You will be surprised how much more you can be doing on the side to graduate early. We already mentioned that there are college prep strategies. These are ways to reduce the amount of classes you will have to take once you graduate high school, enroll into a university as a college or university student, you'll uncover things many of which are in plain sight that you need to be doing to get the most out of your school by not taking advantage of many of these you're getting behind and are really going to hurt your potential. If you are just going to class, you really don't want to look back at college and wish you had done these learning about them later. As a professor or administrator, you'll hopefully get a better understanding to what students are looking for, even if they don't know themselves. Usually it's not another GE class, general education class, but a clear focus on a specific subject and someone to tell them what alternatives there are. Two each course, credit and higher level class requirement. And as a human, you'll be able to take the structure are seven steps provide and be able to apply it to everyday life. Life today, more than ever is filled by countless distractions, which if you let them will pull you off course and leave you unsatisfied. The goal is to become more resourceful, motivated, and happy in your life by doing things that give you purpose. 5. Setting Up - Credentials: All right guys, Let's keep going along. So I want to talk about some credentials here. First of all, starting with personal credentials, I've always been the one to have aunts my pants when it comes to staying at one school or in one place in high-school. I switched schools after two years from Sebastian River High School to bureau Beach high because I did not like the program or the environment. They're too much. It was during the time I spent at bureau beach, my second highschool when I decided to give everything a try that I wanted to do, leave no stone unturned. By the end of high school, I thought I had pretty good idea of all the moving parts. We're talking IB, AP, dual enrollment club, sports clubs, student government, even brewing beer, you name it, I tried it. College was just as messy. There are two reasons I can recall for deciding. My first school. First was because I was always tinkering and wanted to school. That would give me plenty of free time. I was ready to start by business adventures. Second, my brother was already there, the school I would first go to, and we've already been working on our first online business. However, after attending the University of North Florida, that first college I went to for two years, I felt trapped in the laid-back atmosphere. I needed a breath of fresh air. I wanted to be in a place surrounded by other restless people. Therefore, by spring I was looking and applying to schools and by summer I was visiting the ones I was interested in. Then after summer and start of fall semester, I left Florida. I was officially a full-time transfer junior student at Pace University in New York City. This has been one of the best experiences of my life that have opened more doors for me than I can keep track of. This was not by pure luck though. I cultivated and network in New York City that was different from my other schools. This was possible because I knew exactly what I wanted to do from these two completely different schools. I was able to explore all sorts of programs, which was the best educational part of my university education. Unf was a public school in the Bible belt of America. While Pace University was at a private school in downtown New York City, I was able to get enormous perspective learning from two different lifestyles and then put all my knowledge to work, even with all the transferring and lack of attention at you and I surprisingly still graduated early from pays with a top GPA. It was not a coincidence or from pure luck, everything I had learned about the education system, prepays I was able to exploit. I went from behind to early graduating without ever feeling completely overwhelmed. It wasn't that hard. Now, what are the network credentials, my efforts and studies alone or still just a fraction for me being able to take advantage of the school system behind the scenes, which allowed me connect many dots. By the time I got to pais was my aunt and uncle to very smart and highly involved individuals, especially in academia. My aunt was a return college student and now Professor, while my uncle was the quote unquote mad scientists that tutored our whole entire neighborhood. And new endless tricks and loopholes you could leverage in our outdated and bordering the need for a major revolution American school system. It was a goldmine of information. My aunt and uncle that was proven to be very insightful. And one I will always be grateful for, for, apart from my relatives, I have met many driven individuals, from students to professors that have all taken school and made it more practical for them. I'll be referring to them in various sections of this course and have added the interviews with my aunt and uncle. And at the end of this course as well, in the gold nuggets section, you will now be able to tap into this network of resources across a diverse background to further yourself and find the advantages and freedom you've been looking for. 6. Setting Up - Motivation: All right guys, we're almost done with this setting up series. Last part I want to cover is personal motivation. I wanted, and I want to start off with a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt. Do one thing everyday that scares you. My name's Alex Winkler. I was born September 7th, 1990 to and people who know me hands down, think it's ironic that I'm writing a book or making a course. My forte doesn't lie remotely close to English or literature. Those were always my worst subjects. I've even had teachers ask me if English was my first language. After having so many grammatical mistakes, I enjoy being out with people and all preferably with a well brewed beer in my hand. I spend most of my time currently working on various businesses. I find it thrilling when things are coming together while creating a business plan with my partners, I love working to improve our business by reducing redundancies and finding talent to distract me and improve myself, I find escapes in music composition, exploring history and reading. There is no definitive time when I started working on this course because I view every day of my life from what I can remember as gathering the necessary material to be ready to share my knowledge with anyone willing to learn and improve their own in this course, which is really more like a guide, I'm going to try to be as straightforward as possible because everything else I see as fluff beating around the bush and just plain BS fluff doesn't get you anywhere unless you're writing a paper with a 10 page or 10 thousand word requirement for your GE English class. As much as I respect and value that concept and a need of authority, I naturally tend to find myself going against the grain. Most rules and guidelines simply seem unnecessary to me and should really get another look. That's definitely what I learned from my aunt and uncle. Allow me to break down four motives for me writing this book. First of which is to reduce waste. What I'm trying to focus on is a learning model that will make your next years the start of your best ones. We'll dig into the educational aspects, important verse fluff, how you can get the most out of it, so you don't fall into the same traps. Student fall for year after year. The wastefulness is most often due to the lack of direction and costs. Many people, peers, teachers, guidance counselors, and nearly every other student I met at my college campus and insane amount of valuable time. I'm deeply zealous in wind to help you graduate with the most amount of credit in the most efficient way, depending on your needs. Saving hundreds of hours of my own time has allowed me to be much more productive, try new things and travel. Most importantly, I'd like more people to have this opportunity and hopefully be able to make their own contributions sooner and with more focus. Now I can give back second to have more fun. There are two points. A. It's not all about getting more work done. I had a solid time during middle and high-school. The little hometown of mine went pretty hard when it came to partying. The two universities I attended, or an additional catalyst to networking and partying, especially when I was in New York City. The problem was the educational side of it. If you didn't watch out, could quickly render useless. Remember the saying, less is more, which we find via a legit approach to school. And that's what I wanna do for you. Get more accomplished in last time. Work done more efficiently, easily translates to more time for fun and be fun equals creativity. It's hard to open your eyes to unconventional school tactics when you're just cruising along on autopilot. Things that have ended up to be the most memorable and fun things are the same things most people never do. And that's a shame. Attacking the right issues at their core will connect you with yourself and to your environment. Having a sense of connection and understanding the rotating parts will bring you confidence. Enjoy point number 3, learning from others everything you do usually gets a lot more fun when experiences are shared, the best way to create more shared experiences is involving more people. Everyone sees his world from a different perspective and can shed light on topics you may have never considered. New businesses, have always let me meet new people and new people always introduced me, introduced me to fresh ideas, which in turn leads to new opportunities. It's quite an exciting cycle that gets more fun and more exciting the more people you can grow with point number for exploring alternatives to the crumbling conventional educational system, awareness is just the first step before we can begin to improve ourselves and in turn, our environment. There's so much exciting stuff happening out there that it's hard not to get really excited about the future. Systems are always changing in our educational one is the next. As a student, you can make some of the biggest leaps forward by exploiting the system. And as a business owner, you can make some of the biggest profits by changing the system. The more people who stop wasting their time by taking uses classes, cruising on autopilot that better for society. It's within each of us to switch out and improve the cards. Society has deltas so we can all improve ourselves and each other. Towards the end of this course, together, we'll explore more about what else is changing. Fantastic. You've finished the intro video, the class project video, and setting up series where we reviewed our problem, the intended audience, credentials and motivation. The next video we're going to be diving into Section one, self, the first of the three sections that will help you get more out of your school while doing less. Let's continue. 