Your Life is Determined Before You Graduate College (Unless You Wake Up)

*Disclaimer: This post isn't intended to piss anyone off, but it might. I'm just trying to get you to open your mind and wake the fuck up...*


Today college loans have passed credit card debt as the highest debt in America. Due to the way the system works, college students are essentially forced to go to educational institutions or forget about getting a job. Every college kid thinks it, "How the fuck is learning about all this random bullshit going to help me in the real world after I graduate?" I go to Amherst College, the 2nd best liberal arts college in the country and a great place to learn filled with unbelievable people, but how am I going to use "History of Western Civilization Medicine" as soon as I graduate? The answer is I won't. A prominent professor at my school told my class freshman year, "I don't care if you learn a single thing in my class. I don't care if you remember a single fact. And I don't care if you're uninterested in the material. What I do care about is that you use your brain as a muscle everyday the same as you would lift weights in the gym. Thinking is to brain as curl is to bicep. Think and your brain will get stronger. College is a place for you to learn HOW TO LEARN and not WHAT TO LEARN" ...........  Mind blown. Had a teacher told me for the first time that all the stuff I had been learning was bullshit?! ..... Crazy liberals.....

 If college wasn't going to teach me what to learn than I was going to teach myself. How could you know what to think about if you've never read the information to think about it properly in the first place? Ever since that day I started teaching myself new things. Looking up new stuff on the internet in business, investing, psychology, personal development, music production, religion, leadership, and the power of belief stimulated my brain more than everything else that school was teaching me. I felt myself getting smarter and my thoughts expanding, validating what this professor had said. With sophomore year coming to a close the whole reality of entering the real world starts to sink in. You're pressured to get an internship and yet most of us still don't know what the fuck we wanna do. We all follow some common path. Do I go corporate, do I work for myself, do I work in an office, do I work outside, do I work with my hands, etc .. trying to find a career is hard because unfortunately most of us believe that we could never have our dream job. The job we could do every day for free seems to escape us somewhere along our life. That thing we can do every day for free is called our passion. I realized my passion is to inspire people to be the best version of themselves. By encouraging people to be better I want to gain the respect and notariety to become someone of influence to make a change in the world. I realized no one listens to you unless you are a somebody and thats just how it is. We all have passions that we are supposed to discover in college, but instead we learn other subjects to pass the time as we figure out what we want to do and by the time we figure it out its too late and we're forced into a career that we never really wanted in the first place.

This to me is the real problem. By teaching kids how to learn instead of what to learn you are preparing them to become employees in Corporate America. They learn how to learn in college and then enter the real job as a low level employee FINALLY learning what to learn, which in this case is super convenient for the employer who essentially is the programer for this new eager brain. People wake up for fifty years of their life to an alarm clock that they hate just for the financial security it brings them. However, how many old people have looked back at their life and said, "Fuck I wish I did that instead. Damn I wish I went after my dream. Boy I lived a decent life but I could've done better". It seems like we perpetuate an unfortunate cycle of giving kids time to learn what they want to do but by the time they figure it out its time to enter the real world. Too often you hear people, "I'm just gonna work for a couple years then try something new". Well the reality of the situation is, you're most likely not. Due to life it's super convenient that you just built up a huge debt to get this college degree and now you graduate begging someone for a job. Steve Jobs said, "The second you realize that all laws, all higher forms of government, all authority figures are people of equal intelligence as you then you realize you can change the world" (slightly paraphrased). It doesn't make sense for me to run to an employer equally intelligent as me with my resume so he can look at me and say, "Rob you are worth XXX amount of dollars a year". Why would you let someone else determine your self worth? This leads me to my next and most major point and hopefully its a reality check for a lot of you. One day in the Philosophy Library I stumbled upon a text in the Socrates section called "The Human Condition". In it were these powerful words, "If you do not want to be the best of the best, If you do not want to be immortal among mortals, then you are not even human but rather an animal that lives and dies and is content with the pleasures around them". This quote (paraphrased) changed my life. Essentially, similar to a squirrel that lives and dies, many humans do the same whom are equally forgotten. If you do not become the best of the best and do something in your lifetime to give yourself longevity then you are no different from the squirrel or any other animal who just lived and died. Even your own family forgets you two generations down the road. How far back can you name your grandpas? Instead of living you chose to exist .. How unfortunate.

