How valuable was your high school education?

[saphire]

I had two classes that I felt helped to prepare me most for life after graduation, Money Management and Entrepreneurship. I remember soaking up as much as I could, knowing the knowledge would come in handy one day. Since my 2009 graduation, life has been about everything I didn't learn in school. How to compose a resume and prepare for job interviews, how to build credit, how to incorporate a business, how to achieve good health, etc. I can now vouch for the statement, 'Google taught me more than school'. I didn't go to college, but I am attending the university of life, where every course is self-taught.

After that sentence, some of you may itch to debate how much better off I’d be had I gone to college. That isn't the point here.

Basic life lessons were not provided. Individuals are graduating high school, without a clue as to how to navigate the real world. Something is very wrong, and pushing for fundamental changes within an archaic educational system is a pipe dream. I feel the best we can do is take change into our own hands and supplement the education of our youth.

So, I am looking for feedback for an idea of mine. An app, LifeLesson, where both students and graduates can go to view short video clips and/or audio recordings on topics such as credit, business, health and so on. Content will be divided into two sections, experienced professionals and peers offering advice. There will be a feature that allows the student to add LifeLessons to a Notebook.

While available to everyone, I feel it is key to target individuals 17-25. They need it most and if that age bracket gravitates to it, I believe it would be a tremendous success. I haven't yet worked out how it would generate revenue as my heart is in this and for the moment, money has to take a back seat.

I'm here for you to pick my idea apart. Please bring up anything that comes to mind.

If you'd like to discuss this idea with me privately, reach me at [e-mail].

[petronio]

To start of, a bit of background:

From my experience, teaching finance (not economics) is left up to guardians. Larger institutions may even have Money Management and Entrepreneurship courses available, but they will usually be electives and are unlikely to be chosen by those of High School age (kudos to you if you chose them willingly). Taking this into account it becomes pretty clear why so many people are bad with finances: they were never taught it. If their guardians are bad with finances, or don't put in any effort to teach them, in all likely-hood the students will fail to seek out this knowledge themselves until it starts biting them in the butt in the school of hard knocks.

I have been lucky enough to have a father that is a businessman, investor, and negotiator, and put in a lot of effort to teach me the dark arts. The difference that is created by having an active parent was very apparent in high school. Classmates who had taken courses similar to myself and I considered equals academically usually gave me confused looks when I talked about finances outside of theoretical economics.

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It'll be great if you take on this project; people will benefit a lot from it. The important part, as oxalo said in another comment, will be execution. Sending it to editors of websites that those in that age group frequent, trying to get them to review it or recommend it would be a great way to start the fire. If it starts, leave it alone and it will likely grow by itself.

As far as revenue, think about what your true goal is. Unless you're strapped for cash, you may not even need to generate revenue: hosting is cheap and small donations will be more than enough. Your time isn't free of course, but that's why suggested thinking about your true goal. It's highly unlikely that you'll spend more than a few hours here and there once it's set up, since your focus is on the base content.

Besides, if thinking about how much it'll help others isn't good enough, consider it an investment. If it takes off, it'll be a big item in your portfolio.

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I'll throw in some suggestions:

* Definitely have a transcript for every video. Different people learn differently. I personally avoid videos since I can read faster than people can speak.

* Definitely do a section on negotiation.

* Start of with major points that give big impact. If they stop after that first video, at least they will have left with something useful.

* For negotiation I would recommend starting them with the dark art of anchoring: knowing how to use it can single-handedly make the difference between a salary of $25k and $65k. (I call it a dark art since it's so effective, while also being a blatant abuse of human psychology).

* Some things will be difficult to teach electronically. The basic of the business world, how to give a handshake, will be one of those. You would be surprised how many people would not know how to react if you walked up to them offering a handshake.

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Feel free to contact me, I would be happy to be a part of this. You'll be able to find my information in my profile page.

[saphire]

Petronio, I did choose those classes, thank you. Unfortunately, they weren't mandatory. I too was lucky enough to have a father similar to yours while growing up. I guess the keyword is lucky, most don't have the privilege.

I have felt passionate about providing some sort of supplemental educational tool for a while now. Yesterday, when a college sophomore friend of mine contacted me for help with putting together a resume, I knew I couldn't wait any longer.

Thank you so much for your feedback. Wonderful, wonderful information! I will surely reach out to you. You sound as though you would be great to work with and/or a great candidate for providing content for the app. Just those few paragraphs were truly captivating. You have a thing or two you can teach.

I can even see a cool video on how to give a proper handshake. A little camera angle play and you could have something nice!

[b0o]

I was actually thinking of doing something like this too, but for just finances and doing their taxes, I wasn't planning on making any money at all, but maybe just a youtube channel or a blog and to just put out the knowledge that I learned from my research/life.

It boggles my mind how my friends are so inept at managing their finances. How they have so much debt and don't know how to divide their paychecks, to put money in their savings while paying off their credit cards but while still using those same credit cards. I would like to know more about finances such as which credit cards to get, which banks are good for me, what kind of savings plan to start (Roth IRA, 401K, w/es), etc. from a knowledgeable and objective 3rd party with no ties to any of the companies they're advocating for, and that's the problem I face when I try to google these things because there's just so much information out there and it's hard to differentiate what's ultimately the best for me. Also, taxes, I have no clue how they're done I just give it to the guy at H&R block and just leave, maybe it's better this way, maybe not, I have no clue.

Another thing would be your career. i.e. I want to be a doctor. What exactly do I have to do. Step by step instructions based on time period, schooling: what schools would be good, what majors to choose depending on your location, how/when to study/take the MCATs, how/what to expect when I apply/get accepted, what happens during med school. Just an overall timeline, to do list and how to do it, and what exactly the profession/specialty does (i.e. doctors look at patients, yes, but ~80% of their time is devoted to paperwork). Adding a comprehensive guide such as this would be nice too, but for different professions, especially government jobs.

[saphire]

Do you mind me asking how old you are? I say 17-25, but I know a wider age range could certainly use an app like LifeLesson.

Yes, these things just simply aren't taught. So you end up with clueless young adults who become clueless adults. If you do try to teach yourself, you most likely resort to Google or Youtube, infinitely broad search engines with no filters whatsoever. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it makes it harder to find credible information. However, if you do and you're anything like me, it's bookmarked and never to be found again.

I think categories and career specific LifeLessons are an excellent idea. Maybe then you'll have less students lost in an inescapable amount of debt, still unsure of what they want to do with their lives.

Thanks so much for your feedback.

[oxalo]

I think this is a very good idea. Anecdotally, I've had many people complain about having to do things they 'didn't learn in school.' But with any good idea, it's about execution. How do you build your user base, etc.

[saphire]

Thank you! I would create a thought-provoking video ad campaign that individuals ages 17-25 could relate to. Asking simple questions, how will you lease your first car? Allow a brief pause, then cut to a clip of the app and someone giving that answer, then fade over with 'LifeLesson' and where to download the app.