7. Self - Rethink - Beliefs: Welcome to Section one, self, this section is going to be divided into two steps. We have step number 1, rethink, and then step number 2, focus, I want to start this section by giving you guys three quotes that think about the more you know, the more you realize how much you don't know, the less you know, the more you think you know, David T. Freeman. Live out of your imagination, not your history. Stephan Coby. Never stop questioning Einstein, freeing yourself from false traditional beliefs. It's hard to absorb new information if you enter a subject with a negative predisposition, if you start off believing you're wasting your time, you will be, there's always something to be learned. Even if it's not about this specific subject, you can still learn about the people or the process around the subject. The key is that there is always something to take away, separating what is useful and what is not. And then capitalizing on the elements of new information will be much more beneficial and fun. Let your curiosity absorb as much as possible to get started, let us re-evaluate the way we view school and the process. One Traditionally takes the easiest place to start is with what we already know or believe to know. We are taught that that one progresses through the current school system in a straight line and one should rely on what the professionals tell you. Usually these professionals consists of guidance counselors, which are really good, had one thing, making sure you take the longest path possible that makes the school the most money. Guidance counselors like any other industry professional, cells, advice, think financial advisors, stockbrokers, real estate brokers, etc. Guidance counselors are pretty much like class brokers. I'm not saying they profit off your choices directly. Actually, it would maybe be better if they did. But that's a different topic to explore entirely from what I have found out. There is only a fairly low fixed base salary in 0 incentives for guidance counselors, which means that unless you are working with someone who truly cares about your future from the goodness of their heart alone. The truth is, your guidance counselor probably doesn't care what happens to you and it's not their fault. He or she probably doesn't even remotely have the time to care. Across all schools, the average student to school counselor ratio is 464 to one. Yikes, in a professional environment, say employee to employer, the ideal ratio is no more than 10 to one. So ten employees for every one employer. So now we know that there is no incentive for your trusted professional guidance counselor to give helpful advice and to make matters even worse, your advisor is most likely under major time constraints to even give you any meaningful advice. The facts are, schools don't benefit from you leaving early. So there's no reason to educate guidance counselors on savvy time-saving tactics, nor is there any reason to hire additional guidance counselors. It's actually so bad that some of the hacks we'll talk about later. My guidance counselors were unaware about an event, reluctant to advise. I don't know if it was a lack of knowledge or something else, but that has been my experience. That's bad, but it's not a lost cause. The reality is, your guidance counselor is not your friend or foe, just an additional resource at best, period. What that means is do your own research, learn the game. The more resources, the better. Yes, it could be good making close relationships with one counselor, but don't be shy to ask others, get outside opinions like going to a doctor, financial advisor, heck, even getting an appraisal and yard work. You can have your go-to guy, but let's be honest, it's probably best to get multiple appraisals, diagnoses, offers, and so on. Know your options. Understanding that your guidance counselor most likely doesn't have time or your best interests at heart is a good first step. No longer should you've blindly follow their recommendations, but ask yourself, what's best for me? What other options are there? What can I do today? So that's moral. I'll be setting myself up for a better future. Realize the situation, then take charge of the situation. Your future is yours to decide. Keep adapting and evolving. Take bits of information from everywhere related to what you know and are doing. Now, slowly, the bigger picture we'll start taking shape. And the more it takes shape, the more you'll be able to benefit from it, to use it, to your advantage. 8. Self - Rethink - Apprentice: The Apprentice intern model, the perfect way to stay on your toes when rethinking the world of education. Here we will be blending the tried and tested apprenticeship and internship models together and applying them into our school system. Their traditional concept of apprenticeship originated in the Middle Ages and refer to the practice of assigning and novice to learn in art or trade under the direction of an expert. Think blacksmiths and woodworkers. Commonly today, people tend to associate the apprenticeship model with vocational careers. Here's a quote from a study on apprenticeships, verse internships. As an apprentice, you are not grabbing coffee and making copies. You are in the trenches alongside the veterans. The apprenticeship is a proven model and can be a very beneficial thing. When I was in high school, I always dreamed of having a beer brewing apprenticeship. Unfortunately, I never did land one, but luckily, I did have the worldwide web to help me. Today, I constantly meet some form of contractor that originally started off working at their families construction company or some other professional making a killing with no college degree because they are simply high in demand. They have a real skill. I love it. Apprenticeships can reach into all industries and can help individuals acquire relevant and valuable skills. I like to think that the worst thing that can happen is you learn what you don't like. You can always pivot. With every pivot we get closer to finding what we do enjoy. And that skill we want to perfect. Working on mastering a specific skill is something we should all strive for. Maybe even one day, to have mastered something so well that you can be at the front line of the latest discoveries and help steer the fields evolution emerging first in the medical profession, that concept of intern arrived, it referred to so on who practiced medicine but was not yet the licensed. Basically, you can think of it as someone who was undergoing an apprenticeship. However, post-World War II, the term evolved away from its apprenticeship cousin, interns began to be coined as the term used to describe medical students in training. After medical school. Fast-forward a few more decades. And we find the concept of inter and again further evolving from its distant cousin apprentice. Every time we hear the term intern or internship in modern times, we think of someone who is first dappling their luck at a new job to see if it's a job that they are interested in. Typically, an internship provides an individual with a general overview of a certain position or field over a short period of time. This is the key point, short period of time. It's surface level learning geared towards candidates who are still exploring their interests and determining what options they would like to pursue. However, we should move away from surface level learning. For example, when someone interns at one of Elon Musk's companies like Tesla, SpaceX, or Solar City. It's not to see if they are interested in that industry. You probably already have experience as some form of engineer and are looking to expand your skill set. You are interning to hopefully get hired because you know that it is a specific company or your skills in engineering or mechanics will be put to the test. You will be involved in the latest cutting edge discoveries. And that is why you're deciding to intern there to be an apprentice of those at the forefront. So you can be practicing your skills with the industry veterans to build out your passion. That is the apprentice intern model. You are always working on a skill and you are interning around at different places to perfect that skill. To just see if the company and you are a good match to see if there are individuals at this company who are ahead of you so you can continue your ever ongoing apprenticeship. It's important to note here that skills can and most likely will be changing when I first learn coding, it was simple HTML. And that has evolved into many other complex languages, which have given me a full-stack overview, which again has allowed me to learn what I like and don't like by working towards a skill I am learning about myself, having fun, and becoming valuable to society. Different projects, jobs, aka internships, are just for me to keep working on my skills. The problem is the traditional education system is distracting us, making us a master of nothing. It's good to have a large knowledge base and be able to do critical thinking. But the problem lies with a lack of direction and ability to specialize. How can I know what I like or do not like if I have not dove into something more than just surface level. This is why we should be in a continuous apprenticeship and always looking to intern at different places to sharpen our