Book

Future-Proofed
By John Andrew Williams
Illustrated by Lauren Waldinger

Get the PDF
Preview Today

Contact

Want to get in touch with a life coach? Fill out our contact form to get ahold of Top Ten Skills or any one of our individual coaches.

> Contact

Get your Free Insider Tips

Sign-up to receive a copy of our Top Ten Tips for:

• Acing the College Application
    and
• Writing a Successful College App Essay

Simple, tested and free.

Doesn't get much better than that.

Find a Coach

Find the coach nearest to you.

• Portland, OR
• Boston, MA
• Dubai, UAE
• Los Angeles, CA
• Atlanta, GA
• Medford, OR
• Dubai, UAE
• Portland, OR
• Warren, NJ
• Miller Place, NY

Introduction

the gap

There is a gap between what's taught in schools and what's useful in life. It's not the school's fault. Schools do what they are designed to do: they teach academics. A strong academic foundation is certainly required to succeed. But to truly be future-proof and meet the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities the world offers, a new skill set is required.

Having that skill set would have been useful when I graduated college. Instead, I fell into the gap. After graduating I went directly into teaching. I taught high school Latin. With a newly minted college degree I thought I was future-proofed. I thought that school prepared me to make the most of the "real world." It didn't, and I wasn't prepared. I knew I needed to build the foundation of my career, but I literally didn't know where to start. To make matters worse when I started teaching, I realized the same thing was happening to the next generation of students.

Shocked and frustrated, I set out to find the concepts, knowledge and skills necessary for to be prepared to meet future challenges and opportunities.

After eight years of researching, testing and refining, I gathered the essential concepts students needed to learn and developed a program that they could understand and apply immediately. The results were undeniable. For the past five years, the average GPA gain for students in my program not already earning above a 3.5 was 0.81 points per semester. Nearly every student I have worked with over the past five years has been accepted to one or more of their top three college choices. I constantly get emails from program graduates thanking me for the skills they learned and the difference that knowledge makes in their lives.

To date, I've worked with hundreds of students and their families. I've spoken to audiences across the world. I've built a consulting company based in Portland, Oregon that includes consultants located as far as Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

I know what works in schools and in the real world. I know how to future-proof students, and I wrote this book to share that expertise with you.

future-proofed defined

Future-proofed is not about knowing or controlling the future. That's impossible. It's not about getting a great SAT score or all A's. Being future-proofed requires skills that the SAT can't test and skills that can't be graded. It's not about making lots of money. Living a rich and fulfilled life goes far beyond having lots of money. Being future-proofed is not about taking more classes and earning more academic degrees. Although a great foundation, degrees alone don't translate to being future-proofed.

Being future-proofed requires knowledge about how the world works, but more importantly, it requires awareness and knowledge about how you work. It asks you to be self-aware and treat others with great respect. At times it demands you to be bold. At other times, humble. It challenges you to follow your passion yet fashion your life in the service of others.

Being future-proofed means having the skills, knowledge and confidence to lead an effective, fulfilled life, confident that you can meet future challenges.

Schools traditionally have a hard time teaching these kinds of skills. It's not really the schools' fault. Their job is teaching core academic subjects, which are important, and can be easily measured. For the most part, they succeed. On the other hand, self-knowledge, leadership, communication and motivation skills defy easy measurement yet are essential for students to become future-proofed.

This book focuses on these kinds of skills. Student's who understand and apply in their lives the concepts in this book won't just do better in school, they will be future-proofed.

the college application

Just mention the words "college application" and watch stress levels rise. It's unfortunate that the college application has turned into an anxiety-filled rite-of-passage. It doesn't have to be that way.

You can take a deep breath. This book will help you get into a great school and thrive.

By design, I did not include the whole list of recommended steps in the application process or detailed tips on writing your best essay. To get that information, you can visit www.future-proofed.com and download free PDF's on essays, scholarships, college visits, and all the other tips and guidelines you could ever want.

The purpose of this book is to go a level deeper. It encourages you to learn the core skills necessary to give you the resilience to be future-proofed. It also provides a blueprint for you to build a stronger foundation and have a better high school experience. Master these kinds of skills and the rest will be easy: getting good grades, picking the best school for you, and writing the application to get you there. I've seen it. Over the past five years, students who apply these skills in their lives have consistently beaten the long odds of getting accepted to selective schools. Students who would have given themselves a slim chance of even going to college not only get accepted but thrive.

From my perspective, these skills come before the tips and tools of the college application process. Learn the core concepts, master the basics and all the other pieces will fall into place. This book will get you there.

how to use this book

You can use this book individually or in a group. You may find that reading this book in a group offers a richer experience and allows you to benefit from the support of others.

The book is designed to be used in a semester class and for each of the chapters to prompt you to understand the concepts but to take action. Whether you go through the book individually or with a group, it's a good idea to have others hold you accountable to moving forward. You can skip around and go straight through it, but the chapters do build on themselves. As you find yourself getting more comfortable with the material, you'll find that the book, much like life, is more cyclical than linear. After you read through the book, it's useful to flip back through and approach the first chapter with the knowledge of what comes later.

Let's get to it.