I'm 21 years old and I would be a junior
if I were going to college but I don't
I decided three years ago that it wasn't
right for me that it wasn't a good use
of my time and energy and this isn't
just the gap your sort of situation I
have no interesting going period 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 first of all I just like to
say that if you are going to college and
you're really enjoying it and it's right
it feels right for you or you're trying
to be like a doctor or a lawyer or
something then this isn't for you a
college is right for some people but but
I think that if you're looking at
college as investment in your education
in your future I think there are better
alternatives my first reason for
deciding not to go to college is the
internet if you have a device that can
connect to the internet then you
essentially have access to all of human
knowledge that's the amazing power of
the internet it has democratized
information so the question then becomes
how self-disciplined are you how much
energy and effort are you willing to put
into diving deep into a topic there are
articles and forums and videos on pretty
much anything out there and that's how I
learned how to shoot and edit video and
that ended up leading to work as a
videographer and as an editor I finished
my high school diploma at the local
college so I did take a few college
classes and I can't tell you how many
times I took a class where the teacher
essentially just gave us the information
that was in the textbook that we had to
buy to take the class and nothing else
and that is a textbook that you could
buy on your own and absorb on your own
you could learn those things by yourself
I'm not saying all teachers are like
that and I'm not saying all classes are
like that but I think it illustrates the
point that with enough effort and like
self ownership a little bit of
responsibility you can you can learn
anything friends of mine that are going
to college have told me that they are
often forced to take and pay for classes
that they're not interested in or are
completely unrelated to what they're
there
for in the first place not only is that
a waste of your time and energy but it's
not really a recipe for success we live
in a specialized world it's way more
valuable to be really good at one thing
than kind of good at a bunch of things
all right so the second reason for why
not going to college made a lot of sense
to me honestly is the fact that the
stakes are a lot lower
I can fail in all kinds of different
stuff and not suffer anywhere near the
consequences the average student after
four years of schooling in the US has
over $30,000 in student debt basically
what that means is that as long as I'm
able to keep a net worth of zero so not
even make any money but as long as I can
stay away from losing any money and
getting into debt I am way ahead of the
curve and not having debt offers me
something else it offers me peace of
mind I can make all kinds of mistakes
and be you know a young adult trying to
figure things out in life without
suffering from mice mistakes you know
what I mean without feeling like I'm
digging myself into a hole that I cannot
get out of I could afford to leap into
freelancing as a filmmaker because I
wasn't scrabbled with debt and that gave
me the time to get things going and
improve and get better the argument
against that is that yes but a degree is
worth something which may be I mean yeah
it's worth something but I don't think
it's worth what you're paying for in
most cases
okay so let's create a scenario here
where you're paying twenty thousand
dollars a year to go to school for four
years
we're not even consider going out of
state or going to a high-end university
because that would cost a lot more like
40 or even $60,000 per year think about
how much you can do how much you can
accomplish in a year as a young healthy
adult with $20,000 and a little bit of
discipline 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 would be
less expensive that's what I did I
didn't need
for years I went to live in Argentina
for four months and in that time not
only was I able to learn a ton about the
language and get much better at it but I
learned a lot about myself and it was an
amazing experience overall in terms of
growth and in terms of exposure to new
things and that whole experience cost me
around five thousand dollars so way way
less than the 80 grand that it would
cost you to do four years of schooling
to get a Spanish degree in college
instead of studying business for four
years you could start your own company
with twenty thousand dollars four times
and have the luxury to fail three of
those times and again this is my opinion
but if you don't know what you want to
do which is most people most people do
not know what they want to do I think
it's better to experiment and try things
out for as little money as possible than
to be doing it and spending all kinds of
money that you don't necessarily have
and putting yourself in a vulnerable
position for a while I thought that I
wanted to be a sound guy and you know be
like the guy that holds the boom on set
and it turns out I don't and that didn't
cost me anything to find out all I
needed to do was try it a couple of
times and see if I liked it and you know
what else I found out and this was
life-changing you can get paid to learn
I was a PA for a long time so our
production assistant on film sets so I
would help out in any way that I could
oftentimes it was kind of lame right so
I was going and getting people coffee I
was running to Target to pick up props
but it was an incredible opportunity
experience to learn and observe from
other people around me and figure out if
I liked working on commercials or if I
liked working on movies and to ask
questions and get paid all the while
doing that once you realize that that's
a possibility
why would you do it any other way
there's another advantage career
momentum if you're lucky enough to
graduate from college and go straight
into a fulfilling job I commend you but
that's not usually how it works just
because you have a title doesn't mean
the world owes you anything and I found
especially as a freelancer in particular
but I think this applies to anybody that
it takes time it takes hustling and
patience to get things off the ground
and so in this sense the fact that I
gave myself the time to pick things up
and figure out what I'm good at and
you're out how I like to work I feel
like I got this big head start because
all the while all of my friends are
going to school I'm doing what they're
going to be doing once they graduate the
argument that college is great for
meeting people and networking is a valid
one I'm not even going to disagree with
that but it's not like it suddenly
becomes impossible to do that once
you're out of college I found that going
to events inviting people to coffee or
lunch or interning at different
companies has been a fantastic way for
me to expand my network and to find new
work opportunities and ultimately I
found that through research it didn't
feel like college really prepares you
for the rest of real life my goal in
creating this was not at all to make
anybody regret their decisions or to
shame anybody it's just to share my
point of view my way of seeing things
and that's the whole point of college
right intellectual diversity if you
enjoyed this video hit that subscribe
button a lot more videos coming soon I
talk a lot about mental clarity and
stuff like digital minimalism
and I'm excited to share that with the
world so if that interests you stick
around and finally if you believed in my
message I want to support this channel
and help me create more videos consider
checking out my patreon there's a link
to it down below I started to add
exclusive content bonus episodes behind
the scenes that sort of thing so check
it out all right
see you guys
[Music]
you