Hi, Our son is currently in grade 10 (in Hobart) and needs to choose subjects to study in College for years 11 & 12. He wants to follow in our footsteps of property developing however is not sure what subjects to choose that might help him.
We have suggested maths, business studies, IT. He thought he would be able to go straight from school to developing.
We have told him he will need a good income behind him first so he is interested in doing IT.Any thoughts on subjects would be appreciated?
Hi PeteJackie,
I loved your question, it’s been a few hours so I wanted to reply.
Pardon me if you wanted a quick reply, I hope mine is of some interest to you.I am in IT & also in the Property Development business. I make mistakes all the time (in both industries) but I am quite successful in both too. Most of my failures are not disastrous ones because I pay people to do all the critical work in Development that requires strong Maths & English skills etc. I love science (cosmology mainly) so that knowledge/skill has not really been a cross-over skill that I can take advantage of…….until we all live on space stations. :) Most of my mistakes have been from not always figuring out what it takes for people to put my Development Project on their highest priority. I don’t have that issue much any-more, I’m better at looking for what interests people & I try to give them that very thing. (Sometimes it’s not about giving them more money, sometimes it’s genuinely about making them feel valued…….however giving people more money usually does the trick lol).
I consider Developing as “who I am” & it will always be part of my life (even when I can’t develop). Most people look at empty open spaces and see beauty there, I have to pretend that I see beauty in that open space because I’m actually feeling a different type of beauty. My mind is working at full speed thinking about what I would want to create in that location & why I don’t see it there already. I think that Development is mostly about people & the interaction with them. What subjects can your son choose in Yr11 & 12 that helps with that?
Subjects in beauty colleges can help people become good hair-dressers but which subjects teach these same hair-dressers to be great with clients & to listen to their client’s life issues when doing their hair? (maybe hair-dressers share some qualities with therapists). Would a future hair-dressing student pick a subject in year 11 or 12 that will lead them to be a therapist? Probably not. The therapy part of the job is not really the “job” for them at all, it’s about the hair – hairdressers would certainly not have the recognized credentials as “therapists” and yet hairdressers do it daily. This trait may help separates the good from the great hair-dressers. Is it measured & how is it learnt? I guess it’s measured in return business (thus “success” is the measurement & not the trait itself).
It seems that most of my time is taken up by looking/deciding on floor plans, reading through legal documentation etc but in reality (and after I purposely accounted for everything that I did during my day by writing it down & also recording it) it turned out that most of my time was spent discussing & establishing partnerships/networks with people. My mind just didn’t recognize all that time spent with other people as being categorized as “work”.
You, as parents may hate my next sentence: I agree with your son – he is right & he can be a Developer straight from school & I’m glad that he has that approach because it is a different approach to how most others would view it & he needs to think differently to most others. A bit like how Steve thinks differently to most others that are on this site. That difference probably explains why he is the creator, successful & writes the books etc.
Will your son be a Developer that buys, builds, creates, etc from the start of his career? No, he will not, that will come later….but when is a scientist a scientist? A scientist can be a person who, comes up with a theory through experimentation & observation. The Theory can improve over time but scientists are scientists because of their actions of “experimentation and observation” & not because they are experienced or not. A scientist knows what they are because of how they go about doing things. It can be the same for your son as he goes about doing things as a Developer. As you know (being Developers yourself) buying is not the only part to Development. The non experienced scientist has to overcome that they are competing with more experienced ones but that is the way of the world & in any career. Money or experience does not stop a developer being a developer. We all started with our 1st development.
Your son can start from the inside out & find a “fellow” Developer who is willing to mentor him (if cannot attract one then find out what service a Developer desperately needs & he should think about finding a way to provide that service to the developer). Your son can look at empty blocks (that are owned by developers) and figure out any advantages that they can pass on (free) to the developers. As you can see my recommendations are for him to branch out and find other Developers rather than to start Developing with his parents. My reasons are because he would then have the combination of all your skills & knowledge to work with when he is ready to Develop. (A much stronger position to be in for an up and coming Property Developer). Branching out improves many other skills too. Being too safe, can stunt our children’s ability to leap forward & surpass our own limitations. I think that this is because that very safety is usually used as a “net” to catch them when they fall as opposed to it being used as a “sling shot” aimed directly at capturing success. Offence sometimes being the best defense strategy.
