Imagine Your Future Chapter 1

What I'm sharing with you is very personal. The only reason I'm doing it is because you might be able to relate to it and benefit from it.

I barely made it out of high school. In fact, I missed twenty out of the first 42 days of senior high. School for me was boring and I had few friends. We had owned our home in the community since first grade but, because of my father's military career, I spent a number of years overseas, so I never really bonded with kids my age in town. I did fifth and sixth grades in a US Navy school in Naples, Italy, and 9^th and 10^th grades in a US Navy school in Sigonella, Sicily. The years in between are when students form friendships (or not), when they work their ways through the pecking order in school. I wasn't there, so in a way I missed out.

This wasn't all bad, though, because I was making friends in the community where I lived in Catania, Sicily, not on a base. Even though I attended school on the base, my friends growing up were Italian. I learned how to speak two dialects, Neapolitan and Sicilian. I saw American made western movies in Italian (how cool is that?), and swam in the Mediterranean Sea from April to October. I went skin diving for sea urchins and basked in the sun with my friends while we feasted on our catch.

Back home for my last couple years, my siblings and I were fatherless, without guidance. We were latchkey kids when that phrase had not yet been widely used.

High school is a tough time to be a stranger. I had a different outlook on national and local events, and that didn't help me socially. We were also on the lower end of the economic food chain. So, while many teens my age drove new cars, I got a ten year old Chevrolet, plain white and absent of any style.

I wasn't alone in being alone, though. I used to hang with four or five other guys who felt estranged, too. Since I had a car, I was elected driver. And drive we did. We spent days in New Haven at Yale's Peabody Museum, one day at art exhibits and another day with Dinosaurs. We had a great time until my wings were clipped.

I was called into the principal's office and told, in no uncertain terms, that if I missed one more day, I would not graduate. I toed the mark for the remaining months.

You might think school is a waste of time, too, especially if none of the classes hold any meaning for you, and if you're not part of a social network like band, or the football team, or the math club. You might be aching to leave it all behind and start a new life. If you have to, I would understand.

Before you do, though, consider the following.

• Chances are, you'll not find a decent job, and your ability to make a life for yourself is severely limited. That's not true for everyone. Some high school drop outs have gone on to be millionaires, even billionaires (I'll name names later) but the odds are not in your favor. Not even close.

• Some of the knowledge and skills you'll need for success are taught in those very classes you don't like. It's very important to know which before you walk through the doors for the last time. I set aside a chapter on those classes in a way that answers a critical question you're already asking yourself: What's in it for me (WIIFM)? I will touch on two of them right now because they are essential to your personal growth and development: Math and English.

• Math, because it's linked inextricably to almost everything you'll do in life, from managingyour money (balancing a budget, paying your bills, saving money, making wise purchasing decisions) to financial self-defense; building a home or installing flooring, putting on a roof; calculating your commissions as a sales person or the tip you'll leave the server at the restaurant.

And, it goes beyond that. In another chapter, we're going to talk about becoming rich. If you think you can do this without math, think again. It may not seem like you're using math, but if you don't understand exponents, you won't get the underlying basics for the Rule of Seventy or the rule of 72.

When I shared that with students in my Imagine the Future weekend seminar at a Detroit Public School, they got it.

What I marveled at was the teachers who were there as chaperones. While the students were running their calculations for an exercise I gave them, I approached the teachers and asked them their thoughts about the day. One of them said, “We never knew that!I can't believe how much money I've lost over the last twenty-five years.” Other teachers said the same thing. Once you know the rule, you'll be decades ahead of most adults – maybe your parents, too.

• English, because your ability to communicate is at the core of your being. You know this because you spend a lot of time thinking about yourself, your life. You spend time supporting, encouraging and motivating yourself or deriding yourself, telling yourself you're a loser and will never catch a break. You'll sit in your quiet moments wishing for things or figuring out how to get things you want. You'll spend the largest part of your life thinking and talking to yourself. Make sure you have the best tools you can have for this important aspect of your life.

Just about anything you can imagine or feel has been imagined or felt by others over the millennia, and that's great news for you. To paraphrase an old song, “When you're down and troubled, and you need a helping hand, and nothing, nothing's going right..” instead of “calling out my name”, reach out to the thousands of people who have gone before and read or listen to how they faced what you're facing, and how they handled things.