Now this is a hard pill to swallow because realistically most of the people reading this blog are unfortunately stuck in the rat race themselves. Its hard to get out because it takes significant effort and energy to move up economic status. The American Dream of starting your own business and following your dreams is basically nonexistent because college is just a feeder into the real world. Has anyone ever thought the crazy things that could happen if maybe we taught kids 4 years of learning how to follow their passions and build business? How to fill out a tax form? Read stock correctly and invest smartly? How to tell if someone is lying to you or not? How to build positive relationship within a staff that you have to manage? How to be a good leader? Listener? How to manage your time correctly? Maybe learn how to meditate and find yourself? The Law of Attraction? Its possible that I am just young and stupid but to me I feel like I'm learning things that won't help me in the real world and when I ask why the answer I get is, "That's just the way it is and always has been" ... Well ... that way seems pretty fucking shitty.

I implore anyone reading this to start the process of finding out what it is you really want. You only life one time on Earth before who the hell knows what happens and you deserve to live it like a king or queen. "Man is heir to all wisdom hidden within the covers of great books". In the age of information (the internet can search anything) being ignorant is a choice. The less people know, the more they think they know. The more you know, the more you realize you don't know. All knowledge is written in some text and its up to you to make the conscious decision to acquire it. Knowledge when used correctly is power and that's exactly what history has shown. If college kids are acquiring the most debt and then entering one of the worst economic situations since The Great Depression then things do not look bright for the upcoming average employee. Entrepreneurs will be the saving grace of the country. They are the ones who read the books (Millionaires have their own individual personal library of books they have read) and followed their passion and turned it into reality. They escaped the the rat race and will create jobs for people in the future. Being an entrepreneur is difficult as proven that only 1% of the world are entrepreneurs. However being an entrepreneur and working towards your passion is the most rewarding. I would rather be on the street making pennies toward my passion than making six figures in a Wall Street job that I hate working 80-100 hours a week. I know that if you follow your passion then the money will come because the hard work will be consistent attached with the desire and belief that you will succeed. If you follow the money then you lose focus of true happiness as proven by so many rich people who admit to not being happy despite having it all. I'm not some elitist who believes that if you're mediocre you are worthless, but I am attempting to write the harsh reality before you so that you can defeat it. It is totally fine to accept what life has thrown at you, but if you only life once, is it worth it to not die a legend?

Ignorance is a choice STUPID!

What's up everyone! Its time for me to officially start writing this blog again. I basically took a year hiatus from this thing just because I never had any inspired thought about what to write. It wouldn't be in my nature to write about something that I did not feel personally attached too. In my mind nothing is interesting to read if the person writing it isn't genuinely interested in what they are writing.  However, over the course of the last couple weeks I've decided that I should really take my blog seriously. I've been fortunate enough that the blog has received 40k+ views at this point and it would be throwing away something special if I just stopped.  Well, now that my intro is over its time to read something interesting!!

In today's age of information ignorance is definitely a choice. Thanks to the internet with just a quick search and a click of a button you can read about anything in the world learning new experiences and filling your mind with new information. Kids are stupid nowadays and think that reading is "nerdy" or "lame"... to me that makes no sense! Your brain is your most powerful asset! Your success in life can directly be correlated by how well you nurture your brain! Learning how to speak properly, build relationships, and carry yourself in the right manner are all life skills that 85% of you need to work on! Age is just a number and being young is no excuse for being ignorant. We're the generation that needs to save this shit hole of an economy and we have the odds stacked against us. Student loans have surpassed credit card debt as the highest debt in America while only around 52% of college students are getting a job out of college with an average starting salary of 27k with the poverty line being 22k! So basically after all the hours in the library, homework, tests, office hour and TA sessions YOU ONLY HAVE A 50% CHANCE OF GETTING A JOB?!  Let that cold hard truth sink in for a moment......

