Today there was a lady that was getting complimented so much about her cooking style where people then started to ask what type of formal training she received as she could use that as a way to further promote herself to drive more business in terms of looking professional. Her answer was an interesting one as she said she can’t really say that she went through any kind of training as she learned everything from real life experiences and by the type of things that she surrounds herself with such as watching simple cooking shows.

She then threw a comment that because of that she is a little hesitant to say that she has had any training at all as in her mind people always view training as only something that is done in a formal classroom setting or by an instructor one on one. However, she believed personally that what she did to get to where she is in terms of her knowledge and expertise is equally just as good and valuable without having to spend tens of thousands of dollars.

In my opinion it is all about perception as in many cases you can either use say an education of sort to edify your qualifications or simply let the end results speak for themselves. Many times people forget that you can create your own market too as opposed to always trying to appease to a group that only has a particular way of thinking. Kind of like artists that have their own niche fans I’d say. If you are attracting people to your offerings then you are doing something right regardless if say one person has a piece of paper saying how great they are versus someone who doesn’t have one.

I was talking to a person the other day who was mentioning that she didn’t like it when her son used the computer too much. She preferred it if he went out to say play a sport. I was then semi joking that she should think of it as a skill as when he gets older having a good grasp of computer technology and platforms can be extremely beneficial.

I was kind of surprised as she was so shocked as if she couldn’t see one thing on why it would be good. Speaking for myself, I was always told that knowing too much tech stuff would not be very useful when you grow older. Seems like the polar opposite from my experience as everyone runs to you for advice. Not to mention that you can save so much money by knowing how to do many things by yourself.

The same can go for almost any other items. Heck, even cooking will naturally give someone the edge when it comes to knowledge on the best things to get and how to do it yourself in order to save or make money. I just think we need to be a little more open minded when it comes to pre-judging how beneficial a skill that you directly learn from a hobby can be. They say you can make a career out of anything too. In some ways you can consider a hobby as another form of training too in those cases. Basically just don’t feel like a school.

One interesting line that I heard from a person today was how his philosophy in running his business is that he believes people that come into his school to learn should be leaving out the door and landing work that pays them more than they are spending at his school. This isn’t exactly a traditional public school setting, but think of it like say a person running a constant seminar or a language tutor that you visit each week.

Essentially, he is comparing himself to his competitors where it seems like for the most part they want to fill up their classes. Then what happens after is not too much of a concern as they base all of their prices on the value of their service and not so much if it actually helps you find business/work.

The general notion is that when it comes to anything that you have learned it is up to you to apply that knowledge. However, to prevent yourself from spending tens of thousands of dollars and falling for situations where people promise the moon if you train with them is to set goals for yourself on the type of returns that you think is realistic based on the investment you are putting forward.

That is different from say a mindset where you are investing to make yourself reach to a certain level of competency which you then hope will generate results. Specifically expecting a result from your investment in training or learning from a person can make you quickly realize too if it is working for you or not.

In many ways I think this goes for items like books too. Of course, it is unrealistic to say something like if you bought this $10 book that you will make one million in a year. Instead, there should be a goal with that. Example, you wanted to learn to save an extra $100 a month and so this book should be helping you to save about $25 a week. Basically, expect to earn more than what you invest. It’s not always about many, but you need to be self conscience of it to a certain extent I’d say.

I was talking to a person today that had such an interesting and blunt direction in life when it comes to paying for various classes for his daughter. For example, it is not uncommon for a parent to pay for some kind of music lessons for a child with a common one being piano lessons. For him though, he mentioned where after four months since his daughter wasn’t getting any better he said forget about it and told her straight up that she was bad in playing the piano. She then went into different types of instruments and has found success fairly quickly.

The same went in investing in activities such as teaching her various sports too where he mentioned if she does not get good enough within a specific time period then he will just tell her straight up that she is horrible with it and will move on to something else. It’s one of those mentalities where you either got it or you don’t I suppose.

That is kind of anti “being persistent” I’d say where sometimes you just have to stick with it as everyone needs a different amount of time to truly become good at something. How long I would personally stick to things of this nature in terms of expecting results depends on the intention of doing it in the first place.

Life skills in general is a long term investment where it is more about benefiting my everyday life. However, learning a skill to compete with others is a different story as that I would be more inclined to say maybe it is not for you if you can’t compete at a certain level during an X amount of time.

It’s almost like a business too where you have to think how much of your time you are willing to invest and stick at it till you decide “This is not right for me” if you still aren’t making immediate financial progress.

I was watching this clip about a person who was using some kind of government income assistance program and as well he mentioned that he was unemployed by choice. When asked if it has been hard trying to find a job he simply stated that it was better to be unemployed as the money he was getting from government was more than if he worked at Walmart.

While I don’t doubt that there are people who genuinely need things like these, I’m actually not too shocked that a person would have that kind of mentality since the option is there for them to take advantage of. I suppose in some ways this notion can be true too where if you knew that there was a source that will help you out financially during a money predicament you will not learn to be as frugal or responsible with your money as you should.

Because of things like this, I have adopted a mentality in the beginning not to borrow money for things if I can’t afford them through my own efforts. Like in the above person’s case, if I was in that situation someone would have to try and force me to go on an income assistance program as I would rather work at a minimum wage job if need be.

Just having things handed to you at the same time is robbing yourself of a lot of skills and experience too I’d say which in my mind is very valuable on its own right. Like with financial management. Sure, you can be super organized using a lot of programs, following the best practices of experts and so fourth. But until you try and learn to earn, spend and budget without having a reliance on others, that includes borrowing money from say a credit card, you will never truly grasp the concept of financial independence I’d say.