Most beneficial college classes for your fastlane journey.

[InnovateDesign]

What are some of the most beneficial classes that you have taken in college that aided you in your fast lane journey?

Even though I will be honest, I wish I took these classes more seriously. For me, it would have to be,

Interpersonal relations: Taught me how to communicate with people (though when I took it, I didn't see the importance of it too much since I was still aiming to work at a slow lane job. Might have helped in the the interview for my current job though

Polymers and plastics: Taught me the different manufacturing processes of plastics and polymers, from the view point of what the eye can see as well as molecular

Robotics classes: Taught me about currents, electricity and even some programming. I can now build a basic circuit board and follow schematics if I was to build an electronic prototype.

Legal business classes: Taught me the basics of laws, as well as patent laws. This and a professional mentor have taught me my current business which I am starting out. So I would have to say these classes were the most beneficial.


I am switching gears from those types of classes and plan on taking all the entrepreneur like classes in my college. Fall quarter, I plan on taking,

Technical writing: This will help me grow my current skill in my business to the next level, maybe teach me a few new things, even though I am very good at technical writing. Of course there is always room for improvement.

Principles of marketing: I truly feel this class can be extremely beneficial to my future endeavors.

Intro to E. Commerce: If I ever want to do E. Com, this will be why I took the class. It has always interested me for some reason.

I am not aiming for a degree, just experience. I am a couple of quarter away from having my AA degree in robotics but I do not see why I even need it.

What about you guys?

 

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[ApparentHorizon]

Public Speaking is a good one - but you may come to find there's not much Fastlane material taught in class.

Are there things you can take away from classes to aid in your process? - yes
Are there more efficient ways of getting that info? - yes

Going to turn the question around and ask, what can you learn right now (outside of school) that will absolutely advance your FL process?

 

[NewJamesBond]

Psychology classes have proved very helpful to me. The class was incredibility helpful for just about everything I do in my business.

 

[InnovateDesign]

Public Speaking is a good one - but you may come to find there's not much Fastlane material taught in class.

Are there things you can take away from classes to aid in your process? - yes
Are there more efficient ways of getting that info? - yes

Going to turn the question around and ask, what can you learn right now (outside of school) that will absolutely advance your FL process?

Internet

Oops I misread and thought you typed "where can you learn right now"

Answer is still the same, I can learn anything by using the internet and the infinite benefits. lol

 

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[lowtek]

All of my physics and programming classes proved useful. They taught me a few things that I have found to be critical:

• How to see interrelationships between seemingly unrelated facts
• How to combine facts to make new information
• Problem solving is the application of a repeatable and general framework

Other classes that proved useful:

• Basic economics - Supply/demand is considered obvious, but completely misunderstood by so many business owners
• Public speaking - you're gonna have to talk in front of people at some point, and you need to be confident and articulate
• Formal logic - If/then thinking and constructing/deconstructing arguments is a massive advantage in a world full of broken minds

the most critical skill set I learned, but mostly in my PhD - how to learn on your own. This is invaluable.

 

[IGP]

Golf!

 

[Phones]

Are they useful enough to justify the 6 figures of tuition?

 

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[GuestUserX09]

There was once this remedial class for all the almost drop outs, it was most memorable since you could see that most people in there including myself weren't necessarily "not smart" but actually very bright and lost of all direction.

On the surface the class appeared to be a room of bums and burn outs but it completely changed my perspective of a group of people I would have typically pre-judged. I apply the general lesson to most first interactions.

 

[piesandak47]

My comp sci classes.

Because I failed 4 of them, got on academic probation 2x, realized my parent's dream of me being an engineer/programmer was BS, and finally got into the fastlane.

 

[Thiago Machado]

Honestly?

It depends on what your goals are.

College is overrated.
Read this - http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/docs/stopstealingdreamsscreen.pdf

Save yourself the time and the money.
Everything you want to learn can be found on the internet for free.

Anyways... since you asked for tips on what to learn, I would focus on the following:


Mindset > marketing > sales > leadership > business


* Mindset: Get your head straight. Figure out what you want and how to get it.

* Marketing: Learn how to promote your product or service.

* Sales: Learn how to close deals + generate income.

* Leadership: Learn how to hire and manage people.

* Business: Learn how to run and maintain a business, create systems, etc.


Books I recommend:

Mindset:

• Awaken the Giant Within - Tony Robbins
• As a Man Thinketh

Marketing:

• Gary Halbert 30 day copywriting challenge
• Ca$hvertising - Drew Eric Witman

Sales:

• Spin Selling - Neil Rackman
• How To Become A Rainmaker

Leadership:

• No BS Ruthless Management of People and Profits - Dan Kennedy

Business:

• The Personal MBA
• E-Myth

 

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[EE7]

The one class that provided the most value in terms of an entrepreneurial mindset was my senior design class. This class gave me the freedom to find a need, build a team to create and build a solution and set clear objectives to achieve deadlines. It gave me a very nice taste of project management and practice in negotiation with potential sponsors.