One thing you'll notice right off the bat is how lucid their thinking is, how clearly everything looks, once they discover their answers, their truths. Until then, they're walking through clouds, or mud, unsure of anything. That's how things go.

Notice, too, how large their vocabularies are. That's important, because we need words, lots of them, and of good quality to define what we're facing and to help us determine the answers.

Go to www.ted.com and listen to the speakers. TED stands for technology, entertainment and design. The speakers are from all over the world. Some of them are your age – or younger.

Imagine that you're one of them. You can be. You're bright, energetic, well-educated. You have opinions. And, you might even be an expert in a field you love. If not, you still can be. Imagine the pride of speaking to an audience that values what you have to say, made up of people who have their own stories to share. The connections you'll make will enrich your life beyond belief.

One man who comes to mind is African American actor, comedian and activist Dick Gregory. He wrote an autobiography, titled Nigger*. It was from him that I learned the difference between being poor and being broke. I learned that We were never poor but we were often broke. Broke is a temporary condition. Today you have money, tomorrow you don't. But if you're poor, you're poor all your life.

That was immensely important to learn – because we were OFTEN BROKE. I remember we were broke on my graduation day. I stood proudly with my mother and older brother as an announcer told the audience that pictures of the graduating class, taken that day, could be ordered for later delivery – for $1.75. Between the three of us, we couldn't muster the cash. That day, we were broke, not poor – and a bit pained. The following day I started work unloading eggs at the New England Farmers' Exchange.

*Gregory dedicated to his mother, who had passed. He wrote, If you ever hear that word again, you'll know they're just advertising my book.

____________

My mother was a terrific women. She was not well-educated like my father and she would not have held her own in sophisticated discussions but she knew what she wanted. She wanted college educated children – and she got them, though, in my case, it took almost three decades. My siblings were better at this.

One morning in the middle of August, 1963, she rousted me from a sound sleep to tell me we were going to nearby New Haven College, and that I was applying for September admission. I had no plan for that but the firmness in her voice made it clear the choice was out of my hands. “This is what your father wanted for you,” she said matter of fact. Now, we had not heard from him in months but it was not the time to challenge her.

Applying to a small, fledgling college just miles from Yale University is a lot easier than you might think. An admissions officer looked over my transcripts and said, “He'll have to take our entrance exams, one in math and one in English. The next ones are on Tuesday and Thursday night respectively.”

I took the exams as directed. I passed math with flying colors. Not so, English. I was accepted conditionally, but I had to take remedial English.

I share this story for a number of reasons. Here they are:

• In 1963, a full semester, fees and all, cost $400 for 12 credits (that's four, three-credit classes) Today, a semester (now 9 credits) at the University of New Haven (yeah, it grew) runs about $8,000.

Mind you, my mother grossed $42/week, and she spent $12 for taxes and $10 for cab fare. Imagine trying to raise a family of four on $20/week. In 2015 dollars, that's $160/week, after taxes, not enough in most places to cover the rent.

• I had to take a remedial course. Today (2014), 70% of students going to community colleges have to take remedial courses. And only 20% of them graduate from four-year schools. (See threats to consider).

• Consider all the sacrifices my mother made to get me into college. In addition to tuition and books, there's car expenses, insurance, food and more (socialization costs). All told, that's about $1200, for a woman grossing less than $2200/year.* She pulled a lot of strings to fulfill her (my?) dream. Five years later, my brother enrolled in UCONN. Two years later, my sister enrolled in SCSC, both Connecticut state schools.

If I had taken out loans, then dropped out, there were ways to get the debt forgiven, the most severe being bankruptcy. Today's students come into the workforce with an average debt of some $28,000. That's more than many new cars! They cannot discharge it in bankruptcy. It's a burden they'll carry for decades. It's a toss up whether going to college was the right call for me. I wasn't ready. It may have been better to get a job. So, be careful. A young person today, or an adult trying to improve his résumé in hopes of getting a new job and jump starting a career, has to look seriously at the severe implications of loans. (See: Forget free community college – How about free University?)