When you stare the facts in the face the future looks dim, however, if our generation would just focus more on personal self development then it would be a piece of cake. Whatever information fills your mind manifests itself in your reality. If you go around thinking that money is hard to come by you will attract more situations in your life where money is hard to come by. (Law of Attraction! Definitely my next blog post because its changing my life and numerous amounts of my close friends) Take the time to seriously do some inner soul searching and figure out what it is that makes you truly happy. The key to living a fully abundant and happy life is to find your true passion, something you could do every single day for free, and then get somebody to pay you for it. Most of us don't want money, its just a piece of paper, we want the things that money can buy. Whatever lifestyle you want to live you have to read about it! If you want to be a millionaire sit down on your ass instead of doing whatever bullshit you think is important in your day and go online and read about how millionaires think and what they did to get where they wanted to be! 90% of people go up to rich people and ask for things while only 10%  take the more humbling approach and ask HOW they got to where they are. No one wants to do the leg work. If you want to be a millionaire fill your mind with things written by people who already live the life you want to live. The same goes for any other passions in the world. You want to be a good writer? Then read about good writers and what made them good. Teacher? Stock broker? Real estate? Yoga Teacher? ... whatever it is can more easily be accessible for you if you take the time behind closed doors to develop yourself ... I do not know about you but I fucking love myself and the work to be the best version of myself is truly rewarding. You live one time and to die anything less than all you could be, in my mind, is a wasted life. Don't blame your parents or circumstance for your misfortunes. YOUR future is in YOUR hands and ignorance to not develop YOUR mind is YOUR choice stupid. 

If Money Were No Object

Recently, I've been thinking about what's the purpose of me being here. I'm probably going through the typical college stage where you are trying to define yourself, identify the things you are good at, and give yourself a purpose. Growing up has made me more perceptive on the things that actually matter in the long run. I watched a video recently that I shared on my Facebook and one of the quotes in it made me want to write this blog (another factor in me writing this is that the philosophy class I am currently in is putting me to sleep). The quote was, " I'd rather live a short life doing the things that make me happy, instead of living a long life being miserable".

This quote is by a philosopher named Alan Watts who's job it was to advise kids on which direction to take their life. He asked all of them, "If money was not an object, what would you want to do." As soon as the young person had told him what they wanted...he told them to do that specific thing. The video, all too powerful, made me realize that there is no point in living a life that you do not want to live just for the money. This video hit me exceptionally hard because living a life I do not want to live is the exact position I am putting myself in right now. Here is the video. You might want to watch it before reading on.

Going to Amherst College will open many opportunities for me after I graduate. However, its opportunities that sound great to the outside world, but to me I do not even know what it is that I actually want. To stereotype my path through Amherst would sound something like this. 'Play football and baseball. Meet some alumni at an event. Interview with them. Get a job being an investment banker or some other financial thing on Wall Street. Make a lot of money at a young age. Work my ass off for 3 years putting in 100 hour weeks until the 4th year where it slows down a bit and you actually enjoy your money.' Sounds great right? It did to me too, however the other day, my friend and I were like "Dude what do you want to do when you leave this academic sleep away camp". He responds with, "I don't know... I'll probably end up being an investment banker.....but I don't even know what an investment banker is or does". It is this type of life that the video contends with!

You only have one life to live. Money should not be the driving force behind every decision. Your life should be more fulfilling than waking up to a job that you hate only because it makes you money. Doing this only sets you up to live a life that you are not fully committed too. Putting in all those hours while the whole time you're thinking to yourself "I don't even like this". If you find something that you love, you never work a day in your life. I've come to the realization that if you do things that make you happy, all things that make you the person you want to be, all things without the worries of monetary expenses, the summation of these things will in turn make you live a happy, successful life. A life where you can make money, but at the same time enjoying what you do and reaping the benefits that life has in store for you. What's the point in doing things you do not want to do. You get one shot. One shot at the life you want to live. Why not make your mark on a platform that best suites your abilities and desires. Stay level headed on what's important to you and the rest will come. Unnecessary worries about pleasing people only cloud your ability to be truly happy. Money is great, but you can't take it with you when you're gone. In my last seconds before I die, I want to know that I had the most fulfilling, satisfying life...and that it was all worth it.

Sex Appeal

I haven't written a post in awhile I'm sorry. Partially due to my school work and then of course because it takes me quite awhile to think of something to write about. But I think I got something. Going to such an intellectual school, I am constantly surrounded by females who can just dust me in anything related to academics. But partying with them has made me start to realize how important "Sex Appeal" truly is, and how counter-productive dressing super conservative can be. I don't want to say that Jersey girls are better than other girls (that's exactly what I'm saying), but Jersey girls just know how to dress with the perfect amount of class and "Sex Appeal". Don't twist what I'm saying and think that Jersey girls dress like sluts because that is not the case. What I am saying is, that Jersey girls know how to wear clothes that cover everything that needs to be covered, but still has the effect of making me look twice. Everyone knows the phrase "Sex Sells" and it cannot be more true. If you want a guy to approach you...dress sexy. Wear something that shows off all the hours in the gym, curl your hair, wear heels, wear that short dress that you've been talking about. I'm in College, I don't want to look at girls that dress like my mother. I'm going to parties to relax and find a little cutie to talk to. I'm not interested in watching your drunk ass elegantly walk up to me dressed like Hilary Clinton. This is the best shape you're going to be in in your entire life...show it off. Showing off what you got does not make you a slut. Countless times at school I have been asked, "Rob do I look too slutty?" Sometimes I literally just drop my jaw in awe thinking "how can you be too slutty when you're completely covered wearing a dress?" Having "Sex Appeal" is a good...no a great thing. Most of the time its the girls with the most "Sex Appeal" that actually get with the least amount of guys. I want the tease. I want to look at you and be like damn you look really good. You dressing nice doesn't make me think of you as a slut and it shouldn't mean that other girls call you a slut either. A slut is someone who just gets with everyone all the time. Don't be afraid to step in a room and command attention, that's what we want. If you got it, show it.