skills, The Apprentice intern model. So what's the issue with the current internship model? Nothing, at least on paper, It's important not to imply that internet companies is bad. It's crucial for the employee and the employer to see if there is a compatible relationship. This is not what's wrong. The issue is that we are delaying the more important role of an internship further and further, even worse, we are using internships to see if we like an industry or skill rather than the company, as we should already know our skill, we want to work on The apprentice internship model strives to fix just that, to move the interning process forward and with a clear intention. So you are more in control and aware of your passions before interning aimlessly, you as an individual, must take more responsibility for your future. In an outdated system, a system that does not encourage learning to its fullest ability of a system that focuses on leaching onto your time in killing your productivity to make a profit. The idea is there is always a better way to get ahead instead of just blindly going through the steps. And by working on yourself, your skills while interning, to snoop around. A powerful and fun way to do that, experience is at the core of education. So you can make better decisions by drawling connections from hard-coded events in the past. It's quite odd that we wait until college to begin this internship process. The current school system fails the youth by holding their hand through each year without encouraging them to take initiative for what's next. By the time you're in your early twenties, you should no longer be interning in today's definition, but rather you should be evolving your skills in a focused yet freely evolving apprenticeship where you can keep refining your desired skill sets. Interning at companies, not to see if that industry is what you like, but rather to see if that company is a good fit to further pursue your passions. And my uncle Carson helped develop this idea during our initial interview by piecing together all the points we were discussing. The key idea revolves around planning ahead, always interning your next move. So you not just the void getting caught off guard, but you experience a bit of your future. So you know it's a direction you want to move forward in the main ideas this get into step one there rethinking step before making a decision. Apply the apprentice intermodal into the educational process to create a powerful feedback loop. 9. Self - Focus - Priorities: Step number 2, focus. If you have more than three priorities, you don't have any. Jim Collins, did you know that there's a hidden rule that is deeply woven into our world. Pierre till and Economics who published a paper in 1896 at the University of Hussein in Switzerland, demonstrated with his research that there was a rule is showing up in all forms of life, from wealth distribution to the way businesses were managed and even the distribution of pea pod ratios in his garden. This research and discovery later gave birth to the Pareto principle. When management consulted Joseph M. Juren suggests that the rule be named after peer TO a more popular or at least a recognizable name for this rule, you may have already heard is the 80 20 rule. In basic terms, it means 80 percent of your outcomes come from 20 percent of your inputs. Think about that. If you're an employee or a founder, that means only 20 percent of your work is what creates 80 percent of the value. What can you do with that kind of knowledge? People drop out of school for many reasons. You've probably noticed that some of the most famous entrepreneurs are the ones that dropped out. Some of the most notable include Sir Richard Branson from virgin, Michael Dell from Dell computers, Steve Jobs with Apple, Bill Gates, Microsoft, Evan Williams, Twitter co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, facebook. Larry Ellison from Oracle. John Kwame WhatsApp, Travis cowl, neck, Hoover, John Mackey, Whole Foods. The list goes on and on. By dropping out of these schools, these people eliminated their plan B, cornered yourself, and there's only one way out. So you need to give everything you got. Without a fallback plan, it wakes you up to reality. There's an unbelievable amount of historical references to what happens when people have a serious time constraint. Simply by giving your brain a deadline, you are compelled to work like never before. All the fluff around you disappears in your work becomes clear. This doesn't mean schools and not the way to become successful. Of course, there is an infinite list of famous people and successful people who have graduated. It's all about having clear focus. Too many subjects may actually be your biggest enemy. Having many activities going on can be a blessing. Being busy is often positive thing in the Western society. However, not all busy is a blessing. Being busy can also mean spreading yourself too thin with not enough focus on any one project. So rather than being busy on many different things, it's much more advisable to be busy on one specific task. 10. Self - Focus - Present: Focus on what's important. That's the secret sauce. You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage, pleasantly, smilingly, non unapologetically, to say no to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger yes, burning inside the enemy of the best is often the good. Stefan Kofi. Be grateful for where you already are. Focus on what you have in not what you don't. There is one simple way that you can make all you already have your experiences, talks, and encounters more beneficial. Imagine there is a way you could always get Tenex more out of any interaction or lesson. Imagine leaving a meeting with a guidance counselor where you actually learn something beneficial and you're one step closer to accomplishing your goal of graduating earlier. Imagine going from asking your professor after class about a problem on your homework to going to dinner with them, to the landing, an internship, all from a change in report you had with them? That's what one of my friends did. Yes, he would go to dinners with his professors. These are simple yet effective tactics my friends and I in New York City have used at the time to help us progress. These tactics were based on one concept or trick. It's something that took me a while to understand. In even to this day, I need to practice. Yet even as small tweak using this concept can be massively beneficial. This simple concept is about where your focus is and where it should be at any given moment when you're working on your homework, are you just thinking about being out with friends when you are in a conversation? Are you just thinking about what you're going to say next? When you're out on the beach or hanging out, are you thinking about work you need to get done probably because you were supposed to do it when you're too busy daydreaming about the beach. The key to getting more out of what you already have is being present. This will have tremendous positive ripple effects on not just your productivity, but your confidence in all your relationships be present in the moment. Nile Strauss, the author of New York Times bestseller, the game, said it perfectly when he mentioned his friend dustbin, who made you feel comfortable and important simply by being present as if no one else was there except you. Being in the moment will have massive implications on your network experiences from the same events and meetings, you can double, triple, quadruple the benefits you gained from your interactions. Imagine not just making new connections every day, but imagine these new connections or as deep as connections you may have with childhood friends. How fast can you take your new network connections to new tangible deals and opportunities? Start by trying it today was something small. See if you can remove as much noise as possible and say I will focus on what's in front of me. I will give it all to my attention because when I'm done, I will move on and give the next thing all my attention. See how far that little experiment goes. I can't wait to hear what it does for you. The next thing we need to do is help make that your default mode. Let's get started. 11. Self - Focus - Automate (Habit): How to automate focus, developing a clarity of mind and focus does not manifest right away, but it can start now to be able to honing your focus and internalize your priorities takes practice. It's just like learning an instrument or new language. The key is persistence. There is a poem that I am excited to share with you that really helps put this topic into perspective. Who am I? I'm your constant companion. I am your greatest helper or your heaviest burden. I will push you onward or drag you down to failure. I am completely at your command. Half the things you do, you might just as well turnover to me and I will be able to do them quickly and correctly. I'm easily managed. You must merely be firm with me. Show me exactly how you want something done. And after a few lessons, I will do it automatically. I am the servant of all great men and alas, of all failures as well. Those who are great, I have made grade, those who are failures. I have made failures. I am not a machine though. I will work with all the precision of a machine plus the intelligence of a man. You may run me for profit or run me for ruin. It makes no difference to me. Take me, trained me, be firm with me, and I will put the world at your feet. Easy with me and I will destroy you. Who am I? I am a habit. Wow, I remember the first time I read that poem and it blew me away. If you found it helpful, it may be worth hanging this on your wall somewhere where you will always see it. So you can always remember the power of a habit. The best way to form a habit is with a strong morning routine. Start learning about morning routines and forming yours right away. If you don't already do so. 12. Self - Focus - Deciding: Deciding on your area of focus. When I say I'm gonna do something, I do it, I don't give a damn what you think I'm doing this for me? Marshall Bruce matters, the third M&M. Most people don't even know what their priorities are and that's okay. When you study the