How Attending University in my 40s Helped Me to Become a Better Entrepreneur

One of the things that I noticed when I arrived at university aside from the fact that I was twice the age of some of my classmates was that I had to be careful with the opinions I expressed.

The benefit of attending when I was 40 was that I had learned a ton of lessons where the rubber hits the road and for me it was while twisting wrenches in the army. No one in my social circle had ever attended university.

I pissed off my professor one day when he shared a bit of information and I honestly and naively commented that "I don't see things that way."

I got the "HOW DARE YOU" stare. Rightly so I supposed, he had been extrapolating from data for more than 11 years. I had merely been living life or acquiring data in a different way for 40.

Yes, I say that now with tongue in cheek. Some of the best gifts I have ever been given have been by people who have pissed me off. I hope he feels the same.

The university experience is not one that I would trade in a million years. It has value beyond what I could have imagined.. I feel it was a real supplement to the lessons I had learned. It helped me to make sense of my life experiences. this resulted in me doing much better in life. University is a blessing - not the only route to a job but a real benefit to me in my business. It also helped me to understand people better.

I meet people who are out there without the benefit of education and people with biases against people with degrees. I have a foot in both canoes so to speak - a tradeswoman with a degree helps me to connect to a broader range of people. It also helps me to build bridges between people where the lack of information each has is a barrier to connection.

You see, learning where the rubber hits the road has a ton of value that is often undervalued in academia. That's sad because they could be rocking if they waited to get a degree after they had a little "experiential learning" under their belts. Just sayin'

I would recommend getting a degree to anyone - I can't explain the benefit of a broader mind, a more curious mind, a mind that has been trained to look at things from a new perspective - that's the real benefit of my university degree and I would indeed do it again. It's likely I will - I do consider myself a knowledge addict with an opinion.

From the perspective of business - the S T R E T C H I N G of the mind that took place by learning a substantial amount of information in my 40s complimented by the school of hard knocks experiences have been.....words escape me - it's da bomb.