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Sacrifice 4 for 40

Ok, I know I haven't posted a blog in a very long time but its because I don't like to write things unless its worth reading. Today however I had a revelation.

I have the privilege of having great friends that aren't afraid to call me out whenever I need to be called out, and thankfully some of them did. It has to do with things that don't matter like facebook, instagram, twitter etc. For the longest time I have always believed that the ONLY way people will listen to what you have to say is if you have influence. The main reason I wanted to play D-1 baseball was for the hopes of getting drafted so that eventually one day I could stand up and talk to an audience and make a difference about something more important. Something that could influence the world. And the reason people would listen was because I was a professional athlete with influence. However, I never thought that could be done if I wasn't "popular" enough. Even looking at that word now makes me realize how kiddish and immature that word is. While making connections is great (and I've made a ton with bunch of amazing people) during high school it was a thing I kind of worked for. I wanted to meet as many people as I possibly could, I cared about how many facebook friends I had, how many twitter and instagram followers I had, and blah blah blah. All because the equation in my head went like this: popularity + good advice = influence. You cannot have influence unless people know who you are. I didn't want to die and leave this Earth without leaving a mark on it. I wanted to be remembered and from looking around I thought the only people that were remembered were the popular people that made a difference because of their influence, like Martin Luther King or Elvis. I believed that the only way people take you seriously is if you have some sort of status. For example, question for you... Why are you even reading this blog? What possessed you to click on this random link and read about what I have to say? Why does my opinion have any relevance to what you are doing?  Is it because you heard about me from someone, are we friends, did you stumble across my instagram, facebook? Now you answer that yourself.

Now, I realize, life is not even about that! I've kind of grown up and realized what actually matters and what actually matters is being yourself. By chilling out and not trying as hard you become more attractive because you are more confident within yourself. Although I've always been confident in myself, I also needed the validation from other people around me. But now the validation is coming from within and its a more pure form of confidence. One that relies only on me. And one that is not tainted with the opinion of others. While all the stuff I said up there does help in certain aspects because half of you wouldn't be reading this if you didn't know or know of me, its a relief being able to just say who cares. Who cares how many facebook friends you have. Who cares how many likes you get on your instagram picture. At the end of the day those material things are MEANINGLESS.

I'm fortunate enough to attend one of the best schools in the country, an opportunity that barely anyone gets. To throw it away over some bullshit would be a disgrace to everyone who helped me get here. To not fully appreciate everyday and not work my ass off would be discrediting all the hard work I've put in. In class, its not about the "grade" you get. Having a good GPA is important but what professors actually want you to do is LEARN! Take what you're taught and use it in the outside world. Its not about the grade. In a couple years that won't matter. What does matter is how much you learn and soak up. Be a sponge, be attentive, and be present. The most important message I have out of all this, the most mature message I can say is: "Fall in love with the grind." Today I fell in love with the grind. Fall in love with working your ass off so you get a great job out of college. Fall in love with finishing your paper two days early just so you know you have enough time to make a better draft. Fall in love with late nights, fall in love with uncomfortable beds, and with shitty cafeteria food. Don't worry about how hard you're going to party (by all means have your fun, I definitely do) but don't make that the priority. You're life isn't about college. Don't concentrate on 4 years concentrate on 40 years. Put yourself into a much broader perspective. That's the mentality I have. Sacrifice 4 to live the next 40 however you want. In 10 years are you ever going to remember who you got with at that one party? No you're not. In these 4 years do something that sets you up to have the option to do whatever you want to do in 10 years. If you want to take a vacation DO IT! If you want to buy shoes, clothes, cars...whatever THEN do it. Set yourself up to have enough money to go to REAL PARTIES....not cramped, sweaty, drunken college ones, but real clubs and events where you have money to spend instead of living pay check by pay check. We are 4 years away from the rest of our lives. That's what growing up has taught me. Fall in love with the grind.