greats of the world, many didn't have a clue to their mid 20s or 30s and some much later. Don't worry if you don't have a calling yet, it's not the issue. The key is to think deep about what your area of interest might be and just pick something. Once you do, you need to give it every last drop of your dedication, be persistent, and incorporate it into your daily routine. Make your field your priority. Only by being loyal to your priorities, you'll be loyalty yourself. This will give you real fulfillment and satisfaction. It's also super fun as things start opening up for you that always seem to be out of reach and don't stress about picking the wrong thing. If after a year you decide on a job, skill path, etc, it's not for you. At least you won't live without what if I tried this, then what would be? Instead, you will gain a significant amount of confidence in knowing you tried it and then learned it didn't work out. That by doing, you know, more about what you don't like and can make an even more educated decision about your next move. What's next? What happens now that you decided you don't or you do want to pursue further, it's all about perfecting your workflow. You have practice the art of deep focus. Your last experience has opened up new opportunities for you and you have learned more about yourself and what you value, you will now have a much better understanding of what you might want to pursue next. If it's the same field with a new twist or something completely different, every experience is a stepping stone. The more effort you put into each step, the more compelling and exciting the next one will be. 13. Self - Focus - Fun: Work is fun. There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit, tried to be in the first group. There's less competition there. Indira Gandhi. Work is fun when you're excited by it. Learning is exciting and growth is rewarding. I believe it's hard coded in our human nature to always improve ourselves and the world in which we live to strive for the optimal level of oneself and reduce inefficiencies so that greater output can be achieved with less effort. Evidence of efficiency is all around us and goes in depth in our most core aspects of life. Let's take food production for example, in colonial America, agriculture was the primary livelihood for 90% of the population. Work with slow and laborers and people produced what they needed and hopefully extra to sell or barter for goods. Today, agriculture has become so efficient that under 2% of the US population is involved in agriculture. Take your every day life as another example. The first time you learn how to tie your shoe, it took well over a minute, if not two or three, because of multiple attempts. Now you don't even realize you're doing it on the way out the door. If you tire, wear shoes at all, however, to improve or help change the world for the better, one must first realize all the possibilities. Once you see all the cards on the table, you can then at least attempt to pick the best ones, which means you need to be aware of your surroundings and knowledgeable about the choices you can take. If you're simply following the path in conventional career timelines, your school, be it your middle high school or university sets out for you, you're going to get screwed. Don't realize that after you graduate, whatever and wherever that might be from, this current moment. 14. System - Variables - Dissecting: All right guys, moving right along a section to the system, this section is going to be comprised of three different steps. Step number three variables, step number 4, plan, and then step number five, alternatives. Let's get started. Step number three, variables, dissecting the outdated system, IB, AP, DE, collab, essay, and WTF. You can't break the rules until you know how to play the game. Ricky Lee Jones, to navigate and beat the system. First, you need to know how it works. This always seems to get messy, so we're going to really break it down. If someone asks you about the options in our current educational system, you will be able to tell them exactly what they are and why you will or will not be doing certain ones. Luckily for you, I've done all five and no many others who have as well. We'll review the textbook definition, reality and the ideal student, the requirements and how to get started for each of the five terms. It is important to realize that each one can work completely different wonders, depending on where you want to go after high school, college, and so forth. Each has a massively different input and output ratio. There really is no one size fits all solution. That is why in this step, we first explore each one in depth before moving on to the next step of planning, Let's get started. 15. System - Variables - IB: International Baccalaureate, IB. Learn more at, textbook definition for students aged three to 19, IB programs challenge students to excel in their studies and encouraged both personal and academic achievement. Founded in 1968, the International Baccalaureate IB program is a non-profit educational foundation offering for highly respected programs of international education that develop the intellectual, personal, emotional, and social skills needed to live, learn, and work in a rapidly globalizing world. Schools must be authorized by the IB organization to offer any of the programs, reality and ideal student objectively, IB is probably one of the best options. However, it may not be your best option. Basically, if you're looking to go to a school like Harvard, go out of the country soon, or are looking for the best high school education. Ib may be the way to go. Other than that, it can be very demanding and potentially distracting. Ib can offer various scholarships, even at the high school level. And schools will go the extra mile to accumulate IB kids, even change hold bus routes. Like for me when I decided to go and was out of county. It varies from school to school. So you'd have to ask your counselor what scholarships or benefits would be for your school. Ib gives you the potential for a deeper, well-rounded education. More schools, except IB credits and are internationally recognized. In most schools in IBA outweighs in APA, you get more credit for it, which equals a higher GPA. As an IB student, you will be much more prepared to take on more advanced level courses down the road. This can be a con to, since the reason for it is because you do a lot more studying during high school. Ib requires a lot of work. I'd be kids are increasingly isolated from the rest of the school, not by choice, but just that's how the class is line up. Not always a con, but for some high schoolers, this may suck. It means being separated from friends that are not IB. Ib credits are also risky business. They are decided by one final exam at the end of your school career. Ib is also less flexible when compared to only taking specific higher-level courses you're interested in, as is the case with AP, IB does however, have a global alumni network. This is what it says for students currently enrolled, open quote, IB is extremely proud of its graduates and the alumni network connects them with one another and with the IB community. Members of the alumni network receive a quarterly newsletter, as well as opportunities to connect with graduates from all over the world. Students who will graduate in the next two years are encouraged to join closed parenthesis. Alumni networks are very helpful and can keep paying dividends throughout your life. They should never be underestimated. Steps 6 through 7 in section 3 of this course expands on alumni networking for me personally, in the end, it was not worth it. The flexibility was very low and anyone that didn't want to go all in usually ended up with less than a student who just did one or more API classes requirements for most schools, anyone can join their IB diploma program. Here's an example of the school. I went to, Sebastian River High School, open parentheses. The IB diploma program is a two-year program beginning in the junior year, we offer three higher level courses and five standard level courses. Which classes they take depend on their strengths, interests, and on the discussion with the IB counselor or IV coordinator. In addition, students are required to take a theory of knowledge TO okay, right, an independent research essay, the extended essay, and complete a 150 hours of creativity, action and service CAS requirements, close parentheses, how to get started. Most schools will recommend contacting their IB counselor or coordinator. The best thing to do would be to go to your school's website and contact both if available. 16. System - Variables - AP: Advanced placement, AP, learn more at AP student dot Textbook definition with roots dating back to the end of World War Two. Advanced Placement API is a program in the United States and Canada, created by the College Board, which offers college level curricula and examinations to high school students in American colleges and universities often grant placement and course credits to students who obtain high scores on the examinations. The AP curriculum for each of the various subjects is created for the College Board by a panel of experts and college level educators in that field of study. For a high school course to have the API designation, the course must be audited by the College Board to ascertain that it satisfies the AP curriculum. If the course is approved, the school may use the API designation and the course will be publicly listed on the AP course ledger in 2013, the most taken AP exam was English language and composition with 476,277 students. And the least taken AP exam was Japanese language and culture, with one hundred, one hundred and sixty nine students. Reality and ideal student flexibility. Unlike IB, you can just pick some AP classes you have particular interest in, does take exams multiple times. Schools can choose from more than 30 AP courses. This, unlike IB, gives you more opportunity to pick subjects that directly reflect your interests. A successful AP course exam translates to college credit. To possible downsides, is that one, hard AP classes, like AP Physics or Spanish for me, can lower your