- Should you drop out of college?
Well it's not a simple answer,
I could only speak from my personal experience
because coming from kind of a traditional Asian family
education is very important.
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I remember when I was growing up my dad would say to me,
hey son I want you to be whatever you want to be,
like you wanna to pursue your dreams
and be whoever you wanna be as long as
an accountant, doctor or lawyer, one of those three
you can choose from, other than that you know
you're like a disgracee to the family, right.
So that's like traditional Asian family kind of thinking.
So when I was starting all these crazy businesses
in high school, and I was having a discussion with my mom
and say, hey mom, when I told her
that I don't want to go to college no more,
you should have seen the look on her face.
It's as if I told her that I murdered somebody
or something, it was just,
she was horrified by the whole thing.
And I said, well but mom, I don't really want to do that,
it's not my dream,
it's not my goal,
I wanted to be an entrepreneur,
and in school, at that time,
when I was going through college,
I had so much conflict with the instructor
because I always challenged the instructor, the professor,
the professor was talking about the business,
and all this stuff, and I said,
what, have you started a business?
Do you know what it's like?
I know 'cause I've started my first business
when I was in high school.
So we had like these conflicts and fights in the class,
right in the class, right?
And of course, he hated me,
and would give me some of these bad grades,
and stuff like that, so yeah,
should you drop out of college?
Is not an easy answer,
I would just share an experience with you.
So after I told my mom I'm going to drop out of college,
she invited me and said, okay son,
we'll talk about it on Sunday.
I said, okay, we'll do dim sum.
I said, all right, let's do dim sum.
I remember it was in Burnaby in Vancouver,
and I showed up, and there was this Chinese restaurant,
and dim sum, a big round table place,
and then it was me, my mom,
and eight of her friends and our relatives.
All in the big round table.
And my mom wanted them to convince
and persuade me of why I shouldn't drop out of college.
I always refer that incident as the dim sum ambush.
That's what it is.
So, they spent four hours telling me
why I should go to college,
why you should have a minimum of at least
some kind of diploma, some kind of degree,
you want to have like something to fall back on,
what if you can't get a job, what you gonna do,
so far all your crazy business ideas, none of them worked,
like what's the deal?
So four hours of this like, just pressure,
and kind of brainwashing,
I spent four hours talking to all nine of them
why going to college was a bad idea, okay.
And by the end of that four hours, I actually,
one of my uncle said, I convinced one of my uncles,
to loan me money to start my next venture.
'Cause I was so certain, and I had so much conviction
in what I do, and my uncle said, hey, you know what,
if there's a kid that can make it, it's Dan.
Seems like it's a good idea,
so I think he loaned me like ten grand
or something like that,
and I lost that money in a month or something. (laughs)
It's very short period of time. (laughs)
So, sorry uncle if you're watching this, (laughs)
it's timing.
I wish you'd invest with me now,
but back then I didn't know
what the hell I was doing, right?
But that's, so I didn't go to university,
that's what I did.
Now, my tip,
or my suggestion for you is,
you should know why you want to drop out of college.
I knew why I wanted to drop out of college,
I was very, very clear of my path,
and I made a promise to my mom that in five years,
back then, in five years, I don't make it,
I will go back to school, and I will complete my,
go to college and finish my diploma and things like that.
So I made her a promise.
In five years, she could see me,
how much I worked and how much sacrifice
I had made for my business.
For the first five years of my career,
I didn't take a single day off,
my mom know, because we live together.
We were,
I was in my room,
I was working,
I was working long hours every single day,
I was, I didn't take a single day off.
For five years.
And also my mom saw that, so after about a couple of years,
she never brought up the whole college thing again.
Just because with,
she saw that I wasn't using it as an excuse,
and I don't want you to use it as an excuse.
Because you are not, your grades are not good,
you can't focus, you're distracted,
and you wanna escape, and then you say,
you know what, I'm gonna be an entrepreneur,
and I'm gonna drop out of college.
Well, is that the truth?
Or are you just afraid of the world?
Are you afraid that you're not good enough?
Are you afraid that you won't survive?
Are you afraid that you're not gonna be successful?
In the real world.
Because it is getting tougher and tougher.
So, if you're honest with yourself,
and you say, no, I want to be entrepreneur,
I wanna start a business, I want to do something else,
other than following the traditional path,
then I encourage you to say, you know what,
if that's what you want, and you're willing to sacrifice
and do whatever it takes, then I say,
yeah, you can drop out.
But if you are just a bad student,
and you are lazy as fuck,
and you lack direction, you don't know what you want,
and you just want to, no, not even want to,
you wish that you're successful,
and you see all these people
having this great life on YouTube, whatever,
and you think you're gonna be rich or successful that way,
then I say no.
Because then you're naive.
So you have to know what you're jumping yourself into.
Because you get so much shit from the people around you,
you also understand that when you take this path,
there's no going back.
Because by the time you, if you don't go to college,
and you don't make it in business,
it's when you go back,
you've just wasted years of your life,
and now you're playing catch up.
And that's very, very difficult.
So I'm saying, if you know you're gonna jump
to the deep end, at least know that you could swim,
or you're willing to do what it takes
to swim and then survive, right.
So that's my idea.
So do you drop out of college?
The answer is, it depends on you.
It depends on you.
So, comment below, make sure if you wanna ask me a question
comment below, on my way sometimes,
during these kind of trips, I would answer your question.
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