The Education of Millionaires: Everything You Won't Learn in College About How to Be Successful

Michael Ellsberg, in "The Education of Millionaires", argues the educational model in the United States is not only responsible for perpetuating an "employee" versus an "entrepreneur mindset", but is also broken, too expensive, and ill-suited for the chaotic, flat, disruptive, and digital world in which we live.Mr. Ellsberg began his freelance writing career doing direct-sales copywriting, where he surely learned how to wrestle his prose into a form that it is both efficient and moving. This book has a power to persuade. I found myself surprised at the degree to which his writing was a call to action for me.According to Ellsberg, this book was intended to be a launching-off point from which its reader will begin a journey of self-improvement and self-education. He provides throughout the book: links to websites, names of other books, seminar information, and other resources with which the curious can pursue further reading or learning."For people in the industrialized world," writes Ellsberg, "middle-class and above, the primary focus of our waking lives between the ages of six and twenty-two is--to a first approximation--grades. To a second approximation, the agenda also includes narrowly defined extracurricular activities, such as sports and music and volunteering, which look good on college applications and entry-level resumes... Have you ever stopped to ponder how utterly bizarre this state of affairs is?"Later in the book, Mr. Ellsberg interviews PayPal founder, Peter Thiel, who contends, "Formal education has become very status oriented, and very far substantively from what people are interested in accomplishing in their lives and the world. And it's gotten worse as our society has become more tracked," says Thiel. Students are going to school for the "credential, only."Throughout the book, Ellsberg quotes interviews with other entrepreneurs (most of whom, unlike Peter Thiel and Seth Godin, never graduated from college). Mr. Ellsberg demonstrates the ways that most of these interviewees "bootstrapped" a business from nothing. The example of these entrepreneurs, says Mr. Ellsberg, is to do, to be, to work for no boss. And Mr. Ellsberg speaks from experience. While a graduate of Brown, and the Ivy League, he attribute none, if any, of his success to his formal education, but rather to his ability to market himself, learn a new skill, find mentors, etc.The structure of formal, higher education in the United States is currently such, argues Ellsberg, that smart people are otherwise brainwashed to look for external guidance and instruction on what to do with their lives.Is not the unifying lament of the "Millennial" generation on some level, "I don't know what I want to do with my life!"? Perhaps this is because that when they "graduate" from our formal education system, one that has supposedly shown them the way their whole life, they are lost in the desert without a guide?Grades and credentials, Ellsberg argues, lead us to pursue a "path" in life, where achievement of the next wrung up the ladder is the only end game, and obedience and completing the tasks handed to you the way to get there.Mr. Ellsberg through the many examples in this book demonstrates how there is another way. This way is to realize that the most valuable learning is practical and experiential. You learn by doing, and failing. You learn by adapting to situations in the world before you. Credentials will not prepare you for these situations, only experience will. If only experience will educate us, the logic continues, why do we not just throw ourselves into the world of experience sooner? Formal education's answer to this question has long been, "Because our youth at age 18 are not ready for the real world of experience." But are US colleges really the protected, sheltered incubators of higher learning they claim to be? A Saturday night on a University campus may argue otherwise. Perhaps the un-reality of a college campus perpetuates the very immaturity it claims to inhibit?While Mr. Ellsberg's point that formal education, the pedagogy of this educational system and the benefits it provides, is overpriced, may indeed be a fair and accurate statement, I am not ready to discount the institution in its entirety. Doing such is to throw the baby out with the bath water. Formal university systems, with all their problems, still offer demonstrable value (the ability to network and establish social connections for one). Mark Zuckerberg may have dropped out of Harvard, but isn't that where he met his co-founders and original investors without whom Facebook would have never happened? Isn't it contradictory to use quotes from Messer's Thiel and Godin, both graduates of Stanford (Law and Business School), to strengthen his argument? Ellsberg's admonitions of higher education seem better geared towards Liberal Arts programs that cost $50,000 per year than towards law and business degrees at top institutions.So perhaps there is a middle way. Perhaps the message of Mr. Ellsberg's book is not that formal education is evil and valueless per se. Perhaps the better takeaway from this book is that the lessons of the entrepreneurs in this book, no matter your situation in life, are worth learning and applying in your life. Education, as Marc Ecko says, is ultimately about "andragogy" rather than "pedagogy". In this sense, an education in the Humanities can still offer a return on investment if it turns a student into a voracious readers and seeker of knowledge, rather than of credentials and grades.As Mr. Ellsberg notes, "andragogy" literally means "man-leading", whereas pedagogy "child-leading". This delineation of these two words is an apt peroration of the entire book. The formal education system in the United States has evolved more and more into a pedagogical system, where Professor expert gurus, people whom often have little practical experience outside the University walls, lead their young students, showing them the way to read a text, understand history, etc. And to motivate these students, they use external abstractions like "A's" and "B's". Anyone with even a basic knowledge of Social Psychology knows that external motivators sap intrinsic motivation.Contrastingly, the entrepreneurs in this book learned another way. They were not children with adults to show them the way. They were alone in the world. They had to rely on experience and personal responsibility. They focused on learning things that were directly relevant to their personal business endeavors. Their learning was focused on fixing a problem, rather than absorbing and regurgitating a sea of content. Their motivators were internal (growing their business) rather than external (grades and degrees). Their efforts were less taught and more self-directed.I am not ready to look at the experience of these entrepreneurs, and say as a result that all formal education in this country is best thrown out with the trash (as Mr. Ellsberg seems ready to do). But their experience is enough for me to say that there is a lot to be learned from their approach to learning and life, especially for someone who might be a product of a formal education system. Their example of self-starting, courage, and perseverance is one that anyone would benefit from studying and implementing to some degree in their own life.

