10 things I have learned from international business travel.

1. There is an art to packing. If you roll your clothes, you will fit more but iron more.
2. The carry-on saves the stress of wondering if your bag will arrive with you.
3. You will always pack more than you need in the beginning.  If you travel with seasoned business travelers, pick their brains about it. Most hotels offer laundry service. No need to pack for every day of your trip.  Pay close attention to what you use and don’t use on the trip. It will help you when you pack for the next trip.
4. Airline food is about as delicious as a sandwich from a gas station.  Bring something on with you.
5. Pack workout clothes and use them.  You need to work off that hotel buffet.
6. Movies can help the trip go by quickly. If you travel frequently, be sure to rent some movies for your tablet or phone as you will have seen all that the airline has to offer.
7. Get access to the business center (if the hotel has one). Lobbies can be loud to work in and you will want to get out of your room. You will have access to beverages all day, typically a happy hour and sometimes breakfast. It is worth the cost.
8. Audio is better than video when calling home. When I say better, I mean quality. You always want to see your family, but video uses more bandwidth and can make the conversations choppy.
9. Building your frequent flyer miles is great, but fewer connections are better than frequent flyer miles. I prefer the most direct route vs. building miles. If you travel to the same places often, find the airline that offers the best routes and build your miles through them.
10. It is always amazing how many people who don’t travel internationally will tell you not to drink the water! LOL

• Why we outgrow curiosity
• Why the best people don’t step up to be President
• How much is enough
• If people know that irregardless is not a word
• Why violence seems to be the answer
• Why people don’t like to read
• What happened to the middle class
• Why a degree is needed to do entry level jobs
• What the challenge is with there, their and they’re
• Why beauty is only skin deep but ugly is to the bone
• If there should be an age limit for Congress and Senate
• Why you think we want to see pictures of your meals
• When the lines between democracy and socialism became so blurred
• Why kids can fight in war are 18 but not drink a beer until they are 21
• Why a multibillion dollar organization like the NFL hires part-time referees
• If one size really fits all
• Why we think standardized testing will fix the education problem
• If any article of clothing has stayed in style as long as jeans
• Why it is so easy to gain weight but so difficult to lose it
• What your one wish would be if you found a genie in a bottle

1. There is greater value in what you have to say when you are not always saying something.
2. You don’t always need to correct people. Sometimes you can let things go.
3. Great friendships don’t last without effort.
4. Actions speak louder than words. Especially with working out. 🙂
5. Be smart more often than a smart ass.
6. If you are waiting on the right opportunity, many great ones will pass you by.
7. Life in education may make you rich, but not in a financial way.
8. Just letting your work speak for itself is not enough. You need to speak for it.
9. There is no such thing as a “self made man.” Someone, somewhere helped them.
10. If you curse in front of your kids, they WILL repeat it at some point. It sounds cute unless your wife hears it. LOL!

A college degree is frequently promoted as a great avenue for upward mobility. avenue. What this means is that an individual has greater earning potential with a college degree than without one. This argument instills in people that money is the most important thing to value. The key reason to get a college degree becomes income potential.

There are many arguments beyond income potential for someone to pursue a college education. Discussing the validity of those reasons are topics for another day. Seeking a college degree based on income potential is the one that is troubling me.

Currently there is over 1 trillion dollars in student loan debt in this country. A college graduate may have a higher income, but the take home pay is immediately decreased by his or her student loan payment. In addition, college grads tend to have double the amount of overall debt than those without a college degree thanks to new car payments, credit card debt and mortgages.   So, while college grads may earn more money, their net worth is less. See more here:

Universities have moved away from talking about the four-year degree. Why? Well, it is because the 4-year graduation rates nationally are sad.  Universities focus in on 6-year graduation rates.  Community college 2-year graduation rates are worse. The colleges now talk in terms of credits needed. They spend thousands of dollars on retention solutions and create committees upon committees to address the issues. Is it working? I’m not talking about moving the needle one or two percent. I mean really working. This added time is not free. This adds to overall student debt and delays their start into a career. I remember a time when it was a joke that people spend that long in college. Now it is the norm.

Maybe it is time to ask the tough question. Should some of these students be in college? Maybe they would be better served to learn a trade, do an apprenticeship, and become a skilled trades person.   They would be able to avoid taking on student loan debt and start their careers. If it is about money, the median salary for a plumber is $50,000. Electricians make even more.

Mike Rowe (Dirty Jobs/Somebody’s Gotta Do It guy) has been on this bandwagon for quite some time.   He has the Mike Rowe WORKS Foundation. I am jumping in with him. I’m not saying don’t go to college. You can also learn trades at colleges.  What I am saying is that there are fantastic alternatives to college where people forge their path to success.