okay so six years ago at the age of 18 i
made the decision not to go to college
it started out as a gap year that turned
into
six i was one of the only kids in my
entire high school that made that
decision i think a lot of people didn't
really understand what i was doing you
know why i was choosing to take this
path and i think there's a lot of
societal pressure to make the
responsible decision and get a degree i
come from an immigrant family and
although my parents are very cool and
very understanding explaining this to
certain members of my family was not
easy you know your family wants the best
for you right and what they think is the
best for you is to go to college
oftentimes so i definitely felt a lot of
fire on my ass to prove to the world
that this was not a mistake that i was
not going to be a failure i knew very
early on that i did not want to go to
college so i didn't bother taking the
sats i never wrote an application letter
to a university
i had no backup plan that's kind of
how i live my life then of course three
years ago i made this video now i come
from a family where both of my parents
were the first ones in their families to
go to college so is it arrogant for me
to make this decision to not go to
college well i don't think so and i'd
like to share why i think that and in
that video i unequivocally say that this
was the best decision of my life and i
really meant that i kind of did the math
in my head and was like yep this checks
out and now three years on i wanted to
give an update and share how i feel
about all this here's the crazy thing
had i chosen to take the path of higher
education i would still be studying
right now if i was going for a master's
degree i'd be finishing this spring and
assuming i just focused on my studies
during all that time i still wouldn't
have even started my career to be honest
uh today my thoughts are more nuanced on
this subject than they were before it's
been a wild ride you know life's a trip
man so i'm going to split this video up
into two parts the cons of not going to
college and then the pros without
further ado let's dive in the cons
social life this was originally a point
that i dismissed i was like yeah okay
whatever but it ended up being a much
bigger deal than i realized you know a
lot of people talk about the social
element of the college you know
university experience and it's a real
thing it is a great way to meet a bunch
of other people and unfortunately
because of the path that i chose i
didn't have that i did not have access
to that and the truth is that while i do
now consider myself blessed to have this
network of really smart ambitious and
dare i say attractive people that i can
call friends like close friends for a
long time i was looking for a long time
i didn't have that here's the thing
that's tricky okay i did a video on this
recently the only way that that
friendship in adulthood works is with
intentional effort it doesn't happen
automatically it's just easier if you're
required to spend a good chunk of your
day with other adults which is what
happens when you go to university or in
like a traditional form of employment if
you don't have either of those though
like me then it becomes a lot trickier
like okay how do i go about creating
those connections how do i create those
bridges to connect with people
especially since i live kind of an
unconventional life and despite the fact
that more people are questioning the
value of higher education it's still a
conventional path you know like i said
there's a lot of societal pressure to do
this and of course it's not impossible
and like i said i've been able to make
these connections but what i've realized
is that you really have to go for it you
have to fling yourself into
situations and be as open as you
possibly can to connect with other
people like for example jumping off
cliffs
i don't often talk about my private
dating life because it's not really any
of your business and i don't feel any
obligation to share every aspect of my
life on the internet but i will say that
university probably would have made
things a little bit easier a bunch of
young people that are roughly the same
age all put together for days and months
at a time of course that leads to
relationships and dating and whatnot
choosing not to go to college created a
gap between me and other people my age
of like six to ten years i just
leaped forward throwing myself into the
workforce throwing myself into trying to
build a career and figure myself out
that when you go to college oftentimes
you don't have to deal with that for
years to come you don't have to deal
with that essentially until you're done
studying so again this decision kind of
threw me six to ten years forward in the
timeline of life and i don't mean that
in a boastful way it was kind of lonely
not joining a fraternity just kidding
that's a joke honestly i think that you
know when i die if there is a hell and i
go there because of all my sinful
behavior it would probably look
something like a fraternity obviously
i'm goofing around but it's really not
my kind of thing okay honestly that's
about it for the cons onto the pros
i did all the things that i could have
done in college on my own you know my
first point here is just to say that i
don't feel like i lived less than