How To Text A Guy That You Don't Want To Talk Too

          This blog post tonight is the guide on how to properly text a guy that you do not want to talk too. Too many times I'm with girls that say "This guy does not stop texting me" and then proceed to answer back the text message.  Even I have been the annoying guy who'll text two or three times to a girl who obviously isn't interested just because I want to talk to them. I'm not insecure to admit it. Well what are the key things to do to stop having annoying guys like me continue to text you.

          The ONLY thing you have to do when a guy texts you that you aren't interested in is "Sorry, I'm not interested". That would solve everything! All the time girls answer texts to guys that they don't want to talk too because they respond with "I just one word him". That's not good enough! Answering back gives a guy hope. Answering him back makes him think that there is still a chance. If he said "babe" in that text message and you still answered that means that you acknowledge that you were called "babe" and didn't say anything about it. You just made it seem acceptable (to that guy) that it is ok to call you "babe". Don't do it and save both of us time. I'll speak for me personally, but I'd much rather have a girl straight up say "Sorry I'm not interested in you" or "Don't bother texting me" instead of answering me back with boring texts messages. If you could just text me that text message then I wouldn't have to waste my time even thinking to text you again and move on to bigger, brighter, and bustier things. And I'm sure other guys are the same way. Guys are by no means stupid, but we're not the type of being to sit there and try to read into signs from girls. Like girls think that 'one wording him' is going to tell him to stop texting you....NO IT ISN'T! If you want him to stop texting you then literally say it, its not being mean, its saving both of your times in the future. Granted some guys can take the hint, but the creeps that you complain about texting you obviously don't. And even I have most likely also been the guy where the girl turns to her friends and is like "Why does he keep texting me? I don't want to talk to him". Just save both of our times and end it from the very beginning. That is how you make him stop.

Hanging With The Right Group Of Friends

*Disclaimer* This post may cause you to re-evaluate your relationships and may cause the loss of friends.

          Alright guys, this post isn't going to be don't hang out with people that drink, have sex, or do drugs because honestly no one is going to listen to that. Society loves drinking, loves having sex, and loves recreational drugs. This is proven with the minimal success that you're teachers have had blabbering the "don't have sex, don't smoke weed, don't drink alcohol" speech that everyone is told. How many of those have you done! Exactly. Instead, this is going to be about surrounding yourself with people who do three things. One, want you to be the best you. Two, have you in their best interest. And three, do not put you in uncomfortable situations.

          First, surround yourself with people that want you to be the best possible "you" that you can be. Hanging out with people that try to bring you down is only going to hold you back from life. People who are average like to see other people stay average. I define "average" as your "run of the mill" type of person. Someone who enjoys the status quo, does not push themselves for more, and lacks sufficient motivation to better themselves.  Once you try to break free from "average" and become successful, "average" people want to pull you back down. When you're average NO ONE bothers you. No one makes fun of you because no one cares enough and you're not a threat. Once you start to accomplish something, average people attempt to bring you back down to their level. When you want better, they are reminded that they are average. Don't let them do it! Hang out with people who want to be successful, and you in turn will be successful. Hang out with people who have the same mindset as you do. Do not waste your time with people who are afraid of doing something worth while. Of course you can choose not listen to this advice and stay average, but that is your own decision. I heard average people have pretty sweet bank accounts.

         Second, surround yourself with people who have you in their best interest. I know that my best buds would literally take a bullet for me, just like I would for them. Find people that would risk their own well-being for you! If you hang out with someone all the time and you look at them and think, if someone came to rob me would they run away or stand to fight. If they would run away you don't need them! I know that if I got into a fight my friends would have my back. I don't surround myself with people who don't put me first. True friendship is putting others before yourself, "good company" is others putting you first only when it is convenient.

          Lastly, do not hang out with people that put you into uncomfortable situations. Good friends do not peer pressure you into doing things that you do not want to do. They respect your decision. That goes for anything! Not just the typical drugs and alcohol. That could go for dressing a certain way, talking a certain way, or behaving a certain way. If you're "friends" constantly peer pressure you into doing things that you do not want to do, they are not your real friends and could honestly give two shits about you. I can count my real friends on one hand. A friend is someone who put you up, not brings you down, who respects your decisions, and someone who wants your well being before their own good health.