The council, accountants, law firms don’t care & they don’t know that your son hasn’t started a development yet – they will give him the same answers as they give everyone. The more he talks with them the better he’ll be at asking the right questions & the more confident he will be at that. Also, he should take note at how he converses with everyone (not just professionals), take note of what works & does not. He should also listen to what he is telling himself. This skill (practiced early) will help him in future figure out what is preventing him from taking action or what’s making him take action without thinking through first. He can work on how to persuade people without manipulating them – that can be done in everyday life. Recognize, that it’s not a one person job.
All school subjects will help him to be a great Developer (English: for reading comprehension, Maths: to understand angles in plans etc, Legal Studies: to assist with contracts etc) but the thing that I think counts the most is to get the support from his friends & from his family. I can already see your support & I applaud you for that. No one can do it on their own – Developing is a business and needs to be run as such but remember that the business is run by humans so it’s going to have pleasure & pain. He needs to surround himself with people who will be successful by him becoming successful. Surrounding himself in this way is the first “networking” skill he should accomplish.
My suggestion is for him to study subjects that he naturally loves because they will not seem like an effort & school was not meant to be torturous. He should use whatever subject skill that he loves learning about to compliment his Development business. If he is good at Maths then he can help his Accountant etc. If he’s better at something else then apply that other skill. Remember, he may be better at Maths now but become interested and better in Design later on. It’s something to be left open so that he can grow into it. Drafting was very different when I first started my career. I had no interest in it back then….but now I enjoy some Drafting work. I’m sure that I may even someday be able to learn how to bake (my pavlovas always sink in the middle)!! My belly successfully develops after eating lots of Pav. *grin*
Lastly, (if you have read this far!) – don’t forget to tell your son to look up the many entries from “Benny” on this site. Everyone here are tremendously helpful but Benny goes even further than that, he is a master at finding tonnes of older replies (that are relevant to people’s situations) & then sends them the links so they are always one click away from their solutions. Priceless. (The benefit is like reading 100’s of books but only really needing to read a chapter or two from each book – how do you easily find what you want? That’s Benny’s skill – he is also the site moderator so I have to be nice to him. lol. My skill is keeping everyone’s mouse scroll wheel well oiled.
Cheers & more wealth to you & to your son.
Hi Pimobpi,
Well, you just took the wind right out of my sails !! I was about to comment on how I enjoy your dissertations (there was a similar longish, well-thought-out answer to someone else a day or two back).But now I can’t say it – otherwise it sounds like I am patting you on the back for saying nice things about me…. Ah what the hell, your words did give me a chuckle, so thanks for that. Love your work – keep it up…. please. ;)
Your thoughts resonated with me – and your words about “which subjects to take” reminded me of Steve Jobs taking Calligraphy as a subject – hardly expected of a computer nerd guy, but look where it lead him !! The Mac became the first computers to use proportional spacing and pretty fonts.
I also liked your earlier comment about failure (making mistakes, but still being successful). That reminded me of the IBM dude who urged his sales staff to “Go out and fail more”. Success is just over the hill from failure, right?
Anyway, well done for that sterling effort with the keyboard. I can tell you that my sticky mouse wheel is now working flawlessly, thanks to you. Awesome !!
Benny
Hi Benny,
Thank you for your kind words. I think that you are enlightened & very much deserve that accolade.
I agree, these seemingly useless skills are the throttles that help propel us in everything we do. I write “throttles” as they provide us with no clear direction, at the time the skill is learnt, but they become catalysts for future changes when applied. In your example of Steve Jobs, his Calligraphy skill remained unchanged whilst his application of it changed the rest of the world.
History lists many real examples of people pushing through this paradigm shift. “Fitting a square peg into a round hole” is what we commonly refer to as an advancement in “technology”. We no longer have the skills to build the pyramids but we are certainly able to land instruments on far away comets.
I don’t know if you’ve ever watched “Demolition man” with Sylvester Stallone – Stallone was infused with the skills of a seamstress……whilst his counterpart was infused with the most deadly warfare skills. Stallone uses his seamstress skills to win the final battle. Unrealistic? I say NOT! heheheh.
Cheers & many thanks.
The Theory can improve over time but scientists are scientists because of their actions of “experimentation and observation” & not because they are experienced or not.
Another “takeaway” I got from you right there, Pimobpi.
I once heard it as – When does a child ‘learning to play piano’ graduate to ‘PLAYING the piano’?
As you say – the moment they start is when they are ‘playing the piano’. It may take them 20 years to become well-known and experienced, but there is no switch that is thrown that takes them from ‘learning to play’ to ‘playing’.
It is an interesting thought, and (to me) quite valid !!
Benny
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