- I do not feel good,
but we are shooting this video.
We need to have a chat.
It's time for some real talk.
I want to share a story with you guys
that I was inspired to share with you
because a lot of students are
in university or college,
and it's exam time right now.
And I want to talk to you guys about
why I think a lot of students
and a lot of people right now
are choosing to go to university or college
for the completely wrong reasons.
When I was in high school,
I had no idea what I wanted
to do with my life.
None whatsoever.
And I remember going up
to my accounting teacher at the time,
Mr. Graffy, and saying to him,
"I have no idea what I want to do with my life."
And I remember him saying to me,
"Well, if you go into accounting,
"you can make a lot of money."
And so, that's what I did.
I thought, "Okay, well, money is good."
So, I decided to start taking accounting classes.
And, I did that throughout the rest of high school.
And I decided to continue to pursue it
into university.
This is kinda where the story starts.
For the next five and a half years,
I pursued my degree.
Now, I got an undergrad
which was four and a half years.
And I spent an extra year to get my master's degree.
If you don't believe me,
here it is.
This is my Master of Accountancy degree,
from Brock University.
That piece of paper represents $35,000
and five and a half years of my life.
And when I was in university,
everything was great.
I felt like
the future held so much promise for me.
And there was so much potential.
And when I graduated,
I was gonna make all this money
and that money was gonna make me happy.
And just, all this stuff that just turned out
to just not be true.
When I graduated,
I immediately got a job at an accounting firm.
And for a while, everything was fantastic.
I was making a lot of money,
or at least what some people
would consider a lot of money.
And I had what I thought was a steady job
and everything was great.
For a while.
But after the first,
I'd say, year and a half of being there,
I started to realize
that I was absolutely miserable.
And I stayed at that job because
I thought to myself,
"I spent five and half years in university,
"I can't just bail on this job now.
"This is what I've spent so much time of my life
"and so much blood sweat and tears
"went into that degree,
"I can't just not stay in accounting."
So I stayed at that job.
And, although I was able to make decent money,
I was absolutely miserable.
And I refused to acknowledge it
because I had spent so much time
getting that degree.
All that work went into it,
I felt like I can't just not
do accounting.
Well, the thing about this firm is,
it was a small firm,
and unfortunately
when the recession hit,
they started looking for heads to roll.
And unfortunately, myself
and another lady that worked there,
we were cut.
We lost our jobs.
But when I lost my job,
it was then that I realized
that I was actually free.
I was free to pursue what I really wanted to do,
which was video production and acting.
That was my true passion
that I should have gotten into to begin with.
And the reason that I'm really making this video,
is because I wanna send a message
to all the students that are out there
or any prospective students
thinking about going into college or university.
A lot of you might have chosen
to go to university or college
in the program that you've chosen
because you think that
you're gonna make a lot of money
and that's gonna make you happy.
And I want you to know
from personal experience,
that money does not make you happy.
Sure, money is nice,
and you're able to buy things
that you wouldn't be able to buy.
And you can save up.
And It makes sense, right?
We think that money
is what makes us happy in life.
But the truth of the matter is,
if you're going into a job,
nine to five,
or longer everyday,
whether it be in an office
or anything else,
and you're slaving away
and you're putting an effort into a job
that you really don't like,
you are going to be absolutely miserable.
And it doesn't matter
how much money they pay you.
You will never be happy
and you will never be free.
What I suggest you do,
wherever you're at at life right now,
whether it be high school,
or you're just about to go
into university or college,
take the time to really think
about what makes you happy,
and what you really love to do.
Because I'm telling you right now,
if you do that,
whether you take a year off to work,
or you do go to college or university
and you just take general classes or something
until you decide what you really like,
believe me when I say that
that time is not wasted.
It would be well spent
because you will potentially save yourself,
multiple, multiple years down the road.
And not just the time, but the money.
You will save yourself a lot of debt.
Now myself,
I was blessed enough that I was able to work
at the university,
and graduate with no debt.
But there's a lot of people out there
that graduate with these degrees
and work in that field for a while
and realize that they're absolutely miserable,
and they've got all this debt to show for it.
And one of the most important things
you need to consider
is you can make money off of the thing you love.
If you get good enough at anything,
you can make money from it.
And a lot of people I find in life
take the safe route.
They think, "If I to college or university,
"that guarantees me a job
"and I can work there for the rest of my life."
And the truth of the matter is
that's bullshit.
It's not true.
Take it from me.
I lost my job with a Master of Accountancy degee.
It had nothing to do with my performance,
it had nothing to do with anything
except for the fact that the economy got bad.
When that happens,
you can have a PhD in neurophysics or something,
rocket science, it doesn't matter.
If times get bad
and they need to cut costs,
your head is on the chopping block,
as simple as that.
So, what I'm trying to say is,
taking the road less traveled,
and taking that risk of really pursuing
what you love to do
is really no more risky these days
than taking what used to be considered, the safe route.
Because the truth of the matter is
the safe route, is not very safe.
Job aren't guaranteed to you anymore
like they were back in the day
when our parents got jobs
and made $30 an hour pushing
a broom at a car plant
and can work there for 30 years
and retire with a pension.
That doesn't exist anymore.
Don't be afraid to pursue what you really love to do,
because the end you're gonna save a lot of money
and you're gonna save a lot of time,
I promise you.
Anyone out there that's thinking
of going to post-secondary education
or is in it right now,
and they've chosen or thinking
of choosing something for money,
I'm here to tell you that
that's the wrong reason
and you need to really reflect
on what makes you happy,
and pursue that wholeheartedly.
If you get good enough at something,
the money will come
and you will be able to make a living at it.
I hope you guys got something out of this.
If you know a student that isn't sure
what they want to do with their life,
please share this with them.
Because, I'm hoping that
at least one person out there that's considering
going into post-secondary
or is in it right now,
would get something out of this video.
That's all for this video.
Thanks for listening to me, guys.
And I will see you next video
with some other new topics.
So, I'll see you guys later.
Peace.