By Bill Quain
Welcome back to the “Cost of College” series in my “Six Words on a Boardwalk Bench” column. If you haven’t been following me, check out the past few issues at shorelocalnews.com. Today, hold on tight because I am going to share a huge insider’s secret about making college worth it. It is the one key you need to know to become more valuable.
This key secret?
Have more of what others want.
That’s it, nice and simple. Yet, so few people get it. Certainly, very few people in college get it! Most faculty and administrators don’t get it, and this means that no one is passing on this valuable secret to the students.
Getting ready for the job fair
At Stockton University, our Career Education and Development Team is super. Each semester they sponsor a great job fair. Recently, I advised my students to get a list of the employers who would be at the job fair and to do some research on the five companies they most wanted to meet with. I asked the students to tell me what information they would look for online. A surprising answer came up again and again: “I’d look to see if their values aligned with mine.” This is stunning, and it shows just how much college has changed since I was an undergraduate. These 19- and 20-year-old students were actually evaluating the values their prospective employer had to make sure it was a company that they would be willing to work for.
The death of teaching individual prosperity
Universities today are focused on creating grand social changes and movements, and they teach it to their students. For example, I went to Cornell University, and I learned how to be personally successful. These days their motto is “To Do the Greatest Good.” Now, I spent a lot of money to go to Cornell. Believe me, I wasn’t there “To Do the Greatest Good.” I was there to “Create the Greatest Individual Prosperity” that I could achieve with my degree!
Students: It’s okay to personally succeed!
Look, it’s all fine and good to learn “how others are suffering” while you are still in school. But the day you graduate, you’ll be hit with a sudden realization: Hey, I need some money fast! From that first day until your last day, you’re going to have the exact same realization! You need money, and the only one who can get you that money is you.
Stand out. Stand up. Start now.
Look around you at college. Every student there is studying the same subjects from the same textbooks. It is happening all across the country! You need to do something special, so that when you go after that first job, that next promotion, and the career of your dreams, you’ll stand out from all the rest. Believe me, in this life, you don’t want to be average. You want to be successful.
It’s all about what they want.
When you graduate, you’re going to want more money, and the only place you can get more money is from people who already have it. Your first job, and your job every day after that, is to figure out what the people with money want more than the money they have. When you’re researching a potential employer (or a potential customer), don’t worry about their values. Worry about what you can give them for their money! Look, you are a good person, right? You aren’t going to do anything dishonest, right? Okay, worry about your values, but worry just as much as how to give your employer or your customers value, not values.
Money talks and says, “Command me.”
In my book “Money Talks: The first-ever interview between man and money,” I actually found Money and interviewed him. Money told me something really, really important. He said, “Money can’t go anywhere unless someone who already has money commands me to go there.” In order for you to get others to command their money to go to you, you have to be a valuable animal. You need to stand out from the others. You need to be valuable, and you get valuable by learning what other people want.
What is it that people want?
That’s the big question, isn’t it? You can spend a lifetime working on it. I’ll tell you this, everyone wants the following:
1. Someone who will listen to them.
2. Someone who is always on time and who stays until the job is done.
3. Someone who does the job right the first time. If something goes wrong (and something is always going wrong), then he/she will fix the problem.
4. Finally, everyone wants more than they give up to get what they want. Remember, you have something they want, and they have something you want. They’ll trade their money for it, and you’ll walk away happy!
Learn this, and you’ll stand out.
You’ll stand out because almost no one understands how money works. You’ll also stand out because you’ll be in demand. Finally, you’ll stand out because you’ll be debt-free, confident, and successful. And that, my friends, is not the average person in this world.
Take today’s column to the bank!
What do you think? Drop me an email to bill@quain.com. Stay tuned, because we aren’t done with this series. As I say each week, I’ll see ya in the papers!