• As a point of reference, my mother's earnings of $2180/year is the same as $16,780 in 2014. Poverty income for a family of four today is $23,850. Even then, we were living well below poverty level.

http://www.newhaven.edu/admissions/gradadmissions/financial-aid/cost/

Do you really need college? Let's see.

My need for a “real job” began in 1971, when I left the US Navy. The economy was soft and good jobs were hard to come by. I took a job at Grossman's Lumber, one of the original cash-and-carry lumber yards (today's Lowe's and Home Depot). The pay was a $150/week salary which included Saturdays. In effect, it was $2.92/hr. While it was nothing to write home about, there were opportunities for aggressive self-starters. Within a few months I was promoted to assistant manager, with a nominal bump in salary. I looked at my options and it was clear that my career prospects were limited without a degree.

Then I caught a break. My brother-in-law, a super salesman in his own right, arranged for an interview with his company, a manufacturer of industrial chemicals. Talk about being outside one's element. I had no training or education in this field.

I interviewed with a genuine 'nice guy, Mr. Jerry Kastner, Assistant to the President, and a friend of my brother-in-law. We had a great conversation going. Then he asked, “What do you know about chemistry?”

“Nothing.”

“Do you know what pH is?”

I shook my head.

Jerry went on to explain that most sales people in the company had backgrounds in chemistry.

“We have a lot of PhDs,” he announced. He sat back in his chair and waited.

We were quiet for a while. It was my turn to talk but what could I say? I had none of the qualifications most of their sales force had. I was beginning to wonder why my brother-in-law had arranged the meeting. Suddenly, I knew. I leaned forward to speak.

“You say you have a lot of chemical engineers in sales, some with PhDs.”

“That's right.”

“I have one question. Can they sell?”

Jerry sat back in his chair, a heartfelt laugh shaking his body head-to-toe.

“No. They get lost in the 'telling' and forget to ask for the order.”

We agreed that I would start two weeks later to allow my employer notice. I would start off in the lab as a sales trainee, doing analyses, processing parts, getting to learn what my future customers do every day. I would earn the same as I was earning at the lumber yard but that was about half the going rate for average sales people, so the opportunity was clear, and compelling.

I remember the last few lines of our conversation.

“You realize,” Jerry said with a smile, “in six months, we may not like you.”

I smiled. “Who knows, in six months, I may not like you either.”

I was still there six years later, markedly better off than if I had remained in the lumber business.

Today, a person's chances of landing such a job are slim to none. It's virtually impossible to get an interview. Everything is done via the internet with computers scanning résumés and making the initial decisions.

While I was with the company, I took advantage of the GI bill to continue my education. Even then, it took a long time to earn a degree. Looking back, I had attended a number of colleges: New Haven College (now a university, outrageously expensive), Lawrence Institute of Technology (chemistry classes – finally!)

I was with another company, a competitor in fact, and relocated to Connecticut when I found the path to my bachelors degree, via Charter Oak State College, an external degree program, not unlike today's online universities but with a twist. (Remember that name, and this site: http://www.charteroak.edu/).

A counselor from the school met me at a library in nearby Meriden. She told me she'd need copies of all my college transcripts sent to the college for her review. She told me to include the courses I had taken in the US Navy.

A few weeks later, she called to tell me they would accept 98 credits. Imagine that ! 98 out of 120. Now, I would need to take a course in computers, two semesters of a language and any electives I wanted to round out the rest.

What happened next is important for you to know. There is a program called CLEP (College Level Examination Program) that allows a person to earn college credits for a subject just by passing a test on it. I used this approach to test out of two years of Italian (six credits, $39) because I had lived in Italy and understood the language (more on this later). I read a book on Economics, took the CLEP and passed (again, $39). I did take some courses, in computers and finance in the conventional way (brick and mortar). Then, at the tender age of 44, I had a bona-fide BS in Business Administration.

I didn't get the degree as a career move. I was already firmly entrenched in a good career, earning just under six figures. I did it because the lack of a degree represented unfinished business. Six years later, just months before my 50^th birthday, I earned my Masters in Management degree from a traditional brick-and-mortar college, paid for by my company. I never would have done this otherwise. By then, I had two boys in college. There was no way I could have afforded it.