Whenever I stumble upon a self-help book, particularly the kind of motivational, how to be successful type of rhetoric, I find myself to be very skeptical. There is something about the self-help category that bothers me. It seems as if those supposed gurus have the secret to financial success, fame, happiness, spiritual fulfillment... and they are happy to share it with you for the modest sum of $29.99. Just give them your money, follow the steps, and all of your problems will be solved.Sure.Sometimes they'll throw in some new age mumbo-jumbo, sometimes a few marketing buzzwords, or a mix of the two. As it turns out, all they offer is some basic common sense knowledge for anybody who hasn't been asleep for their whole life, masqueraded as divinely inspired epiphanies. I get annoyed very quickly by that kind of thing.Then, you come across something distinctly different.A few days ago the crowdfunding campaign for my upcoming book was ending, and I was checking out the donations coming in. I noticed that a certain "Michael Ellsberg" just preordered a copy of the book, and he tweeted that to his 5K followers. I remembered reading an article of his' some time ago, and I was intrigued, but didn't follow up right away, as I already had a ton of books waiting for me, most of which essential for moving forward with mine. Well, things were about to chance very quickly.We went back and forth a few tweets, and in a matter of minutes I received a gift notification on my kindle. A few seconds after that, I was already reading his book The Education of Millionaires: It's Not What You Think and It's Not Too Late. Now, that's what I call direct marketing done right.First off, Michael doesn't pretend to be a guru of any sort, nor does he wish to. He is somebody who has developed over the years a level of hands-on knowledge, the kind of street smart that you won't learn in school, and he has a history to prove it. He presents a clear, lucid, and very genuine insight into the world of reinventing yourself, and how to find an equilibrium between success and fulfillment. The book is fluid and organic. It's well structured, and it's a pleasure to read. You can tell he spent a great deal of time writing, reading, proofreading, checking, going back and forth to fix it several times before publication. There is a lot of time, effort, and professionalism put into this work, and it transpires from every page. The insights and advices he gives make perfect sense (once explained), but they are not obvious at all. Throughout the 272 pages of the book, his personal life permeates and surrounds the events told. It's compelling. And most of all, it feels real. Not for a moment are you treated like a mindless moron, looking for instant satisfaction and empty slogans to fill your void with more emptiness. Instead, Michael treats you like a smart, intellectually engaged person, who is trying to be even more stimulated, in order to take the next big step in their life.I thoroughly enjoyed reading his book, and needless to say I would recommend it. But not to anybody. If you are not prepared to challenge your views and maybe even change the way you live, then this book is the last thing you want to read. Personally, it has helped me substantially, and it is also thanks to him if I finally decided to leave my safe and secured, well paid job, to become self employed and pursue my passions (taking risks, but with care and intelligence).Now, I feel like I've known Michael a little bit, and I would like to know even more and learn from him. But most of all, I want to try and help him any way I can, by sharing ideas and giving him insights in those areas that I know fairly well, but that he may not be familiar with.His book inspired me to strive for excellence with mine. It was one more reason to put all my efforts in writing as best as I can. There is still a lot of work to be done, and I can't wait to get back and make it happen. In fact, that's exactly what I'm going to do now, so forgive me if I stop writing so abruptly.