anybody else i don't feel like i've
missed any opportunities i learned
foreign languages you know i learned how
to speak your time and i did that at a
total fraction of what it would have
costed me to get a degree in italian
it's funny people sometimes leave
comments about how i'm you know a trust
fund baby or whatever based off of the
lifestyle that i lead and that's not
even remotely true my parents never
financed my travels you know the ironic
thing is that
everything i've ever done still costs
way less than a degree at nyu for
example this was an argument that i made
in my last video instead of studying
spanish in college for example you could
very easily go
live in ecuador or argentina or spain
learn the language much more intimately
have an incredible cultural experience
and spend less money it would be less
expensive that this huge chunk of time
that i've had was an opportunity to
essentially learn how to start
businesses or learn new languages by
moving to different countries or
whatever like essentially getting their
education in the real world
versus in a classroom my point here is
just to say that the world is out there
waiting for you and you don't need
anybody's permission to go out there and
start learning i make a big effort to
try to show that you know you're not
necessarily a failure if you don't get a
degree essentially i'm just hoping that
this video will help some people at
least consider
their options you know there's no right
or wrong it really just depends on what
your priorities are career momentum so
it's important to note that building a
career for me was far from an immediate
success as i've shared before and i
think this is a really important point
it took me four years of posting videos
on youtube before anything took off i
probably made a total of three or four
hundred dollars from youtube in the
first four years there are many private
cringy videos that you guys have never
seen i also started two other channels
that are now abandoned and there was an
endless supply of self-doubt like is
this ever gonna work back in 2016 my
total income for the entire year was
less than eight thousand dollars and
that came from work that i was doing on
the side to essentially keep this
content creation dream alive because the
content creation was not making any
money as i've already established so
it's been really tough but things have
come an incredibly long way since then
and i would one million times prefer
being in this situation right now than
just starting out the whole process even
with a master's degree and this is very
personal to me but i ended up getting
really lucky in that i took a leap into
something that i saw a future in i saw
potential in
and all of that work all those first
four years
led me to be in the perfect position
to totally take off just before the
pandemic and then ride that wave of the
pandemic
okay so there's definitely more i have
to say on the topic of not going to
college but i decided to come outside
and change it up a little bit get a
little bit of mexican sun honestly as i
said that this the cloud goes by so i'm
a little bit not lucky in that regard
but i'm in mexico i mean
i cannot complain also look at that
depth of field i mean it's nice to
change it up a little bit too much time
spent editing and writing inside i
wanted to talk briefly about the sponsor
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video and now back to the video
oh beautiful son
the real world isn't a classroom do me a
favor and compare this video right now
right here that you're watching to what
i did three years ago the first
installment on my thoughts on higher
education in my view
in every way things have improved i mean
the way that i speak on camera the
clarity of the message the storytelling
the music the color the shots all of it
why do i make this point well basically
over the last six years i've had nothing
but time to just throw myself into my
creations into my projects and just get
better just learn by doing i've just
spent all this time investing in myself
building my skills and developing my
craft you don't learn how to make films
in a classroom i feel very strongly
about that and i think that's true for
quite a few different disciplines
anything that depends on creativity
honestly so any kind of artistic
endeavor building a business of any kind
you've got to go out and try things and
that's how you slowly improve
iteratively you try things you see what
works and then you go from there that's
how you learn i worked in the film
industry before my youtube channel took
off and the guys that i worked with were
like 15 years older than me and would
tell me that they'd have film school
graduates arrive and not have any idea
how to do things on set they hadn't
learned
set etiquette and how things operate and
whatnot and it's just mind-blowing to me
you know years of studying only to still
arrive and not really know at all what
you're doing for me the takeaway there
is that it's inevitable whether you go
to college or not you eventually hit the
point where you're like oh okay now i
have to figure out how the real world
works the real world isn't a classroom
again especially if you work for
yourself if you're a freelancer
entrepreneur artists etc etc nobody's
picking your schedule for you it's not
