A Private Educational Institution — Published by Acquire Publishing
Get Your Mind Right.
Get Your Money Right.
Build a Life You Control.
Escape the Rat Race™ Lyceum is a one-year school of personal, financial, and entrepreneurial transformation for people willing to learn, work, change, and build.
The Controlling Principle
“Get your mind right before you get your money right.”
People don't stay trapped because they're lazy. Many stay trapped because nobody ever taught them how money actually works, why credit matters, how fear controls decisions, how to build assets, how banks lend, how businesses create wealth, or how to think differently about freedom, ownership, and legacy. This institution exists to solve that problem.
Not Mindset Alone
Positive thinking without disciplined action is fantasy. We pair internal transformation with practical execution.
Not Tactics Alone
Financial tactics without character, readiness, responsibility, or purpose are hollow. We build the whole person.
Education, Not Hype
No fake urgency. No empty promises. Just real education, accountability, and a framework — the rest is your work.
This Is For People Who Are Ready
Who the Lyceum Serves
The Lyceum is not for everyone. It is for people willing to tell the truth about where they are and do the work to change it.
Employees Who Want More
Higher income, stronger skills, better credit, savings, and optional side income — without pressure to become an entrepreneur.
Aspiring Entrepreneurs
People ready to identify problems, build offers, sell, market, and create income-generating enterprises.
Business Owners
Owners who are underpaid, disorganized, overworked, or financially unclear and ready to fix it.
Credit & Capital Seekers
People who need to repair financial behavior, improve credit, and prepare for responsible funding.
Your Starting Point
The Freedom Readiness Assessment™
A rigorous diagnostic measuring 25 dimensions of your readiness — from personal responsibility and fear to credit, bankability, and legacy orientation. Not a gimmick. Not a personality quiz. A structured evaluation that produces your Freedom Readiness Score, identifies your stage, surfaces your top three obstacles, recommends a personalized learning path, and delivers a 30-day action plan.
Free. Private. About 12 minutes.
The Proprietary Methodology
The Escape Method™
Every course, assessment, consulting engagement, publication, and workshop is organized around six sequential stages. Nothing is random. Everything maps back to the method.
Examine the Truth
Assess current thinking, finances, credit, time, habits, relationships, skills, and responsibilities. No more hiding.
Silence the Cobra
Identify fear, avoidance, excuses, procrastination, and self-sabotage. Confront what controls you.
Clarify Purpose
Define values, desired life, contribution, standards, and a one-year commitment to change.
Align Money & Action
Create cash-flow discipline, improve credit behavior, increase skills, and organize financial life.
Produce, Profit & Purchase
Build income, create or improve a business, pay yourself, become bankable, evaluate productive assets.
Establish Freedom & Legacy
Build systems, ownership, contribution, family knowledge, and long-term stewardship.
A Structured Education
The One Year Journey
Twelve months of structured, disciplined education. Every month brings lessons, assignments, readings, videos, workbooks, assessments, weekly challenges, community discussions, and live Q&A with the founder. From Wake Up in Month 1 to your graduation presentation in Month 12.
Truth, Fear & Purpose — Wake up, confront the Cobra, and define your direction.
Money, Credit & Skills — Understand money's purpose, master credit, and become more valuable.
Build, Pay & Bank — Create income engines, pay yourself properly, and become bankable.
Acquire, Systematize & Graduate — Evaluate assets, build systems, and present your freedom plan.
The Educational Framework
Nine Collections for a Complete Education
Each collection includes courses, lessons, workbooks, videos, assessments, and recommended reading. Progress is tracked. Learning is personalized.
The Mind Collection
Identity, beliefs, habits, discipline, resilience, and the inner work of transformation.
The Cobra of Fear™
Confront the fear of failure, rejection, success, money, visibility, and change.
Money Has a Purpose
Money as a tool for stewardship, value creation, protection, contribution, and legacy.
Credit Heaven
Personal credit, business credit, bankability, funding readiness, and responsible borrowing.
Build a Business
Problem identification, offers, pricing, sales, marketing, AI implementation, and scaling.
Pay Yourself
Owner compensation, profit allocation, reserves, reinvestment, and wealth-account discipline.
Become Bankable
How banks evaluate borrowers, financial statements, documentation, and lender relationships.
Acquire Cash Flow
Business acquisition, real estate, due diligence, downside protection, and deal analysis.
Purpose & Legacy
Definite purpose, service, teaching, family councils, institutional legacy, and generational knowledge.
Your Education, Your Path
Personalized Learning Paths
The Freedom Readiness Assessment places you on the right path. Your curriculum adapts based on your score, stage, goals, and progress.
Employee Advancement
Higher income, better skills, stronger credit, savings, and optional side income.
Weekend Income Builder
Build an ethical side income with a simple service offering. Start small, grow steadily.
Business Builder
Create or improve your business from offer to operations to scaling.
Credit & Capital Recovery
Repair financial behavior, improve credit, organize records, and prepare for funding.
Cash-Flow Asset Buyer
For qualified participants ready to learn conservative business and real estate acquisition.
Purpose & Legacy
Service, family, contribution, publishing, and generational impact.
Field-Tested Mentorship
A Founder Who Has Walked the Path
Cecil L. Jones Jr. brings Marine discipline, years of business and sales experience, hard lessons from failure and recovery, mentorship under Allan J. Schwalb, and a mission to organize practical knowledge for people who were never taught how to build freedom.
He is not a guru. He is a field-tested mentor who has learned, failed, recovered, built, and continues to do the work — and who believes the knowledge he has gathered belongs to those willing to earn it.
Read the Full Founder StoryRooted in Service
The Raleigh Initiative
Our home is Raleigh, North Carolina — and our commitment begins here. We partner with churches, libraries, veterans' organizations, community colleges, employers, nonprofits, and small businesses to bring financial education to those who need it most.
You Don't Escape Alone
The Escape the Rat Race Circle™
Weekly accountability, monthly curriculum, Founder Office Hours, reading groups, workbooks, templates, quarterly planning, implementation challenges, and mastermind discussions — all inside a private community of people walking the same path.
Accountability Squads
Small groups that meet weekly to review progress and maintain momentum.
Founder Office Hours
Live sessions with Cecil L. Jones Jr. for direct guidance and Q&A.
Reading Groups
Curated readings discussed with peers who challenge and support your growth.
Quarterly Planning
Structured 90-day planning sessions to adjust course and set targets.
Work Directly With the Founder
Private Consulting
For qualified students ready for intensive, direct guidance. Consulting engagements focus on mindset and direction, business strategy, credit education, funding readiness, publishing, AI implementation, business acquisition, real estate strategy, and legacy planning.
Institutional Integrity
What We Will Never Do
Protecting the credibility of Acquire Publishing means being clear about what this institution is — and what it is not.
Begin Your Escape
Take the Freedom Readiness Assessment
Enter your details below and we'll send you a link to the complete assessment. It takes about 12 minutes. Your results are private and will never be shared.