Low-Cost Options for Professional and Personal Development
In my last essay I discussed the importance of growth environment in personal and professional development or growth. For most people, the greatest challenge to personal growth is funding. Therefore, I intend to explore some low-cost options for personal growth and development today.
In doing so, I need to clear an issue that is very often misunderstood:
Personal development does not have to cost you your limb!
While it might be prestigious and advantageous to have an MBA from Harvard or other prestigious business schools, there is no indication that all successful people graduated from prestigious business schools. The richest man in the world today dropped out of Harvard.
On the other hand, some university professors, other professionals and I, are currently learning from, and being coached by, a high school dropout whose businesses have generated hundreds of millions of dollars. And we are paying him for it! Imagine!
The key issue is translating knowledge into results by solving the problems of humanity. Those who do that, with or without college degrees, smile to the bank. So, the issue boils down to functional or applied knowledge.
Caitlin Pyle, CEO of BCP Media and proofreader, lends credence to this when she said: “In the last seven years that I’ve worked from home, not a single one of my clients has asked for a degree. They just don’t care. All that matters is that I can get the job done for them and that I can do it well.”
That is not to say that if you can afford a prestigious certificate you should not go for it. Far from it!
Now, for the purpose of this essay, I would group development programs, whether for personal or professional development into three categories. They are – High Cost, Low Cost, and Free. Yes, I mean free. And some of them are from the so-called prestigious schools.
High Cost development programs
Let me start with the High Cost development programs. Eventually, everything of value will come at a commensurate or high price at some point. Or as John Maxwell says, everything of value leads uphill.
But then, you can start off at the foot of the hill. I will not belabor the point. Harvard is good and expensive any day. Perhaps, it uses high school fees to weed out the stragglers from the serious-minded. It may also be a way of positioning itself and creating an elite class out of its graduates.
But that does not in any way detract from what I said earlier. I will leave that there.
Low cost development programs
Low cost development programs abound. All that is required to find them is ingenuity. Some of them may appear expensive at the outset but eventually save you a lot of money. One of such is membership of professional bodies. Some might consider the registration and annual fees as avoidable costs, but they save you a lot of money in the long term.
For instance, I have been a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI) for about 12 years. I have held the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification since 2009. The three-yearly renewal cycles requires completion of 60 professional development units (PDU).
I have gained the 60 PDU for free by attending on-demand webinars available to members. That is beside other resources (journals, magazines, books, etc.) and benefits that are available to members for free or at a discount. In my opinion, this is one of the cardinal ways of developing oneself at low cost.
Free personal and professional development
Free personal and professional development opportunities come in various forms.
First, they are many universities (including Harvard, Stanford and MIT) that offer free online courses but do not issue certificates for them. However, you can receive a certificate at the payment of a token. edX, set up by Harvard, MIT and other leading universities, is one of the leading platforms for free online learning in virtually any area of knowledge. Others include Stanford, Openlearning, Open2study, Alison, etc.
Then there are free webinars on virtually any subject under the sun. Some are offered by people launching new products or services. You do not have to commit to buying any product before you attend. All that is required is good internet connection and a computer or other mobile devices.
Blogs and podcasts are other methods by which you can develop or improve yourself for free. These address very specific and narrow topics. But they add a lot of value. Michael Hyatt and Leading Edge are two such personal development and productivity improvement blogs.
Let me reiterate that the key is determining what you want and making a focused search in the net for it. Free webinars might be the first step before you commit to enroll in a university for a deep dive into the subject.
Do not let the lack of money condemn you to a life of mediocrity. I have shown that there is a lot that you can do to improve yourself and grow your career with little or no money. Start your personal and career development journey today by taking that first step.
