Do YOU NEED College (In 2020) To Be SUCCESSFUL_ Gap Year Vs University
[0:00:00] [Music]
So, the other day on Facebook, I asked this question, “Advice the 18-year old you in
2020. Go to college during COVID or take a gap year?”
Now, I asked this question because I just read an article about the tough decision a
lot of graduates international students are facing right now, should you go to school
in the fall? Personally, I’m interested in it as well
because I’ve got a 15-year old son and we’re going to have to make that call here soon.
And, so many of you guys reached out asking me, “Antonio, do I need a degree to be successful?
I want to go off and do this. Do I – should I go back to college?”
Now, when I put the question out there, I was hoping for a few decent responses. Instead,
I got over a hundred awesome responses from parents, from people with multiple degrees,
from 18-year olds having to make this decision right now.
So today’s video is going to be a little bit different. Normally, here at Real Men
Real Style, I get these questions, I put together a list, I go film right there in my studio.
But today, I want to go through and I want to highlight some of the amazing responses
I received from people all over the world. And, I think these insights are going to help
you make the right decision this fall. And, gents, I know most of you all don’t
have to make the decision of whether or not to go to school in the fall, but I would like
for you to put yourself in the shoes of an 18-year old, yourself. Go back in time and
imagine if you had to make the call right now.
I would love to hear from you down in the comments what would be your advice to yourself
if you’re 18 right now and you had to make a decision to go to college, take a gap year,
or maybe not even go to school at all. And, later on in this video, of course, I
will give you my five insights my personal opinion on whether or not you need to go to
college to be successful. And, without further ado, let me share with
you the amazing insights my friends shared with me.
So, first up, I had over a hundred people leave me comments. And, I was also surprised
that we had about a 50/50 break between people that said go to school and then other people
that said take a gap year. Now, for a lot of people that left comments
about going to school, it was about simply the practicality of it. Maleah, she said,
“Go in there and get your prerequisites done.” Rosanne, she said, “Okay. Can you
take something out of community college? Things that you can take and transfer into another
university.” My friend, Jesse, a very successful YouTuber
said, “Go to school now. You’re already in the school mindset and you don’t want
to take a gap year because it could turn into a gap life.”
Now, I have to admit I challenged Jesse on this response and he came back and he said,
“You know what? It is a very personal decision.” But, he did say you should think about these
three things. First up, the actions you take now if you
don’t go to school, is that going to have a negative effect on your ability to actually
get a degree? Because he – he makes a good point. Sometimes you get busy with life and
if you don’t pursue a degree now, is it something that you’re ever going to pursue
a degree? The second point he brought up is what are
you going to be doing besides going to school? So, it seems like Jesse wasn’t against the
gap year, he just wants to make sure that it’s a well-planned gap year.
And, third, he brought up the point, how long is this going to go on? Because if we think
this COVID situation if school is going to fundamentally change, then you probably want
to go back now because guess what? In two years, we’re still going to have the same
issues and you’re just going to have lost two years that you could have worked towards
your degree. And my friend, Curt, who actually has two
kids right now in university, a freshman and a junior, he said, “You know what? How long
is this going to go on? Nobody knows. Adapt and overcome.”
He also pointed out my kids go to a big state school. There are 300 to 400 students in some
of these classes. So, these online classes aren’t that different and in my opinion
I want to keep them on track. My friend, Andrew, pointed out it also depends
on what you want to do. If you’re going to become a doctor, if you’re going to become
a lawyer, if you’re going to become an engineer, then, yeah, put your head down and get the
job done because you’re going to have to put in just years and years of schooling.
And you don’t want to get off track, you want to get the work done that you can do
now. My friend, Amy, also made a good point about
what her son wants. Right now, he’s got the momentum. He wants to go to college, he
wants to get out of the house. So, you’ve also got to take that into consideration because,
yes, a lot of the classes are going to be online, but people are still going to be in-person
at many of these universities. And that is, yes, it’s not going to be the
same as when people are able to congregate closely in big groups. But, you know what?
There are going to be a lot of experiences that are still going to be had.
Now, my friend, Kristina, she pointed out, “Yeah, take classes online, but take them
from schools that have always been teaching online because they’re really good at this.
