Should I go to college?

[Dioji]

I'm 17 years old, and I'm halfway through the Millionare Fastlane. My parents are solid slowlaners, and they really want me to go. However, we aren't well-off and we would be paying out of pocked it I were to go to college. Should I go?

 

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[bray]

What are your goals? Does the business you want to start require a college degree? Do you like the academic environment? Ultimately it is up to you if you decide you want to go to college. If you are unsure, maybe you should take a gap year to think about it. The reality is that if you're disciplined enough you can learn anything from the internet, however there are certain careers such as medicine and law that require a college degree. Here's a thread that I think might answer your question better.
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...whether-you-should-study-at-university.99552/
The definitive answer to whether you should study at university

 

[Kevin88660]

Gen

I'm 17 years old, and I'm halfway through the Millionare Fastlane. My parents are solid slowlaners, and they really want me to go. However, we aren't well-off and we would be paying out of pocked it I were to go to college. Should I go?

Generally people drop out of college for a profitable business, not running a business for the purpose of not going to college.

 

[Johnny boy]

What would you study?

Odds are you'll get a "F*ck around" degree.

Then off to work, you've landed a prestigious job making TPS reports for 40k

Susan from accounting flirts with you. You end up dating for a year and then getting married.

You enjoy some hobbies, have a kid, take a few vacations and drive an Altima.

The people online say it's smart to save for retirement, so you contribute to your 401k account.

You move up. You now are 35 and make 60k and review other peoples' TPS reports.

Then, at 40, you look around. You've got a gut. Your youth is starting to fade. New things are sore. You are sleepy. How did it end up like this? Funny how time flies.

"F*ck".

The cycle continues. Another one bites the dust. Hope your one life was fun (it wasn't).

But that hasn't happened yet. You are here and still young. You can do anything. All of the future regrets. All of the missed chances. You get to fix them right now. This is your second chance. You've been transported back to the time when you could actually change it all and do something big; right now. Don't blow it like everyone else.

 

[9ofPentacles]

I'm 17 years old, and I'm halfway through the Millionare Fastlane. My parents are solid slowlaners, and they really want me to go. However, we aren't well-off and we would be paying out of pocked it I were to go to college. Should I go?

You definitely should go! You will be exposed to different ideas and people in college. Keep the Fastlane goal in mind while attending college you'll see everything from a different angle and gain a lot from it (just as the book tells you to see the world from a 'producer's point of view'). Take classes that can truly help you rather than just for the credits. Build a useful network with entrepreneurial intentions. Use your college years as a incubation period for your dream business.

Imagine this scenario, if you were an entry-level office goer, who has the ambition to start your own business. You wouldn't be just 'minding your own business' at work. You will deliberately observe how things were managed and produced in the office. Including things as big as stealing their clients (not suggesting you do it bu it does happen in the AD industry from time to time) or as little as fixing a malfunctioning printer - because chances are when you just start off on your own business you'll have to fix it by yourself.

 

[Johnny boy]

You definitely should go! You will be exposed to different ideas and people in college. Keep the Fastlane goal in mind while attending college you'll see everything from a different angle and gain a lot from it (just as the book tells you to see the world from a 'producer's point of view'). Take classes that can truly help you rather than just for the credits. Build a useful network with entrepreneurial intentions. Use your college years as a incubation period for your dream business.

Imagine this scenario, if you were an entry-level office goer, who has the ambition to start your own business. You wouldn't be just 'minding your own business' at work. You will deliberately observe how things were managed and produced in the office. Including things as big as stealing their clients (not suggesting you do it bu it does happen in the AD industry from time to time) or as little as fixing a malfunctioning printer - because chances are when you just start off on your own business you'll have to fix it by yourself.

What did you do?

 

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[Raedrum]

School and college have basically destroyed my twenties. if it was to be done again, I'd probably never go there and instead I'd rather study by myself and do what I do know. I'll probably be rich now.

But my story isn't yours, and school having this effect on me was also largely my own fault.

You are still very young, college can be a very productive experience... if you decide so.

If you are already sure you want to do business in life, then college can be a lever if you are clear with your goals from the beginning.