GPA. And to your preferred subjects may not be offered, but you should still be able to take the tests. This is very advisable. For example, I did not take a German AP class, did take the German AP test and got my college credits. This is a no brainer for anyone who speaks as second language on a close to native level. One of the things that makes API unique from other programs like IB or dual enrollment courses, is that you can take an AP test without taking the AP class? Yes. The point of a class is to prepare you for the exam in the spring, but don't be discouraged. Ap classes can often be filled with fluff or bad teachers. Rather, get the AP prep book and learn exactly what you need to know in a shorter period of time. The AP prep book is advisable regardless if you take the class are not requirements. Approval of guidance counselor, simple enough, but some may be require you to have a certain GPA or they may not allow you to add an AP class to your schedule. How to get started, start by finding which classes your school offers. Remember, is sometimes your guidance counselor will advise against taking the test outright. I would counter that by saying by an AP exam, study guide with practice test, and see for yourself, then tell your guidance counselor if it worked or not. If you believe you need more practice, you have two options. Study on your own or take the course as a normal high school class. Keep in mind that studying for an AP test can be very difficult and require weeks of dedicated studying. These tests, in my experience, are harder than CLEP tests, which we will discuss later. One of the most common approaches would be taking an AP class while studying on your own. This is a great strategy for a harder course. I would advise adding a CLEP test on the same subject as well. The more college credits you have, the better much of the time they can be used for electives are combined with AP credits to remove the college required credits. It's one big fun puzzle or many pieces fit in the same spot. It's up to you to get creative. 17. System - Variables - DE: Dual enrollment DE, There's no official site. Simply search for dual enrollment in your area. Example, search dual enrollment in Indian River County textbook definition. Dual enrollment is a program which allows eligible high school students to earn credit towards high school graduation and future college degree programs. Reality and ideal student. Dual enrollment, 100% will help mold the future of education simply because it should be a no-brainer for all high school students or summer college students with extra free time. It's very flexible. Paid for college, your free time increases a lot. You get college campus exposure while still in high school, and you expand your network to college kids and more serious teachers. Sometimes caution your college classes may be worse than your high school classes. This was definitely the case for me. Top AP and IB teachers and courses are now converted to sometimes lazy be as general education college classes. This is where he start learning how useless much of the college can be. Granted. These are general education classes at a community college. One can't expect too much, but trust me, it doesn't improve much. One last thing to keep in mind is that it may require transportation. I needed a car to drive from my high school to the college campus. This however, had the side benefit of me being able to get off high school campus all the time, regardless of whether I was going to college or not. This was very valuable as other kids did not have this privilege. Dual enrollment is very empowering and will make you feel light years ahead because you will be requirements. Here are some requirements of my high-school DE dual enrollment program. One, have a ninth through 12th grade classification varies by county. Consult your high school advisor for details to provide enhanced ACT SAT re-centered for PER scores that are no more than two years old, three have a minimum 3 weighted high-school GPA for college credit courses, or 2, unweighted high school GPA for technical education courses, how to get started, apply at the local college that offers the DE, the dual enrollment program with your high school. This is similar to an early college application and usually requires a signature from your high school counselor. I would consult your guidance counselor to make sure these credits will work for college credit. Remember to always consult two or more guidance counselors. I can't elaborate enough how I was shocked at the polar opposites to guidance counselors would often tell me on the same subject. In the end, only you will know what is best for you. 18. System - Variables - CLEP: College level examination program can learn more at collab dot textbook definition developed by the College Board, the people behind API and SAT, the college level examination program. Clep has been the most wildly trusted credit by examination program for over 40 years. Accepted by 2.9 thousand colleges and universities and administered in over 1.8 thousand tests centers, collapse. Exam takers was designed for adults just entering or returning to school, military service members and traditional college students, reality and ideal student. Notice they specifically did not mention high-school students. Why? Because CLEP was designed for people with skills they develop outside of traditional academic settings. This makes sense, but excluding high school students from this list is borderline madness. For example, any foreigner or non-English native speaker in the US could easily pass the language CLEP test designed for their native language, especially after taking a few practice test to learn the club structure and timing. Collect is something where you can really do some damage and completely show the traditional school straight line path, your middle finger. It is by far the most flexible and cheapest, roughly a $100 per test way to race through the colleges, normal two years in a few months, clap allows a virtually unlimited amount of attempts to pass them with insanely accurate practice test. Each CLEP test has a six month grace period, AKA, you have to wait six months before retesting a failed test. Subject. Study time requires roughly one to two weeks of an easy two hours a day to pass one of the more challenging exams like calculus or for me, English a conceptus is about 60 to 90 minutes and you can take online practice test are mirror images of the actual exam. So by the time he gets to the test center, you know, for certain, you will pass it. Screw going to school for general ads. They're not just stressful, boring classes, but simply a waste of everyone's time, money, and energy. The only true purpose for GE's is for networking, like meeting friends and finding out where the parties at. After some study time, you're done with that three to four credit class forever. Boom, done. Worst-case, you tried, and no one can criticize you for that. Otherwise, you might deserve some criticism, sign-up, study, and you will pass requirements. None. How to get started? The key part is to make an appointment. This forces you to actually study and not say, well, I can just take it tomorrow, next week or maybe next semester. Best way I've found a study is not to stretch it out, pick a week and just study one to three hours a day and you will pass the test. Boom, you got another three to six credits out of the way. Remember, credits are not always transferable or accepted, especially at Ivy League schools, international schools, or some private ones. It's highly recommended that you check with your desired college or university before taking the exam to see if they accept collab credits. 19. System - Variables - SA: Study abroad. Essay. If there's a will, there's a way. Textbook definition, study abroad programs give you the opportunity to experience the world while gaining college credit. Reality and ideal student. Nothing is more simple and awesome than a 10 days study abroad trip during spring break, when your break, summer, etc, have four to six pre-meetings before the trip and before you know it, you just scored the most awesome and educational three to four credits of your college career in ten days. I have done three study abroad trips, Germany, Peru, and Dubai. They have each been insanely educational and fun. One can learn so much from living on their own while exploring a different countries and continents. They have also each given me school credits and unique times that would otherwise not be possible with normal classes. Two of my study abroad, Peru and Dubai, were done in 10 day long trips. Over spring break. I got all the fun out of traditional spring break, but also college credits so I could graduate early. Perfect combo. The first study abroad trip I did was a one month long program during summer in Germany. This was when I was still in high school. I explored a random programs online and just pick one. I also wrote some of my possible college choices to see if they would accept this study abroad trip as some form of credit. They all did. And if at first they were reluctant to replace a GE class, they would always allow the study abroad trip to replace an elective credit. Remember, it's all about getting creative. And if at first or college, guidance counselor does not budge, ask another requirements, there can be GPA requirements. My last university pace had a minimum GPA requirement of 2.75 compared to a minimum GPA requirement of 3 from u and f. My first university in which I did a study abroad, which was part of the university itself. Some study abroad trips that our study specific, such as finance or international business, usually have core courses requirements, things like business 101 or counting your basic freshman and sophomore courses. This is something you need to check per trip. Remember, these prerequisites can usually be clipped. How to get started? You sign up for the class. That's it. It's daunting at first, but it's easier than you'd think. Also explore and see if there are any study abroad scholarships usually takes about 20 minutes. I found one that randomly paid me $1.5 thousand. I don't even remember why. In the end, if you think this would be something you enjoy, just do it. It's the easiest way to get ahead while having the best time of your college career. There are three main routes. One, the no affiliation or out, simply Google a country name and study abroad programs. Who knows what you will find? This was Germany for me. To the affiliation route, you should ask your school's guidance counselor if there are any partner schools. I did not do this, but an example would be my college pace in New York City had a partner school in China, and I could do a whole semester there. Three, the school travel around. These sometimes come with additional perks or more seamlessly tie into your overall studies. This was Peru and Dubai for me, it was similar to signing up for a normal class, but the delivery was obviously different. 