In addition to having some of the best prices, they also have some of the best courses because
this isn’t the first year they’re teaching online.” So, that’s a great point.
And a number of people bring up, yeah, find a way to be able to take inexpensive online
courses. But, again, make sure they transfer, make sure it’s something that the university
that you want to graduate from is going to accept.
And, my friend, Khalil, was adamant about this, you got to make sure that they transfer.
It sounded like he had taken some classes and they didn’t transfer over. So, yeah,
he learned some stuff, but it didn’t apply to his degree.
[0:05:04] Now, my friend, Kelly, pointed out that her
daughter actually needed to go to school because she had certain scholarships and she would
lose those scholarships if she didn’t attend. So, that’s another thing that you’ve got
to throw into, hey, whether or not you’re going to go or not.
Now, my friend, Lauren, who thought she had an unpopular opinion said, “You know what?
Go to school. Put your head down. Get the work done because in four years when the economy
is recovering and companies are coming to campuses to recruit, there’s going to be
less college graduates. You are going to have a better chance to get the job you want because
there’s less competition.” Now, what about the case for the gap year?
Well, there were a lot of great insights for that as well.
My friend, Shawn, who I ran cross country with, he said, “You know what? Going to
school online is only a part of the puzzle. You can’t forget the importance of the social
interactions.” And, yes, sports, even if it’s intramural sports, that makes it – that
was important. And I remember just all the friendships all the connections I made through
playing sports. Now, I had Andrew chimed in and it sounds
like he’s actually making this decision for himself. He said, “You know what? I’m
taking a gap year because I need to figure out where I’m going in life.
And this takes us to perhaps the most important point in this entire video and I think my
friend, Victoria said it best, “Understand why you’re going to college.” When she
laid things out, she was like, “Hey, I went to college because I wanted to meet people,
I wanted to make social connections. And if I was talking to myself and I’m 18 right
now, this may not be the best year to go to college to be able to get those things knowing
what I wanted to get out of it.” And that’s something I want to expand on.
So many people go to college thinking they’re going to find themselves. This is where they’re
going to discover what they’re meant to do. Yes, that can happen, but most likely
I don’t think people find themselves or discover themselves.
I think we make ourselves, we build ourselves, we challenge ourselves. And through that challenge
through the hardship through putting ourselves in those tough situations, we – who we are
is revealed through the challenge and the struggle.
And, to be honest, college is a place where you can learn a lot, where you can definitely
make a lot of connections where you can pick things up, but if you don’t know where you’re
going, then you’re kind of aimlessly going about and that can be a very expensive mistake.
Maybe someone’s paying for your school, maybe it’s relatively inexpensive. Still,
it’s a lot of money. Most of us though, me included, we went to college and we took
on student loan debt. I’m still -- I’m in my mid-40s and I’m still paying off my
student loans. 2% interest, so it’s not worth paying it in advance. I’d rather invest
the money in stock market. Point being is it’s an expensive way to
find yourself and it’s not the best way to find yourself. So, go out there, challenge
yourself and build yourself. And if you’re going to go to college and you know why you’re
going college, then, yeah, it makes sense and it’s going to help you make this decision
a lot easier. And, my friend, McKenna, was very specific
about this, taking a gap year with specific goals and things that you want to accomplish
is the best way to do it. She even talked about, hey, you can maybe join AmeriCorps,
you can look – look at the military. So, you could actually argue that those are ways
to take a structured gap year. The point being, bring structure if you’re
going to take that time off, think about what you want to accomplish and have structure,
so that you can accomplish it. Now, a lot of people talked about taking a
gap year and the importance of travel, going out and seeing the world, and can you even
do that with the current restrictions? My friend, Adam, chimed in and he said, “You
know what? How about you just go outside of your door and you look at the world around
you.” He talked about hike in the Appalachian Trail, going to the northeast and just simply
getting out in nature. I realized looking around Wisconsin, we’ve
got dozens of amazing state parks. You know how many I’ve been too? One. And, that is
a great point. Look around, can you actually take a year and explore just your neighborhood
and your town and get to know the area and just a hundred miles around you and actually
understand simply the home you live in. Now, my friend, Cassandra, who’s an amazing
career consultant and has an awesome YouTube channel, which I will link to down in the
description, she makes good point that if you’re going to take this gap year, make
sure it’s an exploratory year. You want to go out there and take a low-risk, just
try something and maybe even try the career path that you’re already planning or studying
for. And, I want to stress she makes an amazing
point here because instead of you studying for three to four laws to get that pre-law
degree, you actually maybe shadow a lawyer. Take and find an internship to work for free
for an attorney and you’ll find out very quickly, do I want to be doing this or maybe
I want to choose a different career path? Again, you would be surprised, don’t think
you can read people’s minds, put yourself out there. If you’re going to take this
year off, even if you put in two years of college already and you decide you, you know
what? I’m going to take a year off right now. Go explore.