I first heard of Ellsberg via Tim Ferriss' blog the `Four Hour Blog' where he wrote a guest post titled `8 Steps to Getting What You Want... Without Formal Credentials`. This post caught my attention as I don't actually possess `Formal Credentials' but I have learnt tons through on the job training and self education. What could this book teach me?Ellsberg's post '8 Steps to Getting What You Want... Without Formal Credentials' prompted me to buy his new book and I'm glad I did. Ellsberg has gone out and done a lot of hard work and research so we don't have to.This inspiring guy has managed to contact some of the most successful and richest men and woman in the world and interview them (Including Sean Parker of Napster & Facebook fame), and guess what? All them dropped out or did not go to college. These successful people have passed on words of wisdom to Ellsberg which he has presented to us in his fantastic book."If your gut tells you that investing in your own continued learning informally would be the most effective for you, then don't let the salesmen of formal credentials scare you out of it. The other option, of course, is to spend years of your life in an undergraduate or graduate program, dropping major cash on tuition, incurring foregone earnings, and going into massive debt in order to rack up ever-more formal credentials, so you can "compete" with millions of others getting the exact same credential each year" - From the 8 Steps Blog PostThe Main Message:The main message in this book is `You don't need to get thousands of Pounds/Dollars/Yen or Euros into debt by going to college or university, to learn something you'll probably never need for your career and to become successful in life'. Ellsberg does point out that `Education' is in fact extremely important to move yourself up the ladder of success, but you don't need letters after your name to do it."Education is still necessary to learn how to do the great work that gets you paid" - Michael EllsbergWhat will You learn?Some of the things you'll learn about in this book are the powerful tools that Ellsberg calls `Success Skills' such as:How to find meaning in the work you doNetworking & Mentors (Tim Ferriss points out, if you lost everything in life then your `Net-Worth is linked directly to your Net-Work'.Marketing - It's not all that fluffySales - A totally new approachHow to invest in your own successHow to create `Brand You'How to banish your `Employee Mindset' and create a `Entrepreneurial Mindset' - Even in your own job.Ellsberg expresses the importance of these and gives you tasters throughout, however he makes sure you understand that you have to take responsibility for your own `Self Education' and he helpfully tells you where to find excellent resources in all these areas. One which I went out and bought was `SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham'.This book is a `How To' for you and me to get moving with our business plans and careers. And yes, sales is a major part so if sales terrifies you, then this will change the way you perceive sales forever and will help you understand why it's a major component to your success.Conclusion:How much are you willing to invest in you? The value of this book is probably a couple of grand in personal consulting fees from Michael Ellsberg alone and we get it for £12. Do I really have to tell you to purchase this Gem of a book?

After listening to the book twice as an Audible audiobook, I decided to read it in print. It has been an excellent resource. I have highlighted and noted more sections of this book than any other I've read.Along with "Getting Things Done", "The Four Hour Work Week," and "Never Eat Alone", this book is one I wish I had read 10 years ago. It's that good.There are two broad themes I take away from this book.The limitations of the traditional higher education system in a context of rapidly escalating costs. While I'm fortunate to have earned three degrees and graduated debt free, I realize that is far from a unusual experience. Ellsberg shows through the book - and the new segment at the end responding to various exceptions - that higher education has some serious problems to face. These problems include the cost-benefit tension: costs are rapidly increasing while benefits are not rapidly increasing. For my reading of the book, I found the discussion of success skills more exciting because such skills are in my power to develop while overhauling an education system is more daunting.Ellsberg makes a compelling case for the merits of learning a set of success skills. Interestingly, these skills - sales, marketing, networking and more - directly generate value and boost the value of other skills. The chapters on these skills are outstanding. I enjoyed the mix of examples, the author's experience and resource recommendations. I also found it helpful that Ellsberg provides URLs and book titles to assist the reader in further reading. If you also enjoyed the skills based aspect of the book, I recommend picking up "The Last Safe Investment" next.

The first part of the book perhaps 80 pages I didn't really like actually they were pretty boring, but as I got further into the book into about Marketing, networking, mentors I was really surprised with what Michael had to say.I learned a lot of things from this books on topics on networking, marketing, sales, how to make a living, branding, difference between entrepreneurs(winners and NOT victims) and employees (losers victims) and how to change your mindset and more.In every chapter he interviews a lot of very successful people out there millionaires billionaires with or without college or high school education. A lot of successful people like Seth Godin, Russel Simmons, facebook founders and many more.He also teaches you how to become better at lets take an example as marketing, sales where he speaks a little bit about it and then he recommends a lot of good books on the topic on how to develop those crucial skills.I really recommends this book to everyone.I have to reread the book again and begin taking notes and write down the books recommends and research more about the stuff he's talking about.Even though I'm not 100 % sure that all Michael says is true or that I always agree with him on every single point. I still think this is an awesome book that's why I gave it 5 stars.So go buy it!!

Having read this book in the space of a few days I can't help but feel everyone is doing themselves a great diservice by not reading it. What I like about this book is that it gives you very, very practical advice about you can better your cirumstances. Moreover, Ellsberg has showed how he himself has followed these principles and changed his life. I'm often annoyed by books that are largely theory without any step-by-step guidlines of how to change things, but this book does just that. He recommends a ton of other great books and authors throughout the book, too, and I will be sure to purchase these books.Although this is a book everyone who wants to improve their life will learn fro,. In particular I would say that everyone about to go to college/uni, who is in college/uni, and the parents of those children would do well to read this, too. Just get a copy.I will be sure to come back in 6 months and let you know if I put any of these principles into action and what difference it made.

I really didn't want to buy this book. The cover with a lion on baseball cup with dollars screamed "another cheesy self-help." What convinced me was that M. Ellsberg featured on Tim Ferriss with some quality stuff. So I bought and I did not regret. On occasions, the book was as cheesy as the title and the cover. Also, at times it was repetitive and it read as a long blog post - which, I guess, is the nature of this type of literature. However, it was intelligent (unexpectedly), funny and very well put together with a large number of additional resources. Most importantly, it contributed to my life with quality advice. For £8 it's a bargain.