20. System - Variables - Score Board: The overview scoreboard. This is a simple table I made of what I hope could be a quick way to summarize the five different education variables we covered using a scale from one to five with the lowest number representing the term, least in this case, pause here to think about what you learned and how you could use it to your advantage. Always feel free to go back to review specific topics. I also wanted to share the reversal of all this. You could not put the system into perspective and assume that society is looking out for you and has your best interests at heart. System is perfect and change in ownership is bad, that blindly following what your guidance counselor tells you is the best choice and whatever someone puts in your lap, someone who doesn't know you knows what is best for you and your future. The truth is when you're a student, ignorance is not bliss. It's a black hole of time and energy. Find a way to make the system work for you. That is what we are going to be doing in step 4. Again, this is not a one size fits all or deal. The key point is to understand at least roughly the main options. Knowing what exist will help you decide what's right for you, how to align this knowledge and helping you shave off time otherwise spent in some unproductive class. If you're simply going to high school or university based off the schedule you are handed, you will be or get way behind. I know this because most of my friends who ended up doing what their guidance counselors told them ended up going to college for four or six years. They were always complaining that they were missing some requirement which pushed back their studies. The problem was that they did not take time to learn the system. They simply relied on others to figure out their lives for them. In this case, the professional guidance counselor, which we learned most likely don't have the time or your best interests at heart, the world needs more talent and ambition. And these boring classes will suck the life out of you. When in reality you should be sucking them dry, you have a choice and can make a massive difference once you take a life in your own hands. Let's get started. 21. System - Plan - Principles: The next step in Section 2 system is step number 4, plan. If solid goals are established and the majority of time is spent manipulating systems toward those goals, great results will materialize naturally. Sam carpenter, the arbitrage trader. In a way you will be acting as a financial trader that uses a popular strategy known as arbitrage. In other terms, so on who capitalizes on inefficiencies in the market. Making money from buying and selling two similar things just valued at different rates to find gaps and exploit inefficiencies for monetary gains. But in your case, finding things with the same value of school credit but valued at much different rates of time and money. There are two reasons arbitrage is good, including personal gain and providing a public service. First, you can personally benefit by finding system loopholes. Finding alternative ways to finish your education can save you years of time in thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars in educational costs. Secondly, you are pioneering a movement for better learning and facilitating a reduction in our outdated boring school concepts. General education classes in college. You as an individual are creating a more efficient society, becoming a catalyst for improving your countries, struggling educational infrastructure. Print it out. Sometimes it's better to have it in front of you. Stop looking at your requirements online. Take out a pencil and mark it up. Take his scissors and cut it up, rearrange it until it fits. Figure out what you need down to the last hour. The key to finishing ahead of the pack is by studying the end game. The last thing you want to do is take a random classes. Every class should have a purpose and should be the best option from all five education variables we discussed. Boom, now print out that CLEP exam list and make a meeting with your counselor. That's it. Just do this and you're done with college before everyone else. For 56 plus years in college should not be the norm. Reinvest that time and money somewhere else. Put your new laser focus and all your new free time from that early graduation, you're going to have into your next goal and you'll be surprised what's possible. I like to use this easy to remember a truism. What are the five P's of success? Proper planning prevents poor performance. Copy that again, highlighted. Stop and think about it. It doesn't get any more true. Don't worry about being wrong. Moved to the front of the class and raise your hand also, except it's okay to be wrong and not know the answer to a question. When you are putting yourself in the position to be wrong, you are putting yourself in the position to learn a lot. Stop acting like you need to know everything. It's a waste of energy. Be humble and admitting you don't know and keep your ears open. It my trading streams, I get dozens of questions per day. When I first are the streams, it was stressful. I always felt I needed to have an answer or who was I to be streaming finance topics. This was extremely overwhelming and exhausting. Today. I've accepted there is so much more that I don't know, even in my narrow field, I love saying, I don't know, oh my streams now they are no longer stressful. And I learned so much as other viewers help answer questions by accepting. I don't know. I have learned so much more. Think about the famous 10000 hour rule. It is widely said that one must study for 10 thousand hours to become a master in their field. 10 thousand hours works out to be around 20 hours per week for ten years. However, college is only for four years, two of which are worthless high school all over again. And the other two are equally as worthless, in my opinion, if you're only learning from class lecture material. So by the time you leave college, although you were there for four years and got a Minor in a degree such as finance, you actually had about one year of it just scratching the surface of what's out there. That's why you need to plan ahead and start using the apprentice intern model we discussed in Section oneself, step 1, rethink right away. By the time you leave college, you should be further than half a year way through the 10 thousand hours of mastery. How many times have you heard as senior in college say, I have no idea what I want to do. Accounting majors that say, I've never used QuickBooks before. Hello, You're as senior as an accountant and you never used the number one accounting software, WTF? I've been using it since high school for my own businesses. Don't let that be you at the same time. Don't be overwhelmed. You don't need to get anything right today or tomorrow. It's about getting started in making constant edits, you might have a slight idea or an internal voice pointing you in a specific direction. The key here is section one, step to focus. Don't stress yourself on believing you need to decide what you want to do the rest of your life. Like many of the most famous people throughout history, you probably won't come up with an answer right away. You just want to get started. The more you learn about a subject, the more you will learn about what you like or don't like. Each time allowing you to pivot and a refocus with each step forward, new connections and realizations will be made. Each connection is like a jumping stone. Reversal, an action to deny the fact that we need to lay out a clear structure of where you want to go is assuming that everything will eventually fall into your lap. That successful people, no matter what their background, are, only successful because they got lucky that they were born at the right time, in the right place and everything came easy to them. Trust me, from what I've learned, this has never been the case. Even people that get lucky but do not plan quickly become very unlucky. Again, just look at what happens to lottery winners. It's a disaster. You now know that educational system better review your options, notes, and make plans. Hello, you might still be undecided in many aspects. At least make any plan you can focus on for now. You know what they say. A bad plan is better than no plan because when something goes wrong, you will know why and then you can revise your plan. Your plan over time will get better and better. This clear focus will not just give you more energy since you possess a deeper purpose, but will make you feel more connected to the world around you. This is where it gets really fun. As you start focusing on your new path with a deep intensity, things will start changing for the better ideas and concepts we'll start taking root within a few weeks, new ideas will arise that will allow you to amend your current plan. Things that were invisible to you before you start to weed out the less important things in your plan to free up time, yet again, to increase productivity, ultimately, this will create more and more momentum. You now know what needs to be done to get the ball rolling, which is often the hardest part, and keep it rolling faster and faster. Also, you know how to make that happen by default, by building out routines. We are picking up momentum. Some of the hardest parts are behind us. In the next step, step number five, we will explore unique ways to make things more fun and exciting. 