Opportunity Cost in Terms of College
Action in terms of opportunity and its costs is seldom taken, much less entertained, because the majority is so obsessed with the volume of how much they can do. I’ve always been a part of the minority in this regard. College, to me, had to be measured in terms of opportunity cost. To expound: my major was simply hospitality management with no minors and/or any other distractions. Despite being told to major in engineering (and initially going in that direction “because I could”), I intrinsically knew that my guidance counselors were pushing me in the direction of what I was capable of, not what I was capable of. Meaning: my capability to focus while making small optimizations simultaneously is not only rare but makes me unique. I do so in conjunction with innovating a custom process to focus on daily in which I measure everything against my strong points that have proven to work historically for me — music and business. My teachers and guidance counselors weren’t seeing that aspect. They were focused on one result of that aspect, which was my academic performance. Seeing the underlying capability affords a viewpoint on the broader scope of my life and how I’d like to direct it.
Majoring in engineering is something I know would’ve made my parents proud, but that has never been my main focus. My main focus has always been my focus. My focus is on my independence and having the right attitude to not just attain it but maintain it. Of course, every child wants to make their parents proud. Every child needs parental support as well as guidance. But my order of operation has always been its own thing.
My parents supported this with trust even though that trust didn’t come from understanding. The individuality taught in my household goes with the ideology of, “no one knows what is in another person’s head (even family), so it is more important to listen and observe than to ever feel like the inner workings of another person are ever understood”. This basis on which I’ve based my entire life was given to me by the two mentors that executed this principle daily: my mother and father. When they weren’t perfect at it, they were quick always and in every way to point it out before I could even utter a word. They were demonstrating humility and honest errors in judgment. This gave me the confidence to assess my life based on the opportunity cost of the two things I was good at and measure all decisions against this to ensure my odds only had to be 1 of 2.
In direct contrast, every one of my peers was so enamored with themselves and their capabilities and achievements that not one of them took the time to think about focus, much less focus on it. During my time in high school and going into college, most students (upperclassmen) and those going to the college orientation called “Preview” (as well as those on Preview staff) were so obsessed with majors and minors that you would have thought they took music theory class. I observed that the overall focus was on aligning themselves to an external structure/label instead of what is internal. My view on this obsession is that if it worked for them, I respect it all at my core. I hold that respect while knowing the culture of flashing one’s major was a minor thing in my world (which I viewed neither to be wrong nor right).
Accepting those foundational differences took adjusting on my part as I was the minority always in all ways. I had to learn that not only I am the one that grew up around my dad and his friends, but that he and his friends are among the most elite professionals of the 20th century. I had a different role model, my father, with different ways of thinking. I’m not distracted by any one else’s behavior, good or bad. While this unique experience allowed me to observe at a deeper level, it always caused internal tension (but never once conflict) between me and my peers in terms of operating daily. This tension has slowly diminished over time as every day is a new opportunity for me to not only learn but to optimize. A lesser amount or lack of this form of optimization amongst those who are unable to focus on focus is, in my symphonic view, the opportunity cost in terms of college. While my household taught me how to think, college taught me how everyone else thinks about themselves and the system we all live in…the educational system.
