Why I'm Going To College Even Though I Bootstrapped My Own Business (Life Purpose)

[whatishappeningtome]

Hi all, just wanted to share something that might not be common. I'm planning on returning to College for an undergraduate degree even though I already figured out a way to be self employed. 

I'm currently 25 and my life purpose is centred around Music Education. I love teaching students and the process of explaining difficult concepts in laymans terms and seeing my students progress and improve themselves. 

After a lot of confusion I dropped out of college when I was 19 or 20 so I could start my own business. Then from 20-22 I focused on creating online content on Youtube to market my music services. Since 22 onwards I've been able to work full time through providing online music education to private students who book lessons with me.

I have a profitable sustainable business already so you may wonder why I would want to enter a undergraduate program with freshmen in college. 

After working for myself for the past three years, I've learned so much about myself as well as life changing around me- (I got married and have a kid on the way). 

The reason I'm deciding to study is to get the formal accreditations associated with a Music Education degree and become a certified elementary, middle and high school music teacher. After studying the four year degree I will be qualified to teach in schools across most Western countries. 

As a private teacher who created an online business, i've learned how much of my life is revolved around marketing, sales, dealing with difficult customers. I'm even starting to feel very isolated working from home by myself day in day out.

One thing I've learned from watching Leo is that your Life Purpose will naturally evolve over time.

Basically my new vision for life is to transition from working on my online business full time, to earning money with it passively as I attend College (possibly tending to the online business for say 15-20 hours a week to keep it sustaining). 

As I study the degree I will attempt to focus on getting the most robust music education possible while making good connections with students and professors. I'm also aiming to attend the best music school in my country, so I think it's exciting to think I will be surrounded by like minded individuals. 

~~

I want to get the formal qualifications for the field I'm already working in, with the intention of being able to work in more "formal" roles like in government schools and potentially universities in the future. I realised that I really love teaching, but I don't necessarily see myself running an online business forever (or at least not full time) as I've found that it emotionally draining to work in such competitive industries, where sometimes I feel like everything could crash down quickly. For whatever reason now that I have a growing family, I have an instinct to gravitate to want to use my online business as just one part of my life in terms of earning money, I don't want it to be the ONLY way I earn money. 

Currently as a music educator with no qualifications (just a lot of experience) The only customers I get are males aged 18-45. I would love to get the necessary qualifications to be able to work with children & work with children with disabilities and so on. There are some courses in the degree i'd like to enrol in that cover these topics and even offer practical placements in schools.

Some potential visions I have for the distant future that this degree will help me with is-

- Working with the government in my country to provide MORE funding to schools for arts education (music, drama, design, visual arts).
- Do groundbreaking research (possibly in a university environment) on the most effective music teaching methods that are still undiscovered

- Somehow be involved with music technology and the way it shapes the classroom. Maybe I could work with a team to create new music education software and travel to schools around the world trying to show them how this revolutionary technology may help their students learn to comprehend music. 

~~

I can definitely continue my career in different forms without this degree but I am just starting to really wish I finished college and had more options to work in more formal environments.

I'm also very lucky that in my country the degree is supported and sponsored by the government so it will not be that expensive. I'll be able to pay it off by saving an extra $100 a week without going into debt. 

Thanks for reading, I just wanted to share how my Life Purpose has naturally unfolded from being very self-focused and online businesses minded into wanting to work more with people, children and government departments to improve and fund art education in schools. 

Edited March 23, 2021 by whatishappeningtome
Better explanation

[diamondpenguin]

5 hours ago, whatishappeningtome said:

Hi all, just wanted to share something that might not be common. I'm planning on returning to College for an undergraduate degree even though I already figured out a way to be self employed. 

I'm currently 25 and my life purpose is centred around Music Education. I love teaching students and the process of explaining difficult concepts in laymans terms and seeing my students progress and improve themselves. 

After a lot of confusion I dropped out of college when I was 19 or 20 so I could start my own business. Then from 20-22 I focused on creating online content on Youtube to market my music services. Since 22 onwards I've been able to work full time through providing online music education to private students who book lessons with me.

I have a profitable sustainable business already so you may wonder why I would want to enter a undergraduate program with freshmen in college. 

After working for myself for the past three years, I've learned so much about myself as well as life changing around me- (I got married and have a kid on the way). 

The reason I'm deciding to study is to get the formal accreditations associated with a Music Education degree and become a certified elementary, middle and high school music teacher. After studying the four year degree I will be qualified to teach in schools across most Western countries. 

As a private teacher who created an online business, i've learned how much of my life is revolved around marketing, sales, dealing with difficult customers. I'm even starting to feel very isolated working from home by myself day in day out.

One thing I've learned from watching Leo is that your Life Purpose will naturally evolve over time.

Basically my new vision for life is to transition from working on my online business full time, to earning money with it passively as I attend College (possibly tending to the online business for say 15-20 hours a week to keep it sustaining). 

As I study the degree I will attempt to focus on getting the most robust music education possible while making good connections with students and professors. I'm also aiming to attend the best music school in my country, so I think it's exciting to think I will be surrounded by like minded individuals. 

~~

I want to get the formal qualifications for the field I'm already working in, with the intention of being able to work in more "formal" roles like in government schools and potentially universities in the future. I realised that I really love teaching, but I don't necessarily see myself running an online business forever (or at least not full time) as I've found that it emotionally draining to work in such competitive industries, where sometimes I feel like everything could crash down quickly. For whatever reason now that I have a growing family, I have an instinct to gravitate to want to use my online business as just one part of my life in terms of earning money, I don't want it to be the ONLY way I earn money. 

Currently as a music educator with no qualifications (just a lot of experience) The only customers I get are males aged 18-45. I would love to get the necessary qualifications to be able to work with children & work with children with disabilities and so on. There are some courses in the degree i'd like to enrol in that cover these topics and even offer practical placements in schools.

Some potential visions I have for the distant future that this degree will help me with is-

- Working with the government in my country to provide MORE funding to schools for arts education (music, drama, design, visual arts).
- Do groundbreaking research (possibly in a university environment) on the most effective music teaching methods that are still undiscovered

- Somehow be involved with music technology and the way it shapes the classroom. Maybe I could work with a team to create new music education software and travel to schools around the world trying to show them how this revolutionary technology may help their students learn to comprehend music. 

~~

I can definitely continue my career in different forms without this degree but I am just starting to really wish I finished college and had more options to work in more formal environments.

I'm also very lucky that in my country the degree is supported and sponsored by the government so it will not be that expensive. I'll be able to pay it off by saving an extra $100 a week without going into debt. 

Thanks for reading, I just wanted to share how my Life Purpose has naturally unfolded from being very self-focused and online businesses minded into wanting to work more with people, children and government departments to improve and fund art education in schools. 

Can you teach me how to play guitar?