Why are so many of my friends educated and unhappy?

• Recently, I met with some friends from high school after many years. So many years have gone by, so many stories. So many of my classmates living in similar circumstances. We were the cream of the crop, graduating from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1989 - one of NYC's premier and elite high schools. Many of my friends smart, well read, highly educated, with most having college degrees and graduate degrees, and yet, are not as successful as they would like to be , & financially no where near where they thought they would be.
• So many of us went to state and city colleges, and so many of us went to private colleges. So many of us pursued the American Dream, and are living vacant lives. We all had high expectations and even higher potential. Today we walk with slumped shoulders, and slouched backs - but on graduation day 1989, I remember seeing us walk .....even strut....like proud lions, the pride of our families and neighborhoods. We were on the right course, heading for success, heading to make ourselves proud. How did so many of my friends get off course?
• It fascinates me how a person can leave bound for a glorious destination, and find themselves lost at see for years. It fascinates me, because it happened to me, and it wasn't easy getting back on course to my destination. Today I find myself the happiest I've ever been in my life. I own 3 businesses, I have 3 beautiful sons, I am happily married for 9 years to a wonderful woman, and I am about to close on my dream house. Just a couple of years ago, none of this seemed remotely possible.
• In high school, college, and graduate school, I took a variety of classes. I was an computer science major in high school (yes, my high school had majors), an English major in college, and Entrenprenuership and Marketing concentrations in business school. Yet, I never took a class about how to be successful, how to make money, or how to be happy. Seems as if colleges don't teach these classes. And even if they could - who would be a qualified professor to teach these classes?
  The reality of the situation was that some of my friends went to school to get a degree, get it over with, and get a job. And thats exactly what they have today. A job and a degree, and the very real prospect of nothing changing for a very long time. Some of us work for large coporations, some for schools, some for hospitals, etc. How many people will actually earn top dollar at these firms? Very few.
• Unhappiness at work, and in our accomplishments, spill over to unhappiness in our relationships, marriages, parenting, and friendships. AND YET......we don't want to do anything about our unhappiness, lack of money, and lack of prospects! One friend of my mine actually said that "this is life - it not a bouquet of roses." I strongly disagree. Whenever I hire a new sales agent for my real estate business, I conduct an interview that is largely geared toward getting to know them personally. Within 30 minutes of this interview, I get a sense of whether or not this person is going to make it. I have college educated and high school educated (and one MBA) working for me. Education is not a prediction of earning ability in my office. The happiest people tend to make the most money (six figures their first year.) Why?
• A person's outlook determines their happiness and earning ability. Its that simple. Some people really don't believe that they deserve more money, or more success, or more love. They are settlers. They settle for a lower paying job. They settle for less of a raise, or less of a promotion, or less happiness in their relationship, or less love from their partner. They settle for less, and they grow accustomed to settling for less. Its easier to settle for less. Its easier to be less happy, to have less money, to have less. Its easier to expect less, to accept less. Why? Because we think less of ourselves every month that goes by that we are unhappy. We become unhappiness itself. Then we make the people around us unhappy. So they in return make us unhappy. Now we have.... a big buffet of unhappiness ...at home, at work, in our circle of friends. And it seems like its a bottomless pit. There are days that make you want to give up. There are days that your blood is boiling. All the while you ask....Why is this happening to me? How did I get here? What did I do to deserve this?
  You did nothing, that why you deserve this. You did nothing, thats how you got here. You did nothing, that why its happening to you. So why not do something to change your situation and your circumstances? Why make realize that you deserve better out of life ?

• Remember that at one point in your life your were a lion....and now you live like a sheep. And we all know what happens to sheep......they get sheered and slaughtered. Can a lion pretend to live like a sheep? Can a lion eat grass and be told what to do by a sheep dog? Can a lion be steered by an ordinary shepherd? The answer is that a lion must be a lion, must live like a lion, must eat like a lion, and can be nothing else.
  
  Next Post's Topic.......How I changed my life in simple steps and gained happiness