 

[Justin Gesso]

Statistics, especially marketing statistics. Finance. Analytics classes.

Not college, but from a professional education standpoint, Six Sigma and Lean are massively useful.

 

[Goldman snacks]

I did business management at university and the most real life experience I learnt was a simulator game class where you have a pretend laptop business and you have to choose a market segment and analyse the competitors, choose what features the laptop has to stand out, then you choose how to promote it, whilst staying profitable, kinda like the lemonade simulator game haha.

the best thing about university is the fact that although your debt is racking up by the year, you have a safety net to try any business ventures out and fail, fail, fail, fail and who gives a S*** your college pays the rent. Also you have the opportunity to meet business majors, tech geeks, finance guys and people that could be your co founders. Lastly you have 3-5 years to read books, I read a book called 'the personal MBA: master the art of business' it isnt a lie it is litterally everything that they teach in business school other than how to site and reference essays.

 

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[Get Right]

I'm not a college fan but...Floral design did wonders for my ummm, education?

 

[Maxboost]

Managerial Accounting, Hands down IS THE MOST IMPORTANT business class you can take, especially from an entrepreneur's POV.

You'll learn INVALUABLE lessons such as:
-how to price your products
-if you should expand,
-when and if to close business units
-if you should invest in capital equipment
-How to analyze companies and their balance sheets

I found this course to be inter-related to all other courses such as finance, marketing and economics.

Most CEO's have a background in Accounting for good reason..

 

[Phones]

the best thing about university is the fact that although your debt is racking up by the year, you have a safety net to try any business ventures out and fail, fail, fail, fail and who gives a S*** your college pays the rent

Wut?

Do you understand the nonsense of what you wrote?

So you are spending 6 figures , but college pays the rent (wouldn't it have come from your tuition by chance?). And, because of that ("that" being: getting into a shiload of debt), you are somehow in a better position to fail fail fail?

 

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[Guest34764]

I would like to take a public speaking class.

Obviously too young unless I do dual enrollment but that is very unlikely.

 

[Goldman snacks]

Wut?

Do you understand the nonsense of what you wrote?

So you are spending 6 figures , but college pays the rent (wouldn't it have come from your tuition by chance?). And, because of that ("that" being: getting into a shiload of debt), you are somehow in a better position to fail fail fail?

Hey man, once you leave college your on your own, once the college loans run out and you leave, you'll find that it there's no job promised for you at the end.
Yes now you have the opportunity to try any venture you want and with a safety net aka your loan that pays your board.

Once you have rent payments, a car , loan REpayments nobody's gonna pay your rent if you mess up. Maybe you'll even end up at Starbucks in the slow lane serving my coffee to fund the fastlane

You can lead a horse to water...

 

[AgainstAllOdds]

I would like to take a public speaking class.

Obviously too young unless I do dual enrollment but that is very unlikely.

Check out https://www.toastmasters.org/Find-a-Club. Toastmasters is a great "club" where you get to go and give speeches. Most of these clubs are filled with older people that struggle with public speaking - so not that enjoyable, but amazing experience. You'll get to surround yourself with older people that are non-judgmental. The perfect environment to learn.

Take a look at the website. Contact your local chapter. Tell them your age and goals. And see if it'd be a good fit.

 

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[Rickson9]

What are some of the most beneficial classes that you have taken in college that aided you in your fast lane journey?

What about you guys?

For me, nothing.

Learning to sell and how to recognize an opportunity are the only 2 things that are useful IMO. They're likely not taught in college because people who know how to do either don't need to earn a salary from teaching.

 

[1step]

Check out https://www.toastmasters.org/Find-a-Club. Toastmasters is a great "club" where you get to go and give speeches. Most of these clubs are filled with older people that struggle with public speaking - so not that enjoyable, but amazing experience. You'll get to surround yourself with older people that are non-judgmental. The perfect environment to learn.

Seconded, it's about $40 for 3 or 6 months (cant remember) so it's a good value. There were about 10-15 members of my club and the average age was probably 50. It's really a good resource, you will be the youngest person by far but everyone will be very nice and helpful. Mostly it's older professionals so most of the clubs would have weekly meetings after or before work for the most part, if I recall you're in school so it should work perfect for you. Check it out if you're really interested in public speaking.