Now, let's talk about you. If there was proof that a college degree would guarantee a career path, I'd be the first to encourage you to look into it. But, there're a lot of steps between 'looking into it' and 'doing it'. And, you should take those steps before taking the plunge.

Here are a number of things to consider. First, why people go to college. Here are some reasons. Maybe yours is among them.

Why People Chose the College They Did

• It was close to home
• It was far from home
• It was what they could afford
• They received a scholarship
• The college had the best financial aid package

• The school is a recognized leader in their chosen field
• The curriculum met their educational needs
• The school’s reputation
• To network with others
• Status

• To associate with the best and the brightest
• They liked the challenging environment
• Ratio of professors to students
• Size of student body
• Ratio of women to men

• It was consistent with their self-image
• Their closest friend was going there
• Their parents went there
• It is Ivy League
• The environment is not too taxing

• Entrance requirements were loose (They'll take anybody)
• It’s a great party school
• It has great sports teams
• The climate suited them

There are corresponding reasons why people choose Not to go to college.

• Reasons Not to Go to College

• You have no interest in academic subjects
• Other interests are more important to you
• You don’t have the money
• You’re not ready to tackle the responsibilities

• You want to get a job instead
• You want to travel
• Your parents want you to
• Everybody in your school goes on to college
• Vocational training is faster and more meaningful
  
  
• You have more immediate concerns
• It doesn’t mesh with the way you see yourself
• You are not prepared emotionally or mentally

Don't limit yourself to these two lists. Consider also the job outlook for people with degrees by field. Here's the lists of:

Fastest Growing Industries

Jobs with the Highest number of Job Openings

Jobs in the Highest Paying Fields

The 25 highest-paying jobs with the most openings right now

Yahoo Finance By Julie Bort February 17, 2015

Who makes more money, on average, a doctor or a lawyer? A product manager or a tax manager?

And which fields are still hiring like mad? Those are the questions that job-hunting site Glassdoor set out to answer when it created its latest list of the 25 best-paying jobs in high demand.

No 25: Sales Engineer
Average Base Salary: $90,899
Number of Job Openings: 5,508

A sales engineer is the technical resource for the sales force that helps them make sure bids and contracts meet the customers' technical specifications.

No. 24: Business Development Manager
Average Base Salary: $95,139
Number of Job Openings: 11,037

A business development manager is a sales role that typically involves both sales and marketing.

No. 23: Software Engineer
Average Base Salary: $96,392
Number of Job Openings: 99,055

A software engineer is a software programmer. Every company needs them, from the tech companies building software to sell to others, to the enterprises building apps for internal use.

No 22: Human Resources Manager
Average Base Salary: $96,406
Number of Job Openings: 7,220

The HR manager is in charge of things like hiring, benefits, and training.

No. 21: UX Designer
Average Base Salary: $96,855
Number of Job Openings: 2,010

UX designers, or user-experience designers, are the ones who make sure the product looks and feels good and functions in a way that is easy for people to use.

No. 20: Database Administrator
Average Base Salary: $97,258
Number of Job Openings: 9,041

A company's database is among the most important bits of software it owns, keeping track of customers, transactions, and inventory. A database administrator runs it.

No. 19: Marketing Manager
Average Base Salary: $100,229
Number of Job Openings: 14,179

A marketing manager plans, directs, and coordinates the marketing of the organization's products and/or services.

No. 18: Computer Hardware Engineer
Average Base Salary: $101,154
Number of Job Openings: 1,264

A computer hardware engineer designs computers and all sorts of other electronic devices.

No. 17: QA Manager
Average Base Salary: $101,330
Number of Job Openings: 1,689

A QA or "quality assurance" manager performs tests to make sure a product, service, or software performs like it should.

No. 16: Security Engineer
Average Base Salary: $102,749
Number of Job Openings: 2,060

A security engineer designs, deploys, and monitors systems that secures a company's network, software, and other assets.

No. 15: Data Scientist
Average Base Salary: $105,395
Number of Job Openings: 3,433

A data scientist is a super-hot field right now. This person helps a company find insights out of heaps of data.

No. 14: Supply Chain Manager
Average Base Salary: $106,632
Number of Job Openings: 1,667

A supply chain manager works with a company's vendors to buy parts, materials, and supplies for building the company's products.

