A Word to High School & College Students

Anything worth having in life is not going to come easy - and it's not supposed to. You can’t possibly appreciate something that you did not have to endure some kind of struggle or sacrifice for. Success in life comes from fighting and overcoming your obstacles.

Speaking of enduring and crosses to bear, if you’ll indulge me, allow me to share a little bit of my history with you. I am not a college graduate. I left Rutgers University at the end of `89; joining the Air Force in `90, and serving in Desert Storm in `91. After coming back home, I went back to Rutgers in `91, but left school again in `94 to pursue a career in Law Enforcement. A goal I didn’t achieve until 2000.

Now, let’s talk about those six years between `94 and 2000. I was a flashlight carrying rent-a-cop guarding everything from malls, car dealership parking lots, and once ... I was even assigned to guard a hole in a wall at a construction site.

I managed a karate school for most of `96, but wound up having to quit that job because my car got totaled in a crash & I couldn’t get out there anymore. I tried temp-work in an office for about three months ... that didn’t pan out. I collected unemployment for about 6 months before landing another Loss Prevention job at TJ Maxx locking up shoplifters and cashiers hooking up their friends.

In `98 I got a job at Old Navy doing the same thing, which I held for another year and a half before finally getting hired by my home city’s police department. After two years of chasing crack-heads, Bloods and Crips – thanks to networking with a good brother, I was able to join an agency that has allowed me to provide a very good living for my family & I. In 2006, I created "HRJR Enterprises" and began my career as a motivational speaker & author. In each career; which I refer to as my "vocation" (Law Enforcement), and my "passion" (speaking, writing & coaching), I have been able to positively impact a lot of people.

SO ... I have no regrets about the decisions I have made because they have brought me to where I am today. However, at the same time, I do with the utmost sincerity, acknowledge many of the options and perhaps even easier traveling that I forfeited by leaving school. With that said ... I urge all of you Undergrad brothers & sisters to stay your behinds in school until you graduate!However, if you’ve got a particular passion ... if you have the grit, the determination and the drive to put in the extra work necessary to succeed – the extra work that you will have to put in by not having the options afforded a college graduate, God bless you, but take it from me ... that path is going to be a long and bumpy one.

On the other hand...

Don’t get it twisted ... that college degree you earn does not provide you with any guarantees ... it provides you with options. That piece of paper may get your foot in the door, but you’re going to have to put in work to prove yourself worthy of being – and staying in the room ... especially if that “room” you’re striving to be in is the boardroom!

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that piece of paper makes you any better than those in this world who may not have had your options and advantages. Both success and failure come in varying degrees, but those degrees – be they scarce or in abundance – all come down from God, and as I always love to say, “God don’t like ugly & karma is a mean S.O.B.!”

Let me stress this point ... a college degree does not guarantee you will be successful. The work you put in and the service you provide will be the determining factors of your success.

So let’s talk about this college degree many of you are working towards.
What are you going to do with that degree?

• Are you going to become just another employee – another spoke in the wheel, or are you going to become a boss – a decision maker?

• Are you going to become a bourgeoisie elitist, or will you provide some kind of service to your community?

• Will you determine what the worth of your degree is going to be by your actions and the example you present yourself as, or are you going to walk off of your campus and out into the real world thinking that because you have that degree, you have somehow attained a “golden ticket?”

I don’t mean to bust your bubble – but then again – perhaps I do. If you think you’re going to walk off of your campus and go off into the real world thinking you’ve got it made in the shade, and that you’re going to get scooped up by some Fortune 500 company making $80K/yr, allow me to share with you the first thing you must come to terms with ... In today’s economy, you’ll be blessed if you can find a job making $30K/yr.

You will have people tell you time and again how hard the real world is outside of the hallowed halls of academia, and you will look at them and nod and say you understand, but sometimes the only way to learn is by personal experience ... So I can see you nodding; but trust me, I do not share this with you for your agreement. I share this with you because although life has been good - very good - to me; and as much as I have prospered, I often find myself imagining how well I could have done had I stayed in school.

God Bless,
H.