 

[ZF Lee]

I did business management at university and the most real life experience I learnt was a simulator game class where you have a pretend laptop business and you have to choose a market segment and analyse the competitors, choose what features the laptop has to stand out, then you choose how to promote it, whilst staying profitable, kinda like the lemonade simulator game haha.

the best thing about university is the fact that although your debt is racking up by the year, you have a safety net to try any business ventures out and fail, fail, fail, fail and who gives a S*** your college pays the rent. Also you have the opportunity to meet business majors, tech geeks, finance guys and people that could be your co founders. Lastly you have 3-5 years to read books, I read a book called 'the personal MBA: master the art of business' it isnt a lie it is litterally everything that they teach in business school other than how to site and reference essays.

I know right. Books that could give a more pragmatic view that is actually operational actually exist. Why in the hell are still people wasting their money going for mbas that send them to corporate entrapment?

By the way I played the lemonade simulator game before. It's actually horribly Slowlane. You can't replicate yourself and place multiple stores, and to actually earn big in a certain area you have to park your store there for MONTHS.

But hey, the accounting's automatic. All the costs and stuff is tabulated.

 

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[mcjon77]

Managerial Accounting was extremely useful to me for running a business, financial accounting was to a lesser degree.

There was one course that were specific to my university that has been SUPER helpful. It was all about building business models with Excel. The final project was creating a business plan that included fairly in-depth financial projections using Excel. Being able to adjust a ton of variables and seeing how the effects cascade through my financial projections is quite handy. The course was so useful, even though I took it about 5 years ago, I have gotten all of my course materials and notes and am redoing the course on my own with Google Sheets instead of Excel this time.

 

[biophase]

Physics, Philosophy, Psychology - All 3 will help you understand the world better, especially when someone is bullshitting you.

 

[townhaus]

I'd say:

1. Physics
2. Art (creativity is important)
3. Maths and stats (perhaps it should be 1st, it's fundamental. But physics is more about the real world and practical application)
4. Latin (this was more about classical history, roman culture & even philosophy, than language. The differences and similarities between their society and our modern day system, was thought provoking)
5. Basic economics (supply and demand)

A lot of beneficial stuff isn't, or wasn't taught at my school (web design, marketing, investing).

I'd say the best classes were the hands on ones (art, physics, chemistry), or where there was problem solving or competition/challenges/projects to do - like making poster, or dissecting stuff (rather instead of just listening, writing, discussions and testing your memory e.g history, english, languages).

Perhaps I just was better at maths & science + art, so enjoyed those subjects more.

Most of these subjects can be explored on your own (i like to read science encyclopedias, wikipedia, drawing and building stuff at home etc).

School was more an opportunity to compare myself or my abilities with my peer group, i found.

 

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[luniac]

computer science 101
and
Senior Design

 

[Goldman snacks]

the main things you should want from university is: 1. the peice of paper, 2.more time to figure your life out before your funneled into a dead end career 3. meet new friends and party,

if you just want knowledge, walk into a university campus book store (pretend your a student), buy all the books relevant to your course,study them hard....... you are now an imaginary business graduate!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

My first college degree was in finance because that's where I was told the money and jobs where.

Once I realized that there was no way I wanted to do that stuff, I stayed and got a marketing degree as well-- something I knew would have relevance in owning a business.

So generalistically to answer the question, ANYTHING relating to SALES, MARKETING, ADVERTISING, and PERSONAL COMMUNICATION.

If you have an idea on what your entrepreneur aspirations are, say software, then I'd say pursue that avenue.

 

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[mayana]

Undergraduate:

Statistics
Macro economics
Microeconomics

Graduate:

Economics of decision making
Operations management (mostly the parts about lean, six sigma)
Leadership (mostly the parts about psychology)
Corporate finance maybe. I think this just helped my understanding of money.
Accounting.

Since your question was specifically about college classes, those are the ones that helped ME personally.

If I could go back and do it again, I'd get a computer science degree as an undergrad. So any computer science classes would be on my list.

That said, if you are really dedicated, you can learn about all of those subjects on your own through books and online (free) courses.

I did business management at university and the most real life experience I learnt was a simulator game class where you have a pretend laptop business and you have to choose a market segment and analyse the competitors, choose what features the laptop has to stand out, then you choose how to promote it, whilst staying profitable, kinda like the lemonade simulator game haha.

Omg. I did something like this in my MBA program. I ran the business straight into the ground. Haha. I'll stay out of manufacturing. It was pretty gruesome

 

[DaveC]

If you're just talking classes, most beneficial are:

Basic Accounting - every entrepreneur should know the basics of how to read P&L, Cash Flow, Balance sheet

Personal Finance - Every person in America should be required to take this.

Speech/Communication - Sales is the blood of any organization.

The best business class by far was to join a business fraternity. Look them up on your campus. This was by far the best move I made on campus