[0:10:00] Try to get some insight even if it’s for
a single day, even if it’s sitting down and interviewing and talking with people who
are doing what you’re studying to be doing. And try to figure out, hey, am I climbing
up the wrong wall? Maybe I don’t want to do this with the rest of my life.
And another YouTuber who I respect, Sean Cannell, he chimed in and said, “Intern with somebody
who’s doing what you want to do in the future to find out is this truly what you want to
dedicate yourself to.” Guys, so many people I rarely ever get asked,
“Hey, I want to intern with you, Antonio.” And I bet if you just simply reached out to
ten people about an internship, I would be blown away if you did not get at least three
to four, “Hey, I’m interested. Tell me more about yourself.”
Yes, you’re going to get some rejections and that what happens when you put yourself
out there. But, that is it’s worth getting those rejections than you spending three to
four years dedicated to finding that, yeah, you are climbing up the wrong wall.
And, Owen Hemsath, another creator that I absolutely love, and this guy is a force of
nature when he’s up on stage, an amazing persona. I agree when he said, “Intern.
Intern. Intern.” Really it’s that simple. When you intern,
you get a feeling, really you understand what it means to be doing this. And I can’t stress,
this is one of the easiest ways to quickly know whether or not this is right for you.
And, if you’re watching this video and thinking the degree you have is going to determine
what you do with your life, I can tell you personally that that is not the case. I have
a degree in Philosophy and I teach online style. I also have a background in Origins
of Behavior, which is a Biology/Psychology mix. I have an MBA.
And those things have helped me, but I think Adelaide Goodeve, she talked about this. So,
Adelaide was very clear, “Hey, I do a podcast on performance.” Basically, if you want
to do a triathlon, she talks about training. She didn’t go to school for this. This – her
degree is entirely different. And she stressed, “Hey, get some work. Find
a way. Yes, interning is cool, but if you can get paid to explore and to actually get
a taste of what it is you think you want to do, that’s going to give you much more insight
than just reading or just taking a class on it.”
And, Roberto Blake, another YouTuber who I absolutely love what this guy is doing teaching
creatives how to be successful on YouTube, has an amazing style. Go check out his channel,
I’ll link to it down in the description. He came in and said, “You know what? I paid
for my way going to a small college in a small town doing freelance jobs.” And he talks
about the importance of getting paid to do your passion, to go after things and to find
out, hey, is there even opportunity in the area I want to go down.
He talks about for creatives, going to college isn’t a man – it’s not mandatory, it’s
not required. If you basically follow your own beat, if you want to do something different
from what everyone else out there is doing, then, yeah, go ahead and try and college is
always going to be there for you. And all that being said, I had some of my
friends pop in like Arturo and Deb and they said, “You know what? Don’t even go to
college at all,” which I thought was interesting because Arturo and I, we actually got our
MBAs together. But, he was adamant about, “Hey, this is 2020. There is no job security.
It’s about the skills that you bring to the table. It’s about the value that you
provide to a company. And if you can show that value, they’re going to hire you. It
doesn’t matter if you’ve got the degree or not.”
Now, what’s my personal opinion? What advice would I give my 18-year old self? Well, I
would say that you don’t need to go to school to be successful. But, there are certain paths
that do still require a degree. I’m not, you know I’d be hypocrite if
I said don’t go to undergrad because my undergrad degree even though I – you could
argue degree in Philosophy, you know what? It did get me a commission as an office of
the marines. And that was one of the best things I ever did in my life because I was
exposed and I was challenged, I was pushed. That’s when I found out really who I was
and what I was capable of doing and I met an amazing network and connection.
