I'm very close to having a draft of my book done. Last night I met with my friend Corey, who gave me some feedback on the title of the book. Above is a draft cover. The title is a working title at this point. I like it but I'll continue to think about it right up until I release it. I will most likely do caricatures of the non-degreed learners instead of pictures as well. I have a couple more essays to write and then it's ready for editing. As a professional graphic designer, the layout and design parts are relatively easy. Learning to write is what I found most difficult. The whole thing is an experiment for me in self-publishing, and I'm learning as I go. Corey has been a great help through this whole process. I've benefited over the years from his mentoring and collaboration, and this project is just the latest example of his help. Corey, by the way, is also a non-degreed learner so he truly gets what I'm trying to convey. He is not as famous as Ben Franklin, but he is still an expert in his field. Seth Godin, in his book "The Dip" listed him as among "the best in the world." Having worked with him, I would say that is an accurate assessment.

Below is the draft intro of the book. The title of the essay was the old title of the book. I think it works well here:

Don’t Need No College Degree

School is overrated.

You don’t need much of it to become educated. Maybe none at all. Yet, in this book I will make a case for learning. I believe such a case needs to be made because the focus in society has shifted from a reliance on the inner resources of the learner to a dependence on external resources of institutions. Such a dependence, which weds achievement to economics, is destructive to those without economic means. With such a world-view, it is inevitable that the poor will remain poor. Without sufficient access to the wealth to pay for access to the education system, especially the part deemed “higher” education, the poor can easily give up -- and often do.

The challenge in making a case for education is to do so without making such a case reliant on money. If we spread the message that knowledge is power, and we make the accumulation of knowledge dependant on access to money, the real message becomes “money is power.” This belief is the root of the problem.

Those without money invariably feel trapped by happenstance of birth. Dropout rates among poor schools are at epidemic levels, sometimes over 50 percent. A lack of money, understandably, turns into a lack of hope. Lamenting the loss of financial backing for public schools, and elevating the importance of the vaunted degree as essential only makes the problem worse. A belief in the necessity of outer resources blinds a learner to the truth that the learner’s inner resources are more than sufficient to take him where he wants to go. But the learner’s inner resources have to be activated first. To do so he must believe that it is worthwhile to learn – that knowledge IS power -- but more importantly that powerful knowledge can be gained by anyone regardless of income.

Luckily, such a belief is the truth.

Hope is not only here, but it’s been here all along, hiding in plain sight. Hope is in the biographies of those who have developed their intellect without a degree and in doing so achieved greatness. Many have made their way out of poverty and all have made their way out of obscurity. Moreover, they are not only great, but they are the very best of us. They are Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, and George Washington. They are Abraham Lincoln, and Frederick Douglass. They are Mark Twain, Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers, and Walt Disney. They are Bill Gates, Michael Dell, and Steve Jobs. All achieved great things. All are known for their intellects. None attained a four-year degree.

Uneducated and uncredentialed are not the same thing. Scholars can exist outside of the education system and often have. Understanding this distinction is the key to unlocking latent potential — the mission of this book.