How to Climb the Economic Ladder
Going from Poor to Middle Class and From Middle Class to Rich
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Wouldn’t you like to know how you can climb the economic ladder? What if there was a proven strategy to move up the ladder from poor to middle class and from middle class to rich?
Here’s the good news!
There actually is proven research and data that shows how you can do this in the 21st century.
But here’s the problem.
You need to learn a bunch of new skills if you want to unlock this secret.
That’s because all the skills you learned in school, from high school to college were only effective in the last century, not the 21st century. Let’s face it, you don’t want to hear that. You don’t want to be told that you wasted four years in high school and you over spent $100,000 on a college degree that didn’t prepare you for this century.
How to Climb the Ladder
Now that I have your full attention, here’s what you need to know. In 2011, I became one of the first superintendents in America to adopt a 21st century skills curriculum for my K12 district.
It doesn’t matter that I was one of the first superintendents, and it also doesn't matter that my high school graduates can out compete college graduates, and here’s why?
Because most Americans distrust everyone, especially good news.
When was the last time you saw a positive news story in the news? When was the last time an elected official announced good news to you? The truth is we live in a world where everyone likes to tell you how dumb, lazy and horrible you are.
Naturally, you want to ignore those people and it makes you want to distrust news sources.
That’s why I don’t want you to believe what I have to say. I won’t even try to convince you of anything. Instead, follow the research and data that has been collected that prove you need to learn five essential skills.
21st Century Research
In 2020, Georgetown University released a research study that proved the best way to climb the economic ladder, that means to go from poor to middle class and from middle class to rich was to learn five essential skills.
What the research study found when it analyzed the entire US Labor Market is that there were five skills that the highest paid workers had in the US economy that no one else knew.
Let me repeat that. The highest paying jobs went to the people who knew these five essential skills.
Removing Old Bias
What’s important about this research and data is that it proves the OLD way of thinking is wrong and outdated. We have been told for the last 100 years that a college degree is the ONLY way to climb the economic ladder.
This research study proves that’s no longer true.
A college degree was the ticket to success in the last century, but Georgetown researchers have now proven that’s no longer the case.
What does this mean for you?
It means you can’t listen to Boomer advice anymore. When Boomers were growing up, a college degree was the ONLY way to reach economic success. And there is a lot of data to prove that is correct. If you look at the economic power of high school graduates compared to college graduates in 1950, 1960 and even 1980, a college degree was the key to unlocking your economic success.
What the Georgetown study does is make that data obsolete.
The key to success, according to the research and data, is knowing the five essential skills.
Real World Results
What I can share with you is real world results. Like I said, I was one of the first superintendents to adopt a 21st century skills curriculum back in 2011, what that means is my high school students graduated knowing the five essential skills for success.
One of my former students started his own business at the age of 23. He never went to college, he couldn’t afford it, even if he wanted to. That’s because he grew up in a low socio-economic neighborhood, his family didn’t have a lot of money and there were no role models or anyone advocating to go to college.
Many of the people that lived in his neighborhood were involved in gangs, drugs and violence. So how did this young African-American man start his own business at the age of 23 without a college degree?
The answer is he used the five essential skills he learned in high school.
One of those skills was 21st century leadership.
The 6 Objectives of Leadership
The problem with the old way of teaching leadership in our school system is that it focuses completely on the outcomes. Teachers only focus on people who were “successful” in history. But they never teach “HOW” those people became successful or why other people failed.
That might sound like a great way to teach leadership, except you can’t become a leader by copying and pasting what other people have done. That’s not how real life works.
If you want to become a successful person, young people need to learn HOW they can be successful. And what THEY need to do to follow their own dreams.
Reading about historical and successful figures only inspires us, but it does not teach us the roadmap for success.
Want to know what my high school students learned? Here’s a preview of The 6 Objectives of Leadership the high school students in my K12 district were learning:
- Objective One : Vision
- Objective Two: S.M.A.R.T. Goals
- Objective Three: Responsibility
- Objective Four: Management
- Objective Five: Support
- Objective Six: Reflection
Can you see a difference in quality of instruction? What young people need to know is how-to pursue their dreams and be successful on their own path. That means young people need to learn The 6 Objectives of Leadership.
Let’s go back to the former student who started a business at the age of 23. What was his dream? Under Objective One, he developed his vision and that was to work on cars.
Think about your own life. Do you have a clear vision?
Here’s why this is so valuable? My former student couldn’t afford college, but if he could all of his teachers and advisors would have pushed him to go to college. But college was NOT on his path. College did not follow his vision.
His vision was to work on cars, which means the right decision was to obtain an auto-mechanics certificate from a trade school. And that’s exactly what he did. He didn’t waste time going to college and more importantly he didn’t waste thousands of dollars.
Because he developed a clear vision — he knew the decisions he needed to make.
If you are stuck right now in your own life, you need to learn The 6 Objectives of Leadership. If you’re the parent of teenagers, you need to learn The 6 Objectives of Leadership.
If you are at a crossroads in your career, you need to learn The 6 Objectives of Leadership. I can’t stress enough how important developing your vision is for success in the 21st century. But it’s the first step toward finding happiness and pursuing your dreams.
Seize The Opportunity
You have two options to choose from if you want to learn more about vision and The 6 Objectives of Leadership.
If you’re not ready to learn the six objectives, you can get a preview of all six objectives in the Two Free Webinars that are available right now on the Leaf Academy website.
But if you want to develop your vision and start to pursue your dreams, then the second option is to Register Right Now for the Beginner Leadership 101 Course. Inside this 101 Level course, you will learn all six objectives. There are five learning modules, five video lessons and five lesson activities.
If you do a search for 21st century leadership skills, you will come up empty. That’s because Leaf Academy is the FIRST online school for 21st century skills.
If you want to climb the economic ladder and move up from poor to middle class or from middle class to rich, you need to learn 21st century leadership skills.
It’s the first step on your success path. See you at Leaf Academy!
About the Author:
D.Scott Schwartz, M.Ed. is better known as “The School Doc” on Twitter and Instagram. He hosts a weekly LIVE podcast on Instagram called “Tuesdays with Schwartz” which covers how 21st century skills can help you be more successful in life. He is the CEO and Founder of Leaf Academy, as well as, an Education Think Tank that does limited consulting work for schools and businesses. If you want more information follow the link in the bio.
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