I have a story that I want to tell you. It’s a true story. It’s a dumb story. And I’m going to tell this story before I toss a few pointers at you for those moments when you are dealing with people who aren’t just like you on the education front.

 

Story: Last year a client of the bank I work for offered me a job. He was offering me a chance to manage his failing start up instead of keeping my position with a company that has a few benefits and a little pension. I politely declined on the basis of being a full time student. It seems a soft way to let him down and it was the truth. But then the flood gates opened.

This client found me on the Facebook. He sent me a message one night after 11PM and asked me to coffee. I ignored him because nobody sends appropriate messages that late. Ignoring him turned him into the life coach that aspire to be. The man sent me tirades about how formal education is a waste of money and time. He sent me articles about self-made people ad quotes from Gandhi quotes. He told my then-boss that I was an intolerable snob and has recently told my now-boss that I’m rude for helping my other clients in his presence.

 

So now my tips on being smart…hopefully you are smart enough to get where I am going with this and pretty much every other thing I have ever posted.

Make sure everyone knows about your 3.9

Remember when you were in high school? You were so good at school then, everyone told you as much, so now you is your chance to use this to shine. You could have been valedictorian, but you couldn’t stand Drama and you couldn’t act worth a damn but God you were good at everything else. So what if you were in remedial English, you knocked that shit out of the park.

Put your degree(s) on your card

When you hand out your business card your, especially when trying to snag a date, you want it to be super impressive. You’re card should read:

Name with a Middle Initial, B.A., B.S., MBA, NBA, LOL, PhD (honors)

I know this is the correct fashion because the people who tell me they are important do it this way.

I bet even Bill Gates does this.

Quote shit

Remember that one thing you read back when that one professor was teaching you things back at that school you went to get that fancy BA or whatever, quote it. Quote the shit out of that one article, remember the author date and volume and issue. It’s the most important article out there and you know it. One day you will impress someone with you quotey knowledge.

I heard a pharmacologist do  this recently. I was impressed.