Advice for young people

Think of this as Volume 14, Number 40 of A-Clue.com, the online newsletter I've written since 1997. Enjoy.

The biggest mistake I ever made was journalism school.

Not that journalism has been a mistake. Far from it. It's what I am, not just what I do. I have loved nothing more than writing since I was a little kid. It's a love affair that has lasted nearly 50 years.

The problem is with journalism's definition of itself, which was presented to me in the first lecture I went to. "Journalists are people who work for people who buy ink by the barrel," I was told.

What's wrong with that sentence? Work for people.

Journalism, as a profession, as something you're employed to do and be, was already dying in the late 1970s. I could see the end coming. I debated the end with my teachers. But I really did nothing about it.

What I should have done was to take that lecturer's advice and go over to the business school. I would have been much better served there. Because business isn't about work for people. Business is about finding ways to have people work for you.

Today, in 2010, we are all free agents. There is no longer such a thing as "getting a job" and spending your life at it. If you're in college, or high school, and some well-meaning person tells you that's the aim of the exercise, walk away from them. They are wrong.

Here is what the point is.

Find a cause that excites you. Find out what you most want to do, what you want to accomplish. Then find a way to start doing it.

If you're a writer, you can be a blogger no matter your age. You can start building your reputation, right now.

This assumes there is something you care about. It could be a cause, it could be a profession. Even as a student, ask what color your parachute is. But don't make this the self-centered exercise Richard Bolles would have you engage in.

Ask what change you want to see made in the world. Ask what role you want to play in making that change. What skills must you acquire to help make that change? Who do you need to know? What institutions are driving it? What skills are they looking for? What skills or attitudes are missing from the cause?

It doesn't matter what you major in. James Dyson was an art student. Learning how to learn, adapting yourself to the process of learning, is a lot more important than what you learn now.

Sure, try things on. I'm not saying you need to do what I did, find what you want to do at age 8 and pursue it as a life's passion. But don't think of yourself as going to school in order to take a job.

Think, instead, of going to school to find a career, find a passion, and to start building a dream.

When I was in your position, all we had were schools. Had Rice not accepted me I don't know what would have become of me, frankly. But my kids don't need Rice, or any other institution. They have this medium.

Many adults remain scared of the Internet, the way my parents' generation was scared of TV. You don't have to be afraid of it. Sure it has its red light districts, and dangers. Sure you can make big mistakes here, mistakes that will haunt you. (Although my guess is that, over time, fewer will be haunted as it becomes evident everyone makes mistakes.) But anything you might possibly do is described here. Anyone you might possibly be lives here. Any contact you might possibly want can be made here.

Let that be part of your education.

And when you find these people, and these resources, try to learn how leaders in the field got to be who and what they are. I think you'll find that it's the skills of journalism — the ability to research, to ask questions, to take notes, to summarize, to explain — that give you a leg up. Nearly every leader in every field of endeavor, every name you know, will have these skills in some measure.

Being on the Internet means reading and writing. Even a TV show must be written, must be mapped out. The skills you need to succeed can be practiced here, right now. So practice them.

Let me summarize.

• You want a career, not a job.
• You want a cause, not an employer.
• You want skills you can build on this medium.
• Everyone is a free agent. Everyone is an entrepreneur.

Now go out there and take this world in directions I haven't been able to. Find a way to push history just a little bit, in the direction of progress.

I guarantee it will be a wonderful  life. Because you will have chosen it.