just about completing the assignment and
getting a passing grade i made this
point in my last video but i find it
absolutely incredible that instead of
paying an institution to learn a skill i
was getting paid to learn new skills
sure yes i was a nameless pa a
production assistant on set for a while
and that kind of sucks but you work your
way up and as i worked my way up i
started making more money and all the
while i'm learning i'm learning so much
i'm absorbing so much information i
recognize that that's not possible in
all industries but it's just something
to really think about especially as more
and more people become their own bosses
more and more people work
online or remotely or for themselves
skills for the 21st century not going to
college forced me to learn how to learn
things on my own how to utilize the
power of the internet and by the way
incredible it's incredible the time that
we live in we have so much that is so
easily accessible at our fingertips it's
incredible and i think this is the way
of the future you know the world demands
us to be adaptive it's changing so
quickly now done are the days that you
get a fixed job that you stick with for
30 to 40 years and you know not going to
an institution of higher education
doesn't mean i didn't develop valuable
skills this might seem like a really
bold claim here but i feel like i got
the equivalent of a master's degree in
marketing during this time running this
youtube channel has really taught me how
to capture people's attention how to
tell stories how to maintain people's
attention with constant feedback oh this
worked this didn't work the two most
valuable resources in the 21st century i
think are probably creativity and
attention learn how to harness those two
things and you're set i think easier
said than done
but
also like i said gone are the days of
you graduate with a degree you get a job
and you can just check out and ride that
wave all the way to the end of your life
no dead man this has to be one of the
biggest points on this list honestly it
is insane to me that in the u.s at least
but increasingly in other parts of the
world as well
that we saddle people with so much debt
before they've even gotten a chance to
start out in life i knew very early on
that i did not want to have any sort of
debt whatsoever or at least the bad kind
of debt you know student loans credit
card debt i feel like that kind of thing
can turn you into a prisoner look i knew
this was going to happen but i have
friends who have tens or hundreds of
thousands of dollars in debt student
loan debt
and i question if
their education was worth that i also
question if they're ever going to be
able to dig themselves out of that okay
check this out this article
says that the average net worth of a 24
year old american is a negative number
think about that it says right here
negative 28 706 bro that is craziness
you know of course
college or university doesn't have to be
mind-bogglingly expensive right i mean
there's community college there's also
many countries where it's free or very
cheap but for me this was a very big
factor and it's bigger than that it's
about the principle i am not going to
become your prisoner i saw a far better
way to invest my time and energy and
just like any intelligent
investor they're going to pick the stock
they think is going to increase most in
value right or give themselves the best
odds right and i did the exact same
thing with my own life with my own time
and energy adding all this up what do i
think it's probably pretty obvious
this still remains
probably the best decision in my entire
life or if not i mean one of the best
decisions i've made in my entire life i
don't regret it at all not for one
second and i feel like i'm still seeing
the compounding effects of this decision
to this day there's a really important
caveat that i should add here that a lot
of people pointed out in my last video
which is that this of course becomes a
lot more complicated of a decision if
you come from a less developed country
and i totally recognize that privilege
plays a huge role here all i'm doing is
honestly just sharing my personal
experience which is the only thing i can
really comment on
i hope that you found this enlightening
my advice if you care to have it is to
take your time before making such a
massive decision take a gap year to
start you know i don't think that hurts
at all especially as a young person
trying to figure things out and you can
always get a degree later on getting
back all that time and energy and money
is not so easy i want to send all of you
my love and appreciation for all of your
support including to the haters to leave
comments because you're boosting me in
the algorithms
keep it coming i'll take it i'll take
all the likes and dislike well i'll take
all the likes mainly and comments i'd
love to hear your thoughts on this if
you went to college if not how you feel
about it it's a nuanced subject you know
i don't claim to have the whole truth
but i wanted to share my thoughts i
thought this could maybe be valuable for
somebody who's considering their options
obviously i'm not telling anybody how to
live their lives but maybe you could
take something away from this all right
with all that said i'll see you guys
soon
you