No. 13: Physician Assistant
Average Base Salary: $110,871
Number of Job Openings: 43,678

A PA sees patients and practices medicine under the supervision of physicians and surgeons.

No. 12: Product Manager
Average Base Salary: $113,959
Number of Job Openings: 9,918

A product manager helps run the teams that design and market a product.

No. 11: Pharmacist
Average Base Salary: $114,715
Number of Job Openings: 9,160

A pharmacist dispenses prescription medications and provides information about those medications to patients.

No. 10: Tax Manager
Average Base Salary: $114,966
Number of Job Openings: 3,622

A tax manager handles accounting and tax handling functions at a company.

No. 9: IT Manager
Average Base Salary: $115,642
Number of Job Openings: 17,161

An IT manager runs manages a company's technology infrastructure.

No. 8: Analytics Manager
Average Base Salary: $115,725
Number of Job Openings: 1,408

An analytics manager performs business and financial analysis to help the company measure its success and predict its needs.

No. 7: Lawyer
Average Base Salary: $120,424
Number of Job Openings: 5,520

A lawyer represents and advises people, businesses, and government agencies in criminal and civil litigation.

No. 6: Solutions Architect
Average Base Salary: $121,522
Number of Job Openings: 3,530

A solutions architect designs and engineers complex software or computer systems.

No. 5: Finance Manager
Average Base Salary: $123,534
Number of Job Openings: 9,224

A finance manager helps a company strategically manage its money so that it can finance its business needs.

No. 4: Software Development Manager
Average Base Salary: $123,747   
Number of Job Openings: 2,249

A software development manager is a project leader for software projects.

No. 3: Software Architect
Average Base Salary: $130,891
Number of Job Openings: 3,229

A software architect designs complex software applications.

No. 2: Pharmacy Manager
Average Base Salary: $131,099
Number of Job Openings: 1,787

A pharmacy manager oversees and manages pharmacy operations.

No. 1: Physician
Average Base Salary: $212,270
Number of Job Openings: 7,984

A physician examines patients, prescribes medications, and treats injuries and illnesses.

Note the Following:

Only five of the categories had demand for 10,000 or more people. On average, that means 200 jobs per state. There's a good chance that you could get into a career where you enter the market with a degree, a repayment plan and no job in the field. Don't take my word for it. Go to your local Starbuck's or Panera and ask the workers if they have degrees, and what fields their degrees are in.

Search Law School Grads suing their alma maters. There are some pretty upset legal wannabees with debt and no jobs.

Consider timing - For the last few years the demand for engineers in the oil and gas industry has been very high and, as a result, pay has been terrific. Then the slowdown of 2015. They're out of work now, and their degrees don't match the open fields.

Consider the Schools that Advertise – You might see the ad where a waitress in having a bad day, and the ad goes on to say that there's a great need for paralegals, or healthcare workers. They cite numbers like 30,000 job openings (over the next ten years).

Let's do the math: 30,000/10 years Hmmm... that's 3,000/year; sixty jobs

per state on average. That makes it a little realistic. Then, factor in how the

industry changes. The skills may be a lot different in five years, so your training

may be obsolete. Even engineering grads find the skills they left college with won't hold up in five years. Hmmm...

Do you notice that Number 1on the list Greatest Number of Jobs is for Sales Clerk? The second is for nurse, a high-stress career with reasonable earnings which requires a two year RN degree (more on that later). The rest of the jobs barely require a high school diploma. So, if these jobs don't require a degree and those that do are few in number, a red flag should go up.

Red Alert! Don't go after a degree because of the money. It may not be there.

An example: Do a search for newly minted lawyers the people who got undergrad degrees, went on to law school, passed the bar in their respective states – and are now working elsewhere. Many are baristas at Starbucks.

“By now, even law schools themselves acknowledge that they've been churning

out too many graduates for too few available jobs. Less widely appreciated, however,

is that the lawyer glut appears to be much more severe in some parts of the country

than in others. There's nowhere in the United States that new JD's have it especially

good; but, man, are there spots where they have it especially bad.” Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/where-can-law-school-grads-find-jobs-2013-6#ixzz3TS9XCKVN

Let's say you want to be a family doctor. Check out the burgeoning growth of walk-in clinics staffed by Nurse Practitioners, those people who are more than qualified to cover 90% of the common ailments for which you used to go to a doctor – for a lot less money.