22. System - Alternatives - Ideas: Step five, alternatives. However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. Winston Churchill, why you should skip as much school as possible? Sir Richard Branson, 1950 to present, is most widely known for his Virgin brand, which encompasses more than 400 companies around the world. One way Branson was able to be so effective is his skills regarding working with and finding the right people, then giving them the ability to run the business and being as creative as possible. Branson often writes about how he would remove himself from his business, how we often work from home or his houseboat when he was busy running Virgin Records. Now he mainly works from his home on Necker Island, far away from the daily distractions of the world. This simple strategy requires his partners to take responsibility and compels them to get as creative as possible. Keeping each business in a startup like phase, Branson is able to view things from the outside by not being distracted by the daily noise of working inside the office. Why did Branson do this? He mentions several important reasons. One of the important reasons is that it keeps him from getting distracted from the Daily Buzz of an office setting by isolating himself, he mentions it makes his employees more responsible and independent, coming to him for every issue that arises being located in the office, it can be easy to start focusing and getting distracted and all the hustle that's right in front of you. By removing himself from the office, he was able to focus on the bigger picture, focus on what's next, start new projects and find synergy among his enterprises. It's important to remember, however, that Branson isn't tortillas for getting into the dirt of each business and working with employees on all levels. Isolation is a key strategy to empower others, but you still need to be connected to know what's working and what's not. In your situation. It may be good to try and get out of the daily grind as well. For example, by taking that dual enrollment course, you'll be able to skip school in a legal way. For me that allows me to skip over 50 percent of my senior year class time. It allowed me to get a bird's eye view of the high school as I could better understand how it looked from the outside during normal hours, I realized how silly some of it was and more ways to take advantage of the system all while still being in it enough to have a strong sense of what's going on in the trenches. If you are stuck with your plan for member, there are usually many ways to arrive at the same destination. Sometimes first need to remove yourself to see it default as last resort. Don't go into school thinking there is just one way to get through it all. Many successful people use a reverse engineering tactic when it comes to reaching their goals. In this case, finishing college early, What do you want to do is know what is required and work backwards. Start with the end, find out first what is required to finish and then figure out what you can do to get there. Consider using an actual class as your last resort puzzle piece. Sometimes you can literally makeup credits through internships and study abroad. Internalized the idea that finishing college 12 or three semesters early is not far out of the question. Even with transferring schools are slacking office semester. Always, always, always. Question what your guidance counselor tells you. When I was a junior, I was already so fed up with the poor advice I have been receiving over the past couple of years. I would literally call my counselor out for whatever horrible idea they suggested when I transfer it to pace, they tried to make me take an English GE class again for what felt like the 10th time. In the end, I had to, but I was able to get them to accept all my other English classes for other credits. I think this upset a few counselors, but who cares? So next time you hear, it's important to take English for the 10th time, so you're prepared for calculus. You say, No thanks. I've already clipped that class. Believe there is always a better way. Get multiple sources of feedback. Now sometimes, like my angle is GE class that pays, you just have to go through certain classes. In that case, if all other options are exhausted, I would recommend piling them up. Despite popular complaints, classes are not always that hard, especially for pre master's courses. The thing is, some classes are prerequisites and are simply required to be done in a certain order. You want to get these all out of the way so you can start opening up your schedule, take more than four to five classes. You will never get ahead when you're trying to get even. And four to five classes is even, possibly below even, especially when you realize you need to drop one. It only gets heavy during a week of finals, but don't regret it. Just compensate party harder and maybe faster. So he can get back to studying proven ways to find more alternatives and opportunities. Join organizations, specifically clubs, one of the top places to learn more about alternatives to take your plant to the next level is from people who have done them. There are so many golden nuggets weighting be dug up. You will be surprised how much people want to help, even if it's just their way of flexing, that's fine. You are getting invaluable information from them. Remember everyone's favorite topic is themselves. We'll go much deeper into how to navigate clubs in step 3, growth, college, niche clubs are usually somewhat underfunded and overshadowed by other university organizations such as Greek life. But don't let that be a reason to overlook them. They are 100% underrated. When you meet individuals in a club, it is usually a smaller group of individuals in all grades that are very interested in, sometimes highly knowledgeable on a specific subject. Compare that to a sorority or a frat, where the main reason for joining is to party and make you do things that waste time. Good learned from individuals in smaller niche clubs can be potentially mind blowing, especially the upperclassmen who are about to graduate and know exactly what they would've done if they were freshmen. Again, graduating without being in a club is like being passionate about physics. And you just learn to Albert Einstein is your uncle, right? As he passes away, it's a waste and it's a resource that many people overlook because they think they have all the time in the world. You don't. I joined the Rotary Club investment club and eventually coast started the hedge fund club at Pace University. Got me in touch with some lifelong friends, Professor lunch. This is something that caught me off guard at first all until I had a friend who absolutely mastered it. After that, I started to realize this is quite normal. All of a sudden it was happening all around me, was I always blind to it. This is not supposed to be a date. This is to build rapport and pick their brain. Professors love when students show interest in they are in the position to give back directly, having a hard time finding an internship, ask your professor if he or she has time to sit down, have a coffee because you'd love to ask them about when they worked at company X. Now that will open some doors, consult various guidance counselors. For my junior year of college. I transferred schools. I moved from Florida to New York City. And trust me, they did not want to accept any credits. Not just was it from a Southern to Northern school, but it was from a public to private school. I first counselor basically said no to anything that wasn't as specific as calculus or statistics. So when I had a business study abroad trip to Peru, they basically laughed. It took a lot of emailing and then setting up a meeting with a counselor. I had no idea about to get them approved somehow. It definitely takes patients at times, but it's always good to be kind, don't be scared to be direct with people. Tell them how you feel about it. Don't accept silly responses. You're a serious person and you expect people to treat you that way. When it comes to counselors, you've got to accept bureaucracies for what they are. They're structured in a rigorously wasteful way, to be just that wasteful. They don't want people slipping through the cracks to the upside or the downside. And they usually want you to stay in school longer. Because the bigger the school, the more money it makes, you should simply not take what they have to say at face value. If you assume there's a hidden agenda that will let you ask the right questions when you see something that doesn't make sense, never take one of their opinions as the final word. Always discuss with at least three counselors, if not all of them. As a good rule of thumb, don't expect anything from a guidance counselor come to the meeting prepared and ask for approval of your plan. If you plan to take a course where you have a prerequisite missing, Here's your strategy. One, asked for permission to take an even more advanced class, knowing that they will deny it. To ask for permission to take the class that you really wanted and present your reasoning. 3, if denied, ask the person, professor administrator, that could write a recommendation that would enable the counselor to override the system. Do not leave unless you get a name. Professor Dean of the department, head of the university, and so on, who can override it, then try that person. Every human is different and everyone knows something else. It would be a shame to not talk to the one guidance counselor or a person who had experience with a similar case and can give you some really helpful feedback. This Is Your Life and valuable time they are juggling with. That is no joke. Google and biographies. You never know what might pop up. Just don't get too distracted. Research what others in your field are doing as much as possible about what alternatives, such as vocational schools or topic-specific camps are programs there are, you'll almost always find something and keep in mind, you can always be the first to start something at your school as well. By taking this course, you are already separating yourself from the herd. One thing I love to do is read biographies. That always puts every time period you are going through in perspective. 