Sharpening Your Sword with Coursera.org

Sharpen Your Sword
Financial Education does not have to mean a Degree!

“See the sad thing about a guy like you, is in about 50 years you’re gonna start doin’ some thinkin’ on your own and you’re gonna come up with the fact that there are two certainties in life. One, don’t do that. And two, you dropped a hundred and fifty grand on a…education you coulda’ got for a dollar fifty in late charges at the Public Library…”

Good Will Hunting

The above quote hits close to home. I spent, or should I say borrowed, a hefty sum of money to obtain a law degree. And let me tell you my friends – looking back, this quote really does hit close to home.

What I’ve become aware of, and what I want you tor realize is with the advent of the internet you can obtain some VERY powerful information FREE. One resource I personally love is Coursera.org

According to wikipedia coursera.org is an educational technology company offering massive open online courses (MOOCs) founded by computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller from Stanford University. Coursera works with universities to make some of their courses available online, and offers courses in engineering, humanities, medicine, biology, social sciences, mathematics, business, computer science, and other areas…

What this means is that a real estate investor who has not had exposure to a corporate finance course is fully able to access some basic knowledge on the subject by enrolling in a class on finance for free on coursera. And by the way, chances are good that this course will come to you by way of Wharton – this is where the top Finance masters of the universe get their MBA from.

Other must take classes available include foundational accounting and micro and macro economics. One I am personally very excited to take is an intro to business strategy. If you really want to get a great foundation in the financial markets, a great economics of money and banking course is offered this fall.

I’ve come to believe, and I hope that we can agree on this, that it’s not the pedigree that is most important, but the power of the right kind of knowledge coupled effective application.

So, if you want to become world class, a degree is not necessary. The application of the information is way more important, and with coursera you get a chance to explore for FREE!

Douglas Dowell J.D. is commercial and multi-family investor. His areas of expertise are raising money legally, risk mitigation with due-diligence, and management science. Douglas is an avid student of success principals with a focus on modeling success factors.

Connect with Douglas at:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/douglasdowelljd

eMail: [email protected]

Photo Credit: Anant N S (www.thelensor.tumblr.com) via Compfight cc

3 Comments

  • Ben Leybovich Reply

    Douglas – this is awesome my friend! At a time when the county is drowning in college debt, this is very timely information for a lot of people…

    Thanks very much for sharing!

  • Douglas Dowell Reply

    You bet Ben! I am a fan of expense busting alternatives to education.

  • Al @ Leading Landlord. com Reply

    Wow, I didn’t know about this resource. Thanks for highlighting it.

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