Why I’m Taking 4 Paid Online Courses This Year

“Formal education makes a living, but self-education makes a fortune.” — Jim Rohn

One of the best things you can do to become successful is to invest in yourself.

In his book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, T. Harv Eker observes: “Rich people constantly learn and grow. Poor people think they already know.”

In 2017, I renewed my dedication to my education by reading 59 books.

I love reading books.

A good book is like a conversation with someone who has done their homework.

In general, people put more effort into a book than they do their blog for a couple of reasons. First of all is the fact that they want the book to sell, and the better the book is, the more likely it is to sell.

The book is also likely going to have a bigger impact on their reputation than a random blog post. It better be good.

Despite these two factors, not every book is a home run. But when it comes to finding high quality information, books are still an essential resource.

In 2018, I’m still planning on reading a lot of books, but this year I’m not setting a goal for how many.

One reason for this is that I have a system in place for reading lots of books. I know I will end up reading a lot this year even without setting a a goal to stretch myself.

My focus this year is shifting to online courses and the value that they bring to the table in my education.

I have a goal this year to make it through at least four paid online courses. I’m going to go through the material slowly while attempting to apply as much as I can. The idea is that with the help of paid courses, I can go further, faster than I could on my own.

So why am I pursuing paid courses when I could find all the information for free on the internet?

There are at least three good reasons:

1) Paid courses are the most efficient way of obtaining good information

People who sell online courses want their courses to sell, so they do everything they can to make them worth buying.

Some online courses have exclusive information not available anywhere else.

Some online courses offer nothing new, but represent the best the author has to offer. You will usually save lots of valuable time buying the course instead of digging through their archives.

If you are someone who creates things, you need to balance input (learning) and output (producing). Spending hours searching for information isn’t a productive use of your input time. This both lessens the quality of your output and leaves less time available for it.

Paying for a course is a good way to keep yourself moving forward.

2) Paid curses allow you to take advantage of the sunk cost fallacy

One bias that humans share is the tendency to make decisions based off of irrelevant “sunk” costs in the past.

This is why you to object “but I paid $___ for it,” when confronted with an item you should have thrown out years ago.

The sunk cost fallacy causes us to have a certain “ownership” bias. We value things that we own far more than if we didn’t own them.

Like any weakness, we can use this bias to our advantage if we are strategic about it.

If you sign up for a free online course, the chances of you even finishing the course are pretty low. The chances of you implementing anything that you learned are very low. This is because the minute things get boring or difficult, you jump ship to the next piece of novel, new advice.

Many people waste years chasing the “silver bullet” information that will get them the results they want.

(Spoiler alert: there is no silver bullet).

If instead you pay for an online course, your chances of finishing it are high. Your chances of implementing what you learn are very good. You will want to “get your money’s worth” from the course.

Committing to something in advance is a great way of making sure you stick it out until the end. Paying for online courses proves your commitment to yourself.

One last thing that I will mention is that the sunk cost fallacy can still come back to bite you in this area. If the course you buy is terrible, you don’t need to finish it just because you paid for it. Ask for a refund and find a better course.

3) Paid courses help me meet my goal of investing 10% of my income into my education

The first two points are universal, this one applies to me and my goals. I’m sharing it with you because the thought process is going to be very different than what you are normally exposed to.

One of the best books that I read in 2017 was T Harv Eker’s Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. He lays out a money management strategy that involves you dividing up your income into six buckets for six different purposes:

• 50% for necessities (rent, food, utilities, bills)
• 10% for giving
• 10% for long term savings for spending (emergency fund, vacations, large purchases, etc)
• 10% for play (splurging on things purely for enjoyment. You’re supposed to use all this money every month)
• 10% for financial freedom (investing in money-making vehicles such as stocks, index funds, real estate, your business, etc)
• 10% for education (coaching, mentoring, books, curses, etc)

This is the money management strategy that I wrote about last week.

Putting 10% of your income toward education is way more than what 99% of people do once they have their degree.

Of course, most people aren’t investing nearly enough in their own continuing education.

You are your most valuable asset, it’s time to start treating yourself that way.

Investing 10% of your income on education is pretty hard to do with just books. Think about it this way, if you make $50,000 a year after taxes, 10% of your income is $5,000. Even if you only buy the expensive $25 hardcover books, you’re going to have to buy 200 books a year. The unread books would start to pile up at an alarming rate at my house.

Paying for online courses is a great way to up the amount that I am investing in my education while exploring a different learning experience.

Once my income gets big enough I will need to invest in expensive coaching and mentoring.

Final Thoughts

This is very different that the way that most people think, but I’m going for better results than most people get.

Elite athletes get coached their entire careers. Even when they are the best in the world at what they do, they still invest in getting better. Mediocre people almost never invest in themselves after they get their degree.

I want results closer to those of an elite athlete.

For me this means starting with books, adding online courses, and one day moving on to coaching and mentors.

For you, it might mean sticking with free blogs and podcasts for a while. That’s fine, that’s where I started and I’m still reading blogs and listening to podcasts. At some point though, it’s going to be time to level up.

If you want results that most people don’t get, you’ll have to do things that most people won’t do.

The Four Courses I’m Taking This Year

(note that these are affiliate links, if you sign up for one of these courses I will get a small commission)

1) Writing With Flair: How to Become an Exceptional Writer. Taught by a former Wall Street Journal editor, this course teaches you the “secret sauce” of good writing. It helps you clean up your writing so that it is crisp, punchy, and pulls the reader along. I’ve already finished this one and have been trying to apply the lessons to my writing.

Here’s the link: http://thematthewkent.com/writing-with-flair

2) How to Become A Bestselling Author on Amazon Kindle. Taught by the multiple time Amazon bestselling author Tom Corson-Knowles, this course teaches you how to create, publish, and promote your book. Tom has published more than 20 books on Amazon and he was making more than 5 figure a MONTH off of royalties less than a year after getting started. I’m almost finished with this course and already have the first draft of my first book finished. You better believe I’m taking action on what I am learning.

Here is the link: http://thematthewkent.com/kindle-publishing-course

3) How to Write a Nonfiction Book That Actually Sells. This is another course from Tom Corson-Knowles. I haven’t taken this one yet, maybe I should have before writing my book. Oh well, hopefully I will learn something that will help me on my second book.

Here’s the link: http://thematthewkent.com/write-nonfiction

4) Instagram Marketing 2018: A Step-By-Step to 10,000 Followers. Right now I think I have 200 followers on Insta. I’m looking forward to this course.

Here’s the link: http://thematthewkent.com/instagram-marketing