But, you know my advice in general is, one, know what you’re going to college for. And
that was the mistake I made because I really wish I would have studied other things that
I would have applied myself. And I do feel probably me taking a gap year especially a
challenging gap year would have probably done wonders especially for my undergrad GPA.
The second point I want to make is the difference between school and college. And my friend,
Steve, actually made this point. I thought it was solid is that school, this is the education,
this is the stuff that you can pick up if you’re doing the online education. And that’s
the information the facts all that data. But, the college, this is the social, this
is the interactions. And I know for me, if I would pay a premium to go to a private school
or a school that, yeah, Ivy League or high-end school, I would want the college part because
that is so important. I forgot pretty much everything I learned
in school, but what I did not forget and what I use to this day are the connections, the
networks, the social interactions. Those built the friendships which to this day, I still
got those guys that I can call up and on a moment’s notice, they will be there for
me. They will – they’ve invested in my companies. They’ve been there too give me
support. [0:15:12]
And that is something that I think is – what I really paid the premium for, that network
that series of connections. And, if you’re going to pay that premium, you should be asking
is it worth if I’m not going to get that? Point number three and this one is rarely
talked about, but incredibly important is to understand your success is not determined
by graduation by that degree. It’s actually about that you applied to the college to begin
with. And what do I mean by this? So, there’s
this study that talked about how they looked at people throughout high school and they
measured their success afterwards. And it wasn’t about what school they went to, it
was about the schools they applied to, the schools they felt they belong to.
Because there were many instances of people that were very successful, very smart that
did not get in to the Ivy League school or they got into the Ivy League school, but they
couldn’t afford to pay for it. So, they went to a different school and guess what?
Those people had – still had amazing success. Point here is about your inner confidence.
Where do you think you belong? Who do you think – and I know for me, I applied to
get into Harvard, I didn’t get in, but here’s the thing. I felt I belong and I felt I had
shot and I threw myself out there. And I believe things like that, willing to put myself out
there. That has what has carried me on throughout
life and has been really a big part of all my success is I’ve always felt that I can
do it, that I belong. And this is something, if you get into this top school, that’s
all you need. My friend, Andrew, pointed this out. This
guy, he has worked for one of the richest men in the world and I value his opinion so
much. And he came back and said, “You know what? How about you send me that business
plan and just staple the acceptance letter to that school that you got in. You don’t
have to go, I don’t care about your degree.” And he talked about all of these people that
gotten into great schools that have dropped out. Why? Because they realized their passion
was taking them in a different direction and that school, getting into it was nice. It’s,
you know, something – a feather to put on your hat. But, really what it comes down to
it, they are not going to be denied when they go after their passion.
So, guys, it’s not about you completing the school, it’s not about you getting into
the school, it’s about what you think of yourself and that day in day out for the 10,
20, 30 years past when, you know when – you know when you’re 22, it’s about what you’re
going to do when you’re 42, when you’re 52, when you’re 62 are going to continue
to pursue your passion. And that is I think going to be a much bigger determinant of your
success, not what degree you have. Now, this next point kind of contradicts the
last one, but, again, it depends on your goals, but if you need that check in the box for
a degree, then of course, go after it. If you’re going to go to med school, you’re
going to be a lawyer. For me, to be a marine officer, I had to have a college degree. So,
again, if it’s part of the check in the box, of course, go to school, it’s going
to be part of your success. And this next point is a game-changer for
people that have never thought about it, but get paid to learn. Yes, get a part time job,
get an internship that pays you or even a free internship that you’re not going into
debt with. Point being is you can get on-the-job-training,
you can experience what it is you’re getting that degree for oftentimes, years before you
get that degree and you’ll be able to make a much better determination of is this the
path that I want to pursue. So, what video to watch next? How about ten
things that successful people never say? Seriously, I had a lot of fun with this video. I think
you’ll enjoy it, go check it out. [0:18:42] End of audio