In high school, there are many decisions that you have to make every day, like what you are going to eat for breakfast, what you are going to do after school, or what time you are going to go to bed. Juniors and seniors are faced with making some bigger life decisions, like where they will go to college, if they want to join the workforce, or even sign up for the military. One of the biggest debates of the last few decades is whether you can be successful in life if you don't go to college. A person might decide to go to college because their career mandates it, or because they are told from a young age that they have to go to college after high school. You are expected to pick what you are going to do for the rest of your life in high school.
What made one successful local business owner decide not to go to college? “I didn’t feel like I was getting out of high school the day-to-day life skills that you need to learn, and I felt like college would be the same,” said Jason Friederick, owner of Friederick Excavating, who has lived in Potosi his whole life. Jason Friederick graduated high school in 1992. He decided not to go to college because school wasn’t for him. He started working at Swiss Valley in Dubuque, Iowa right out of high school. After working there for about six years, he was sick of doing everyone else's job and getting paid the same. That is when he decided to start his own business.
Friederick Excavating is an excavation company that does all kinds of jobs from building retaining walls to creating house basements, clearing trees, laying shed pads, and much more. Jason Friederick started the business about 20 years ago. He started with two pieces of equipment; now he has about 20 pieces of equipment like excavators, bulldozers, skid loaders, dump trucks, off-road dump trucks, a scraper, and a tractor. He now has two full-time employees and two more part-time employees.
Starting your own business requires a lot of self-learning and trial and error. 45 percent of businesses fail within the first five years. There have to be tricks to keep your business alive. When asked what made his business successful, Jason said, “I try to be very fair and honest with people. I always stay open-minded to improving on things.”
Getting close to graduating high school is a fun and exciting time, but it can also be a scary time. When I asked Jason Friederck what advice he would give to kids just graduating high school, he said, “Success comes from within yourself; you have to sacrifice a lot and work extremely hard, but don’t listen to the naysayers, have courage to follow your dreams. Having the courage to follow your dreams is very important, but you also have to have the work ethic to get to your dreams.”
High school is a stressful time in life trying to decide what you are going to do the rest of your life. Some people are meant for college and some people aren't, but just because you don't go to college doesn't mean you won't be successful. Don’t feel like you have to go and rush off to college after high school if you're not quite sure about what you want to do or go for.