Is Changing Your College Major a Sign of Weakness?

The other day, I was talking to an acquaintance about his college education and how he believed it helped him succeed in life and business. He told me that one of the secrets to his success was never changing his college major. He felt that those who had would appear to be wishy-washy, end up with extremely high student loans, and would be more likely to switch professions out in the real world as well. Some of what he's saying is probably true, but let's go ahead and talk about this for second shall we?

You see, it appears to me that in life people now change their careers every 2.3 years, so, I wonder if rigidness towards a major is wise, perhaps a more homing in on the niche within the niche or moving within in the overall category without changing the entire category of the major? Indeed, I asked my acquaintance; "would you agree or disagree with that concept?" Now then, I would like to ask my reader of this article to consider the same thing.

Some might say that switching your focus makes it very difficult to become an "outlier" as it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert in anything. If you were constantly switching your focus and your life's mission you can never become great at one thing, therefore you become a master of none. If you are a master of no human endeavor, business career, or skill - then what good are you to an employer? Yes, I think this gets back to his major point.

Further, why would your spouse ever wish to hook up with you and get married if you are busy switching your life focus, as it shows a lack of stability, which may even cause you to get a divorce later on, leaving you both frazzled and in a disarray during a subsequent future transitional period, which indeed also means a transitional period with personal economic challenges. Too many of those on your way to retirement, and you just aren't going to have all you need.

So, is changing your college major a sign of weakness? It may or may not be; it might be the prudent thing to do, but it might also show poor decision-making, bad strategy, and indicate that your future life will also be a series of changes preventing you from ever becoming great at one thing. Still, it also might help you with such transitional periods because as Einstein said; "change is the only constant." Okay so, I'd like you to think about it, and I hope you will please consider all this.