It’s always fun to introduce yourself as a business major to fellow students. Business school, I’ve always said, is the new Undeclared. Sorry Psychology! Anyway, I guess it’s because a lot of people realize that they can go into “Marketing” and make it rich talking to people and drawing ads all day. I don’t mean to offend but: hahahah. Then there are the students that look at Forbe’s top paying jobs out of college and say “Wow, hedge fund analyst! That sounds pretty cool! Plus I’ll make so much money!” So, they take finance classes, accounting classes and they constantly complain. Yes, your finance classes suck. This is where I’m confused: why the hell do you think it would be any more “fun” in the “real world”? Please, leave a comment if you know…

Anyway, business majors take a lot of flack for their lack of, well, understanding, knowledge, intellect and so on. So, I’m often looked upon as another one of ‘them’ who play Yahoo! Pool in class and never really study. I guess this is my attempt to help those students who’d like to avoid falling into a wasteful four year adventure called college. I’ve done a lot and I’m not saying this is for everyone. I’m also not saying college is wasteful. On the contrary, it’s definitely worth it.

So how do you make the most of your time? Personally I stay busy (very busy), but not overwhelmed. For starters I have five jobs:

  • I have an internship (36 hours/week),
  • I work a part-time job (4 hours/week),
  • I supervise cash control at night (20-25 hours/week), and
  • I manage finances for two different companies (2 hours/week)

…and I work out daily, play tennis occasionally, see a friend or two each week, go camping, read books and magazines and watch an hour of TV before bed. Sure, down time is great, sleep is nice, but I truly hate idle time. So, naturally, people always ask the following:

  • When do you sleep? and,
  • Why do work so much?

To answer the first question, I usually sleep from 1:45am to 7:45am. Luckily, the only thing between my house and my office is a golf course and a few walls. Time permitting, I’ll then take a 90 minute nap in the late afternoon and end up sleeping even less at night. This is called biphasic sleep and I’m a big fan (Link, Link).

So, no, I don’t sleep much and that’s fine. More reports are coming out that too much sleep is unhealthy, anyway.

The next question is why work so much? Ironically my answer is: life is short. If you could find the path of least resistance towards your goals why wouldn’t you take it? In my case I entered college as a sophomore and will graduate next May. Over the past three summers I’ve held a wide variety of jobs. From sales to banking to telecom I’ve seen a lot. I’ve worked in different industries with different positions, different responsibilities, different cultures and, obviously, different people. These experiences alone are invaluable because they’re all learning experiences. They also help me determine what I’m good at and passionate about. Don’t you think that’s a substantial advantage over the thousands of students merely going to college because they know they should? I’ve learned a lot about myself and what I want to do just by trying a variety of different things. That’s going to save me a lot of time in the future…

My second answer is: money is good. When you’re in college you suddenly need to spend money on food, housing, a new desk chair, beer, a bigger bookshelf, etc. I’d like to think that I can immediately take the knowledge I’ve paid for and apply it to a job. The time is there, goodness knows we’re not studying all week! Plus, having money to invest is a great thing. The earlier you start saving for retirement, the better. I’ve put some money into an IRA and it’ll earn me all sorts of money as I get older. The sooner you pay yourself, the better. Don’t take my word for it though, go read Ramit Sethi’s guide to investing.

My third answer is actually Seth Godin’s answer:

The time to look for a new job is when you don’t need one. The time to switch jobs is before it feels comfortable. Go. Switch. Challenge yourself; get yourself a raise and a promotion. You owe it to your career and your skills.

I love challenges, I hate being bored. Some people like to look at what I do and say “Devin, you don’t understand what it is to be stressed or what it is to work as hard as I do” (referring to studying). To that I say: screw you, too. You don’t have to study, either. BusinessWeek and FastCompany are my textbooks. Sure, I don’t have to take a multiple choice test on them but that doesn’t mean I’m not learning. Hell, if I’m reading books on my own (outside of class) and creating opportunities for myself isn’t that more impressive than an A? My motivation is inherently in myself, not a grade. You may have to study hard to become a successful student, but I’m working hard to become a successful individual…