AP 0678: If I Change Careers, Does that Mean I Wasted Time Earning My Professional Degree?

AskPat 678 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: What's up everybody? Welcome to Episode 678 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today. As always I'm here to help you by answering your online business questions five days a week. We have a great question today from Leslie. Before we get to her question, I do want to thank today's sponsor, which is DesignCrowd.com, which helps entrepreneurs and small businesses outsource, or what's called crowd source, custom graphics, logos, web designs, from designers from all around they world. They have more than half a million designers from over 100 different countries ready to help you with any creative and design projects you might have. So, check it out. You can check it out at D-E-S-I-G-N-C-R-O-W-D.com to learn more. Go to designcrowd.com/askpat and you'll get a special VIP offer just for you guys. So, check it out.

All right, now here's today's question from Lesley.

Lesley: Hi, Pat. I was just wondering … I really want to move forward with my entrepreneur venture, but I've dedicated a ton of time and money in my higher education. I spent eight years becoming a professional optometrist and even though I'm good at it and I like my job, it's just not for me. It's just not what I should be doing. I feel like, even though I want to move forward, that feeling of giving up all that time and money that I spent earning that degree is what's holding me back. So, I was just wondering how do you … Do you, other than updating LEED exam site, do you do anything still with architecture or have you completely just given up that part of your life that you spent a lot of time and money moving towards now that you're in the whole SPI venture? Just like to hear your thoughts on that and if you still continue to do anything with that or if you had a hard time letting that part of your life go in order to move into something better. Thank you so much.

Pat Flynn: Hey Leslie. Thank you so much for the question. This is actually a very common question that I get in just normal conversation, because I went to school for architecture. I paid for it. It was five years of my life. I do miss it sometimes. I miss certain parts of it. There are a lot of parts that I don't miss, obviously. I'm still doing what I'm doing today, because I absolutely love it and it's so far much better than working 9-5 in my opinion, which is why I choose to do this.

Architecture was amazing. There was a reason why I studied it. I do wish that there were some moments where I could continue to just design drawings and things like that, but no nothing, hardly anything I did in the five years of schooling and the three and a half years almost four years of being in the workforce there becoming an architect…It just…None of that applies now.

In the beginning, it was tough for me. In actually making that transition after I got laid off, that was a big thing I had to get over and let go of, essentially. In order for me to move forward with this part of my life, I needed to let go of that part. It was hard for me to do, especially because I wasn't the one who paid for college. It was my parents. So, I thought that I was going to be letting them down, but after some real discussions with them and talking about why I wanted to go down this road route, it became very obvious to me that this is what I really wanted to do.

You might be wondering…thinking to yourself like what you said earlier. It's terrible that you're kind of walking away from that, but no you're not walking away from that. You're using your experience in optometry and the feelings that you have now to realize that this is just not for you. It's so awesome that you're discovering this now as opposed to 20, 30 years down the road when you retire as an optometrist and you wish you had done something different.

How many times have we heard stories of people who have climbed the ladder, but it's not the ladder they wish that they had climbed? You're discovering that early, so be thankful for that. Be grateful. I think you are on the right track. If possible, and if you still enjoy optometry enough to potentially turn it into something that could become your own thing in the online business or passive income world…I mean, like architecture and what I got started with, greenexamacademy.com. There are, I know for example, exams and other things that people who are learning optometry need to know and for me that was really interesting to teach people who were learning this particular exam. That may or may not be interesting to you for whatever it is that you had to go through to become an optometrist or the schooling that you had to go through. There are opportunities there, that's for sure. A lot of people spend a lot of money to pass tests and to advance their careers.

That is something that you could do to keep your experiences as an optometrist in line with what your doing now. For me, doing the passive income stuff, that means that Green Exam Academy, which was the business that I started after I was laid off, that helps people pass an architecture exam, because it's passive and there's only a finite amount of information there. It's very much a site that people go to get information. Learn, pass the exam, and then they're done with it. There wasn't much upkeep and the other projects I started really had nothing to do with architecture. Although, I could have gone down that route, it just didn't end up that way because Smart Passive Income took off more than I thought it was going to.

I would actually just give yourself a pat on the back for realizing this now. For me, it took getting laid off to realize that there were opportunities out there. For many other people it takes like something to happen in their current job to realize that they are supposed to be doing something else. You realize that already, and now you can start putting in the effort and making those steps, whether they're big or small, to move out and do something on your own, whether it's related to optometry or not.

Just some thoughts. I appreciate the question, because it allows me to open up a little bit about those feelings. I will say that I loved architecture. I selected it myself. I wasn't forced into it, and I do miss it. I try to do some hand drawings and sketches every once in a while. I appreciate architecture and I love reading about it. It's just the CAD drawings and the 90 hour weeks and the not getting recognition for the hard work that I was doing. I don't miss that. That's for sure. And, the office politics and all that kind of stuff.

Lesley, this was a great question. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much and of course, as we do with all the people whose questions who get featured here on the show, I want to send you an AskPat t-shirt. You'll hear from my assistant in the next month or two and we'll collect your information so we can send that over to you for free. For anybody else out there who has a question, if you want to get your question featured here on the show, just head on over to askpat.com. No problem.

Thank you so much. I appreciate you and here's a quote by one of my favorite people, Frank Sinatra. I love his voice. He's like right in my range, so when I sing karaoke it's like typically I do a Frank Sinatra song because it's right there. Anyway, here's a quote by Frank Sinatra. He said, “The best revenge is massive success.” My Way would be a good one to queue up right now if I had that available, but anyway. Thanks for much. I appreciate you and I look forward to serving you in the next episode of AskPat. Bye.