I'm not saying you should not go to college. That's not my call. You must decide. But, you should go into your future forewarned and forearmed. That, my friend, is up to you.

Understand, too, that colleges are businesses. They have something to sell: degrees.They need consumers - students of all ages - so, they have to market themselves to attract new applicants. The higher the dropout rate, the larger the number they must admit. Sometimes, they will mislead people a bit to accomplish their goals. Here's one way they do it:

You see an ad for programs in a field that interests you. You learn that the Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts the need for 50,000 new jobs over the next decade. FIFTY THOUSAND JOBS! Wow, that's a lot! But wait. Divide 50,000 by 10 years; that's 5,000 jobs per year on average. Now, there are FIFTY states in the Union. Divide 5,000 by 50; that's 100 jobs per state. The school that's advertising will graduate 50 students/year with degrees in that field. Three other schools in the area (at least) offer similar programs with similar degrees. Perhaps ten schools in your state are vying for the same students, citing the same stats. Hmmm? You do the math.

NOW, who's carrying the debt for the degree?

• You? Ouch! Your college loan payment may be as much as your rent.
• Your parents? They're closer to retirement than you, how's that going

to impact their 'golden years'?

Even the government is disingenuous when it comes to education. As much as we'd like to believe that a degree is the path to success, the government's own Bureau of Labor Statistics says the opposite.

One last thing to consider. OK, two.

First, the best paying fields are in industries clustered under the label Advanced Industries -- aerospace, automotive, computer sciences, biologies, etc. This category of work accounts for some 12 million jobs in a nation with about 134 million workers. Job trends in this category are FLAT going forward. The supposed 'jobs' may just not be there!

Second, two nations your parents and I never much considered competitors, China and India, are on track to graduate some 400 MILLION students with STEM degrees. That's almost THREE TIMES our entire workforce. Add to that Brazil and Russia, then Europe and the rest of Asia. What do you glean from that?

So, what's a body to do? First, if you're intent on getting a degree, consider the following:

Do NOT look into for-profit colleges, like the University of Phoenix and others. They charge a lot more than much better public colleges and universities and their graduation rates are in the 6-9 percent range. Low quality, outrageously high price.

Second, consider mastering a foreign language. The primary reason for this suggestion is demographics. The world is getting older. Almost all nations are experiencing period in which the elderly will far outnumber the young. Think what this means. Each country will be coming up short in regards to their work forces. And the young will be paying taxes to support their aging parents and grandparents, while working longer hours at lower wages.

This is not so much an issue in the US because we have a reasonable approach toward immigration for the educated, especially those who were educated here. Having said that, these very students are in demand globally. So, whereas at one time graduates would happily stay in the US, take citizenship and raise American families, fewer graduates are doing so, to some degree because they're concerned about the social climate.

So, why not attend university in a country you really want to live in, for free, where you can expect to make a life if for no other reason than the country needs you – and the culture is more agreeable than that in your own country.

Red Alert! Don't go after a degree in a specific discipline, like accounting or business, because the jobs are there and they pay well. Consider a liberal arts education where you are challenged to think, to challenge yourself, to make a case and defend it; to stretch your mind beyond what you've learned to date; to learn to express your thoughts, and maybe discover in the process that you've changed your mind. The rest of the subjects you can master with ease. You can easily master the mechanics of accounting or other such mundane subjects, like marketing on the job.

Clusters

There's an old adage that says Politics and Real Estate are local. What's also true is that industries cluster. This is important for you to understand, so let's look at it more closely. If you're going to build your future doing something you love, look closely at where people are doing it. Detroit is known for cars, and LA for movies; Silicon Valley thrives on Technology, and Boston on Medical Devices and Financial Services. To make it easy for you, I include below a graphic from the guru himself, Professor Michael E. Porter.

Note, there are only a dozen or so clusters, each specializing in a number of disciplines, some of them competitive with others. Boston is big in Education and Knowledge Creation but so is Pittsburgh, PA, and Raleigh-Durham, NC.

Businesses cluster for a number of reasons, not the least of which is a large cohort of people trained in those fields. Most of them received their educations from local colleges and universities, (MIT, Boston University, Cambridge; Carnegie Melon and more).