23. Synergy - Growth - Gather Teach Network: All right, Welcome to the last section, Section 3, synergy. There are two steps in this section, step number 6, growth and step number 7, authority. I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I've become. If I had, I'd have done it a lot earlier. Oprah Winfrey, if you find it in your heart to care for someone else, you will have succeeded. Maya Angelou. Step 6, growth, gather knowledge. Benjamin Franklin, born in Boston, Massachusetts and lived from 1776 to 1790, became known as a master of all crafts. If you're ever looking into a good documentary or biography book, I'd highly recommend ONE about him. He even brewed his own beer like Benjamin, you want to commit to lifelong learning? One quality of leaders in high achievers in every area seems to be a commitment to ongoing personal and professional development. They look upon themselves as works in progress. They never become complacent or satisfied. They are always striving towards ever greater heights of knowledge and understanding. They never once believe they know everything, read all you can about your field. Get book summaries to save time, but stay focused on mastering one topic at a time. Build your own library of important books in your field and never be cheap about your education. If you read one hour per day in your field, that will translate into about one book per week. One book per week translates into about 50 books per year. 50 books per year will translate into about 500 books over the next 10 years. Ask a lot of questions. No two people are the same. Everyone has different motives and reasons for doing things. Actively listening and absorbing what individuals say, you will be able to ask them the right questions. Don't try to impose or show how great you are. You want to learn as much as you can from these people. See what makes them tick. You'll want to first listen to people from a neutral perspective and without an agenda to press on them. Always think, what can I learn? Teach, teaching others is not just a nice and fun thing to do, but it can't be one of the most beneficial things to your own mastery. Teaching has been regarded as one of the best ways to learn and test your own skills. Don't be scared about having your weak areas shown. Remember, it's fine to admit you don't know. Take that pressure of always having an answer off, you'll live happier for it. These are just moments where we are again, the student and, or the moments we are shown what needs to be learned next. And easy way to start teaching is by documenting your progress and sharing it, expanding your network. Everyone knows the president. This is when you are able to capitalize on all your knowledge you gathered when you first join your organization, you will already know how to motivate others because you were there, you roughly know what their short and long-term goals are. You have been in the trenches with them. You have built a connection with people by being present during your conversations, asking genuine follow-up questions rather than cold questions from a predetermined agenda. In a typical bureaucratic setting, seniority is typically how one moves up in rank. While in a small club, the best person is usually not the one who's been there the longest, but the one who knows the most or wants to be. Once you find your niche, study your craft, and get involved, read as much as you can. By the end of your first year, there is no reason for you not to be president. Once you are president or the head of your club or organization, many little doors like to randomly appear. You naturally meet with other high level people. These are the exact people who will help you find more of those alternatives we talked about in step number five, which will help you revise your plan. And step number 4, this is crucial. Becoming higher ranking in an organization makes you more well-known. The more well-known you are, the more connections you can make. The more connections you make, the more opportunities you get, the more opportunities you get, the higher ranking you become. It's an awesome vicious circle. Meet people, learn, apply new opportunities, increase social status. Repeat a quick recap. By now you have a plan, even if you are not 100% yet sure where your passion really lies. You have built not just a foundation where you have made your time effective. You have given your life deeper purpose and now have built a network around yourself where you can further develop your ideas. Your job now is to focus on step 6, growth as much as possible to keep strengthening this foundation you have built naturally as you learn more about your field, you will begin to identify flaws. This is when you will know that you are ready for step 7, establishing yourself as an authority. It will happen not by force, but it will be inevitable. 24. Synergy - Authority - Putting It All Together: Section 3, synergy, step 7, authority. One hour per day of study in your chosen field is all. It takes. One hour per day of study will put you at the top of your field. Within three years. Within five years, you'll be a national authority. In seven years, you can be one of the best people in the world at what you do. Earl Nightingale, authority is mainly immoral power. Therefore, it was first call upon the conscience. That is, upon the duty that each person has to contribute willingly to the common good. Pope John the 23rd. Building credibility. This is where step 6, growth was and always will be a crucial. You need a framework to work off of something people can identify you with. See your past work, understand your knowledge and influence in the field or organization in order to make better recommendations and actually become an authority or go to figure in your field. Don't be intimidated. Remember that everything in this world was all just an idea at 1 from someone on top of that, like our school system. It's probably a pretty old idea, one that may never have been that great to begin with. We know this by comparing our school system to the others around the world. Ideas and systems are meant to evolve. The combustion engine, for example, it was a great invention. It drastically improved transportation. Now however, it harms our environment and is one of the next inventions that will soon take it back seat, even though it is still what most of the world runs on now. Just because things are, doesn't mean they should be challenge the status quo. Start small is key. Try it out, see what happens. Take feedback, learn from it, and optimize from there. It's easier to scale an idea with strong fundamentals. And sometimes an idea needs to go back to the whiteboard a 100 times before it gets its fundamentals right? The nice part is if you start small, it won't be hard to start over and even better, it won't be hard to get started. And once the ball is rolling, the snowball effect takes over. Always ask why humbling yourself and taking the seat of a novice can be very rewarding, yet very difficult to do. It is in our nature to act like the one that knows at all. But you'll find in life that people who ask why are usually the ones that know the most. Authority figures are not afraid to ask why they want to be challenged and they want to learn. Listen, it's the best thing you can do. The easiest way to make people like you is by deeply listening to them. Give them 100% of your focus. Like they are the only person in the room that matters. Not just will you learn more, but you will make the experience better for everyone. Your follow-up questions will be much more engaging and you will learn much more about the individual by seeing where he or she takes the conversation rather than waiting for an opening and to ask an aimless question or talk about yourself, be present. Nothing else matters as much as now because this is the only thing we can change. Look to learn the best questions many times, or the follow-up questions that allow the person talking to explore their thoughts. As you listen, you are the one learning in the conversation. It's really the win-win position. Remember to be persistent. Nothing happens overnight. Like the habit poem, who am I? It's important to work on your skills daily, create a routine and automate productivity as much as possible. Even if it's just 15 minutes. I have found that I myself, most individuals and often on motivated to get myself to do something. I will tell myself, for example, to write just one line of code that is often the hardest line. And I go on doing much more, even if I don't, that one line of code over a year is still a shit ton of code. Modify your plan in step three, variables, Step 4, plan, and step five, alternatives. You have learned the game and you have turned the whole system into your playground. In step 6, growth, you have to develop your foundation. You have learned from your network and are now able to give back by teaching others. You have grown your network to include more than just students, but also professors and other authority figures. In step seven, authority you have again, taking yourself to the next level where you see all the moving parts you are able to influence from the top down throughout your organization and network. Other university officials might start asking for your opinions on new programs that are close to your field. These moments can present unique opportunities to make loopholes for your plan, but also improve the system for others, you now have the authority to start influencing the system in a positive way, to take the baton from those before you and help mold the system into a better future. And that wraps it up. Self system in synergy, work on yourself and your skill set, understand the system, and then grow and become an authority figure to start influencing the system. I'm super happy that you decided to take this course and see it through the end. Don't forget to submit your class project in any future videos will be to answer student questions and explore those gold nuggets we discussed in the beginning. I hope you have enjoyed this course and I wish you the best of luck in your journey. Bye for now.