You can choose to study business-related fields (like marketing, communication, trade, HR, ...) or technicals skills that you know will be profitable. You can study and do business on the side during your college years. You can build network, analyse things from business perspective. Network from college can be VERY powerful.

There is a lot of college students doing business on the side and that are leveraging all that in a coherent way.

 

[Kevin88660]

The reason I am highly skeptical about dropping out of college is that if you are capable of achieving business success without college, you can do it with college, also.

If dropping out and succeeding with business is considered difficulty level 3, doing personal side hustles along with school work is the difficulty level 2, and single-mindedly getting good grades in college is the difficulty level 1.

If you say that you hate school (suck at it) and want to do business instead, basically, you are doing level 3 to avoid level 1, the odds don't look good.

The rationale for dropping out of school imo has to be earned. That you can get at least an average grade in school, with a thriving profitable business at the side that needs you to invest more time into the business. Then you should write to the school to pause your study if they offer that option.

 

[9w13cky7]

DISCLAIMER: Until now, my story has been traditional > get grades, go to college, get job, pay off college debt, meanwhile get married, have kids, persist in trading time for money (so-called career), climb the greasy pole, get to 50 years old (almost) and wonder where the f__k the time went.

Luckily, I got to enjoy the ride, lived for today rather than saving for tomorrow, bought a second property that we rent out (and occasionally stay in) and have various investments. But, and it's a biggie, if my 9-5 (or 5+2, whichever way you look at it) income stopped tomorrow, we'd be seriously in trouble.

(This is all back-story, and interesting though it is, might not be relevant. Just be wary of the all-too-common pattern that I fell into.)

The point I wanted to make was that my degree(s) got me where I am. I have a BSc. in Computer Studies, and an MSc. in Strategic Management, obtained some 20+ years apart. I needed both: the first because I wanted to understand IT, and computers, and get a job in IT and the second because in order to get to my role now (CTO/CEO) I had to 'speak the language' of business. The reason I did StratMan rather than an MBA was that it looked more interesting and covered enough of the same ground that I could talk to the MBA-educated stakeholders in their own language.

On the other hand, unless you have a clear idea of what you're going to *do* with that education, rather than chalking up 40-200K in debt, depending on what degree(s) you choose to do, I'd wait awhile. People who 'need' education *IMHO* include medical practitioners of all walks, lawyers, accountants (like, really hard-core accountants), and anyone who has the wish to end up in academia or become a rocket scientist.

For anyone who just wants to be in business, generally, education can more or less wait. I say more or less because obviously, my own experience has taught me that, sooner or later, to get accepted I needed some kind of formal business training.

FFWD to here and now: I want to get out by 55 to enjoy whatever life I have left. That's the reason I'm here. I classify myself as over-educated and wish that once I'd done that StratMan Masters degree, I'd put it to slightly better use by creating my own business > this is something I'm keen to rectify.

Not sure if that helped anyone, except me, but it's all grist to the mill, as they say.

All the best,
Guy

 

[Dioji]

What would you study?

Odds are you'll get a "F*ck around" degree.

Then off to work, you've landed a prestigious job making TPS reports for 40k

Susan from accounting flirts with you. You end up dating for a year and then getting married.

You enjoy some hobbies, have a kid, take a few vacations and drive an Altima.

The people online say it's smart to save for retirement, so you contribute to your 401k account.

You move up. You now are 35 and make 60k and review other peoples' TPS reports.

Then, at 40, you look around. You've got a gut. Your youth is starting to fade. New things are sore. You are sleepy. How did it end up like this? Funny how time flies.

"F*ck".

The cycle continues. Another one bites the dust. Hope your one life was fun (it wasn't).

But that hasn't happened yet. You are here and still young. You can do anything. All of the future regrets. All of the missed chances. You get to fix them right now. This is your second chance. You've been transported back to the time when you could actually change it all and do something big; right now. Don't blow it like everyone else.

I agree, but I think what a lot of people miss when talking about this stuff is what plan B is. What if I decide to start a business and fail? What if I go into debt? How will I get to use the experience that I gained?

