College Degree Substitutes - don't be a bureaucrat

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." - Buckminster Fuller

You do not need a college to learn, not even Bastiat Free University. You don't need anyones permission or approval. "Man is free at the moment he wishes to be." - Voltaire

Replacing a college degree at the end of the bureaucratic age will not be an easy substitution. In fact you will work harder and learn more than most students at a state university.

That's good news. This will not be busy work, make work, or short term memorization. It will be study you select because it has direct value, for you.

The required work can be done faster, and it certainly will help you outperform most college graduates, in almost any discipline. But just because you will be better equipped and a more adaptable performer does not mean your substitute college degree will be accepted in mindless bureaucracies.

Happily mindless bureaucracies are dying along with the bureaucratic age. With a college degree substitute you are preparing yourself for a more discerning, individualistic age. We call those so equipped The Netcohort.

Two Steps To Your College Degree Substitute.

First you need to start your own blog. This will be the public record of your achievements and it needn't cost money, just time.

Second you need to decide on your course of study and find an exceptional mentor(s). You can go it alone - but a mentor can help keep you on track and add their valuable experience to your learning.

What Are The Benefits of A Substitute College Degree?

Self confidence, freedom, knowledge, adaptability, life long learning, and a host of other attributes you will acquire. What you sacrifice is a piece of paper that says so many years ago you complied with a bunch of silly regulations and you are now qualified to follow stupid orders without question.

What you gain is a website / blog that demonstrates your growth, within your field, with improved communications skills and a dazzling breadth of knowledge.

You can now start or grow your own company, work with compatriots at changing the world, or dedicate yourself to further learning.

Once you start your college degree substitute regime let us know. A bunch of folks who are dedicated to personal growth may get us to start re-issuing Bastiat Free University learning certificates or even unaccredited degrees.

After all, it will be easy to review your efforts; recognition of completion and a final assignment should be enough. Books, materials, mentor rewards, and review of your blog and learning documentation by BFU could cost less than a year in a traditional education institution, perhaps much less (use library books, etc.).

What is the downside to creating a college degree substitute?

As will be covered in the next section, put a link to your student blog in your resume and your cover letter. This should impress everyone except the educational establishment, corporate bureaucrats, and state licensing bureaus. They want proof that you will quietly comply to any authority. A formal college degree is needed to prove that.


Another option; take a look at the Netcohort Institute.

Or -- create a college degree substitute on your own.

This new college model does not even need BFU, except perhaps as some form of middleman. There is a lot to consider.

Lets put a bit more clay on to the sculpture.

* Find a mentor in the field you wish to enter; someone that won't mind asking and answering questions.

* Get your mentor to review each blog entry so you can improve it.

* Create multiple choice questions and/or review points on each chapter you have read and add those to your blog post.

* Correct the entry, then have your mentor acknowledge your work in the comments.

Pay your mentor well, but remind him he will profit not only by all the direct work he does with you, but by others being able to judge the excellence of his efforts to assist you. Negotiate everything you can think of upfront until you both are satisfied.

Ask your mentor to emphasize where you have failed to improve. This is not like archaic institutional schools where the goal was a high grade. If you are desiring to learn -- failure with insightful correction is a much better teacher than steady success. For that reason you should seek opportunity to exceed what you think is possible. Stretch yourself.

You will have done more thorough work and learning than in most college degree programs. Anyone wishing to verify your knowledge can read the blog you created. You will also be able to review your learning by referring to what you have written.

Show depth and flexibility by also blogging on books, seminars, and courses outside your immediate area of study. These will probably not need your mentor's acknowledgment.

This will not help you win a cubical in a warehouse like bureaucracy - but that is probably not what you wanted anyway. Any opportunities you discover will be with compatriots that want to work with people of determination and achievement. That can be a very good thing.

Diplomas are losing value as they become common and as bureaucracies shrink. A diploma is a dead document representing past compliance with inflexible regulations. Your blog can be a living document that displays your continued growth. You can do this even if you already have a degree.

If you wanted to start a company and change the world where would you look for fellow innovators; to those with an MBA degree and five years experience in a cube farm, or to those striving constantly for understanding and wisdom and then acting on what they learn?

So would I.

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100% of direct income from my lenses goes to Bastiat Free University and to micro-finance solutions for world poverty provided by the Grameen Foundation. The Grameen Foundation is creating a rising tide of positive influence upon our world.

Will YOUR life be based on what you want to use it to accomplish, or by random urges of what you want to do?

"We hear fables about the past, we develop dreams of the future, but the work needs to be done today." - Allan R. Wallace