Education is Freedom

We should not trust the masses who say only the free can be educated, but rather the lovers of wisdom who say that only the educated are free — EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 2.1.21–23a

I cannot agree more with today’s Daily Stoic Meditation: Education is Freedom.

I think we all can agree on that. However, that’s specially true for us, solopreneurs, entrepreneurs and freelancers.

As I mentioned in my post Why Quitting Your Corporate Job May Be The Best Decision Of Your Life, once I quit my steady job, I had to learn a lot of new things. Indeed, most of those things were completely outside of my expertise area.

However, that made me a better, more versatile professional and helped me grow as a person.

Education Is Freedom, And It’s Available For Everybody

Let me tell you a little secret: I learned all the skills I use to make a living today from online sources. Yes, I went to college, and I have a Ph.D in Artificial Intelligence, but 99% of my work comes from stuff I learned after I quit my corporate job.

I learned iOS programming by reading tutorials and following the free Stanford University Video courses. I learned backend and frontend development, Node.js and other technologies online too.

All this new knowledge allowed me to work as a freelancer during the first years.

Later, when I became a micropreneur, I learned lots of new skills, like marketing, social media promotion or launching a product. I don’t have an MBA, and I learned everything reading, discussing and sharing online.

Thus, a lack of education is no excuse for starting something anymore. Every possible resource you need to learn virtually anything is out there, at a click distance.

Conclusion

Certainly, education is freedom. If you are a freelancer or entrepreneur, you need to be constantly learning new things. We cannot do everything ourselves, and sometimes you need to rely on professional for different things. However, everything you need makes you a little bit more free.

If you are reading this, you have all you need to learn everything: a laptop or tablet and an internet connection. So, what are you waiting for?