 

[savefox]

I agree, but I think what a lot of people miss when talking about this stuff is what plan B is. What if I decide to start a business and fail? What if I go into debt? How will I get to use the experience that I gained?

Just go work as a limo driver and try again

 

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[savefox]

What if I go into debt?

You will if you go to college

 

[9w13cky7]

I agree, but I think what a lot of people miss when talking about this stuff is what plan B is.

Just giving my own side to this - what's your Plan B if you land a job? I spent 25+ years having no plan B and probably that kept me honest in the sense that I worked like a (expletive deleted) slave for part of that time, kissed a$$ for the remainder, and had zero safety net: I mean, we were vacationing on cruises around the Med, road-tripping across Florida, cruising out of Miami, hiring helicopters to land on buttes in the Grand Canyon, skiing every year in the Alps, doing both Disney's on subsequent years...

My Plan B, and looking at it now because of a few things in my personal and business life which almost dictate I bail at age 55, is to start a business.

I think that the younger you are, the easier it is to fail and start over / decide to do something else. If you fail fast, you can chalk it up as a year's experience, then go get an education: just make sure the education has a point to it. That's what I also told my own kids - I'll fund (yeah, that's another set of bills that remove the safety net!) your education, but only if it's something that you can demonstrate has an end goal. No going off to do politics, philosophy and economics just because you don't know what else to do - something that gives you a trade, or access to one: IT (although that one's an edge case), law, medicine, hard-core accounting, and so on.

Essentially, education becomes your Plan B. If my kids had come to me with such a proposition, I'd have been on board, but they would have had to justify it either way - if you want to take a year out to try a side hustle, no problem, but bring me your business plan first, sort of thing.

But then, I'm a modern parent. I think.

All the best,
Guy

 

[9w13cky7]

You will if you go to college

Ah yes. Missed that one. Great point. See my original post. I was lucky, with low debt. These days, it's eye-watering in some markets how much you have to pay for that scroll (and it's not even a real scroll!) of paper that gives you somewhat tenuous access (in many cases) to a trade...

 

[Kevin88660]

Just giving my own side to this - what's your Plan B if you land a job? I spent 25+ years having no plan B and probably that kept me honest in the sense that I worked like a (expletive deleted) slave for part of that time, kissed a$$ for the remainder, and had zero safety net: I mean, we were vacationing on cruises around the Med, road-tripping across Florida, cruising out of Miami, hiring helicopters to land on buttes in the Grand Canyon, skiing every year in the Alps, doing both Disney's on subsequent years...

My Plan B, and looking at it now because of a few things in my personal and business life which almost dictate I bail at age 55, is to start a business.

I think that the younger you are, the easier it is to fail and start over / decide to do something else. If you fail fast, you can chalk it up as a year's experience, then go get an education: just make sure the education has a point to it. That's what I also told my own kids - I'll fund (yeah, that's another set of bills that remove the safety net!) your education, but only if it's something that you can demonstrate has an end goal. No going off to do politics, philosophy and economics just because you don't know what else to do - something that gives you a trade, or access to one: IT (although that one's an edge case), law, medicine, hard-core accounting, and so on.

Essentially, education becomes your Plan B. If my kids had come to me with such a proposition, I'd have been on board, but they would have had to justify it either way - if you want to take a year out to try a side hustle, no problem, but bring me your business plan first, sort of thing.

But then, I'm a modern parent. I think.

All the best,
Guy

Accounting degree is pretty much a standard safe choice. Easy to land a job and practical for personal business/investment.

Usually not expensive because there is no complex equipment involved.

The curriculum usually have less than 20 hour official work week (lecture + tutorials). More than enough time to work a side job+ start a side hustle.

As many said before there are cheap options like community colleges even if in U.S.

If you cram courses you can finish in 3 years or less (if the school allows).

 

[Johnny boy]

I agree, but I think what a lot of people miss when talking about this stuff is what plan B is. What if I decide to start a business and fail? What if I go into debt? How will I get to use the experience that I gained?

when you apply to a job and don't get it you fail, when you get fired you fail, when you don't get promoted ever you fail. You fail all the time no matter what. It's only in business that people think you're only allowed one failure or something.