Note, there are only a dozen or so clusters, each specializing in a number of disciplines, some of them competitive with others. Boston is big in Education and Knowledge Creation but so is Pittsburgh, PA, and Raleigh-Durham, NC.

https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=A0LEV7kXYjpWFEIA7BknnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTByMjB0aG5zBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--?p=Michael+Porter+Clusters+of+Innovation&fr=yhs-mozilla-003&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-003 

This is not the only graph on the site. Please check them out.

Note, there are only a dozen or so clusters, each specializing in a their own disciplines, some of them competitive with others. Boston is big in Education and Knowledge Creation but so is Pittsburgh, PA, and Raleigh-Durham, NC.

Businesses cluster for a number of reasons, not the least of which is a large cohort of people trained in those fields. Most of them received their educations from local colleges and universities, (MIT, Boston University, Cambridge; Carnegie Melon and more).

Then, there are the companies that hire graduates from them, and the research they co-ordinate with them. Don't overlook the social aspect of clusters, of meeting and working with people with similar interests and life goals, hopefully smarter than you in some ways. Once you've decided on what knowledge you'd like to pursue, make sure to pursue it 'where the action is'.

As you scan the graphic, it will not surprise you that there's a good chance you're going to leave home to pursue your dream. Look at it as the chance to grow, to expose yourself to new 'everything' (new cultures, new ways of thinking, new subjects beyond your specialty. It boggles the mind, doesn't it?

Let's take that one step further. Let's look at the clusters globally. Why would you do that?

 

You'd do that because it's in your best interest to be marketable in as many places as possible. While what you love to do may not offer any opportunities where you live, chances are that your knowledge and skills are in demand.

Consider, for example, the opportunities for English majors. Sure, there's a need for teachers, but the forecast is well under 1% per year through 2022. But English majors have a lot more options than that. English majors are writers, copy writers, ad copy specialists, movie script writers and so much more. If you love to travel, expand your courses to include courses in teaching English as a second language. The son of a friend who has always succumbed to wanderlust has taught in Japan and Brazil. As I write, he's on assignment in Germany. Imagine his worldview, having immersed himself in so many diverse cultures.

Scientists are in demand around the globe, too, so you're not limited to one community or one state. The world is your oyster. One way to prepare for your adventure is to study the language(s) of the country(ies) in which you'd like to live. Don't limit your language experience by believing that English is the common language in many professional science communities. It is, but the people with whom you'll work are multilingual. And, as you travel the countryside, most of the people you'll encounter do not speak English. One last point; if you have a fairly good command of the language, you're a leg up on all those Americans who never took the time. You'll get more invitations to people's homes, to attend events no one else would even know about.

Learning languages is easier than you might think. If you study Spanish, you'll be pleased to know that you already know thousands of Spanish words. Don't believe me? Read a copy of Madrigal's Magical Key to Spanish. Here's an example: How many English words do you know that end in 'or', like actor or factor or doctor? Surprise! They're Spanish words, too. How many words do you know that begin with 's', like 'special'? Add an 'e' to the beginning to make 'especial'. See how much you already know?

Japanese only had about 80,000 words when Americans first interacted with them. There were no Japanese words for 'beer' or 'toilet' – or a myriad of other words. So, the Japanese adopted them, with a twist. Beer became 'biru'. Toilet became 'toiletu' (pronounced toretu because Japanese pronounce 'l' as an 'r'. The Japanese vowel are pronounced softly, like Spanish and other Latin-based languages, so a word like ABE would be pronounced Ah Beh.

While it is difficult to learn and master the written Japanese language, speaking it with some fluency will open many doors, more than you might imagine. Mastering the written language, and the subtleties within it can increase your value, too.

 

Important Questions

Here's a limited list of questions you should answer for yourself. Once you've asked them aloud and answered them, you will own them. Over time, you'll encounter them again, and your answers will be different, because you'll be older and have had more life experiences. You'll read the same questions but you'll interpret them differently. You'll hear them in a different context, as an older adult, as a parent, as an employee or a boss or an owner. Read these questions, consider the answers. Write them down. Then, revisit them five years from now, and again after a decade. See how you've changed.

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