Deans, Principals and school administrators, I apologize for this. But not really.

Back in the day, we all used to learn our trades by apprenticing. Cooks would cook, painters would paint and blacksmiths would pound real metal next to some old-timer with calloused hands and spiders in his beard. He probably smelled like the devil and was rude to the passing ladies, too. But at the end of a few months the blacksmith knew how to blacksmith. If he didn’t, the old dude would keep smashing his head against the anvil.

But now we go to school. Yawn. We look at slide shows, get lectured at and read books about our industry, instead of being actually in the industry. Yawn again. Then we graduate, only to realize that all we really learned was how to do homework, but not how the nuts and bolts all go together.

Doctors and lawyers and other people who wield scalpels need real school certificates of some sort. In these disciplines, practitioners just won’t make it unless they’ve proven they really know what they’re doing.

And I’m fine with that. If you’re going to be playing with my liver, I’d much prefer that you were in school for 96 years and have a very large certificate with signatures on it.

But what about the rest of us? What if you want to be a writer? Or an artist? Or a business person? Or a consultant?

I’ve had a few life-consulting gigs (for lack of better term) of late. In two cases the person I was talking to was very busy putting off a dream of theirs because they didn’t have an education in the subject. I asked, “Do you mean you don’t have training or you don’t have an education?” Because they’re different.

Do I know what I’m talking about?

With me that’s always debatable. But let me tell you how I live life and make money and you can sort it all out for yourself.

If you’re personally and spiritually invested in a subject, you’re going to learn more than someone who’s just cranking out homework for a passing grade.

I design websites, write, do graphic design, do a bit of consulting and some marketing here and there. In all of these subjects I have zero school training, zero classes, nothing. This was stuff I learned burning the midnight oil and being interested. And, frankly, when you’re interested in something you end up soaking up quite a lot of knowledge. And it’s effortless that way, as I’m sure you’ve experienced.

Putting off life while learning about living life

Now, let’s get this straight. I’m not against learning. I’m not against training. But I am very much against wasting time or putting off life while you learn stuff and listen to people rattle off opinions at you. And I’m even more against taking classes that move at the speed of the slowest student.

The best way to learn is on the job. You want to design websites, make one for your Uncle Bob.

Want to learn how to run a business? Start one.

Want to learn about engines? Take one apart and try your hardest to put it back together again (sorry ’bout your motorcycle, Dad).

Want to learn how to write? Start writing.

Want to sew stuff and sell it? Start sewing and put up a website (Sis, that one’s for you).

The practical side of things

Thing is, you can’t really design a website or start a business or write a book unless you get to work and figure it out. The best part of on-the-job training is that you pretty instantly find out what works and what doesn’t. Your first hard-ass client will quickly disabuse you of matters of lesser importance. And you’ll disabuse yourself of unnecessary actions once it becomes obvious that you just ain’t gonna make your deadline. And that’s the way it should be.

I went through five years of architecture school to find that real-world architecture is an entirely different beast. My time would have been much better spent building houses, pouring cement or hitting my thumb continuously with a hammer. Designing fake concert halls and hearing, “Yeah, that’s a swell drawing” over and over isn’t of much use when it comes right down to it.