"what happens if I fail?" then you try again or try it in a different way, just like anything else.....

Every single person I know who has a business and never gave it up, is doing quite well. And pretty much every single employed person I know is not doing nearly as well.

 

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[Kak]

Entrepreneurs and School - Ep 227

As a little bit of a revisit to episode 48 discussing what business school didn't teach me... I discuss formal education in general. Education is IMPORTANT, but

podcasts.apple.com

My thoughts on the matter are pretty well documented.

Education is INCREDIBLY important. Programming is detrimental. College? It is a personal choice, but there are better, cheaper, and faster ways to learn. There's currently no better way to be programmed to suck.

I have learned tremendously more doing, than from graduating from a top business university.

I would sell my $120k diploma right now for $10k just to go on a free vacation with the wife and son.

 

[Johnny boy]

The reason I am highly skeptical about dropping out of college is that if you are capable of achieving business success with college, you can do it with college, also.

If dropping out and succeeding with business is considered difficulty level 3, doing personal side hustles along with school work is the difficulty level 2, and single-mindedly getting good grades in college is the difficulty level 1.

If you say that you hate school (suck at it) and want to do business instead, basically, you are doing level 3 to avoid level 1, the odds don't look good.

The rationale for dropping out of school imo has to be earned. That you can get at least an average grade in school, with a thriving profitable business at the side that needs you to invest more time into the business. Then you should write to the school to pause your study if they offer that option.

I was a 2.0 student. Did no homework. I hated school AND sucked at it. But I would stroll in and score in the 95th percentile for the SAT and tests, as long as the test wasn't measuring my memory of the book I didn't read a page of.

Business is easier. I have college degree people on my payroll. They have to ask me for a raise.

It would take a gun to my head to get me to do more than an hour of homework. Now you have to pry me away from my business. I spend all my time on it.

Now, if you're just plain dumb, yeah don't be a businessman. We are smart and lazy. Being dumb means you should go get an education indoctrination so you can be middle class instead of having to ask me if I would like queso on my chipotle burrito.

 

[Kevin88660]

I was a 2.0 student. Did no homework. I hated school AND sucked at it. But I would stroll in and score in the 95th percentile for the SAT and tests, as long as the test wasn't measuring my memory of the book I didn't read a page of.

Business is easier. I have college degree people on my payroll. They have to ask me for a raise.

It would take a gun to my head to get me to do more than an hour of homework. Now you have to pry me away from my business. I spend all my time on it.

Now, if you're just plain dumb, yeah don't be a businessman. We are smart and lazy. Being dumb means you should go get an education indoctrination so you can be middle class instead of having to ask me if I would like queso on my chipotle burrito.

At 18 years old if you are highly motivated, disciplined and capable, then school could be a waste of time.

It doesn’t apply to the majority of 18 year olds who said “I hate school” or “I hate my boss” which is really mainly a lack of effort, discipline and mental maturity.

If you have no prior track record before age 18, quitting school won’t suddenly do the magic either.

 

[Johnny boy]

At 18 years old if you are highly motivated, disciplined and capable, then school could be a waste of time.

It doesn’t apply to the majority of 18 year olds who said “I hate school” or “I hate my boss” which is really mainly a lack of effort, discipline and mental maturity.

If you have no prior track record before age 18, quitting school won’t suddenly do the magic either.

My track record at the time was living at home and broke, with no success in anything, with bad grades and 12 suspensions from elementary school, and my mom telling me I had "behavioral problems".

 

[Matt Lee]

Should I go?

To quote you from another post.

What if you do fail and end up in debt? How will you be able to start another business?

You cannot fail. Failing is an illusion. If you think you will fail, your head is not in the right place. Everything is just another stepping stone for you to win.

What goes on inside of your mind right now? How many paths do you see laid out before you? Think hard and make a choice for yourself.

Whatever choice you make, you'll live long enough to rebound from that choice if you take responsibility and accountability. In honesty, we don't know your temperament. We don't know if you're self-motivated.

Do you need some more time to develop as a person? Are you cut from the same cloth as @Johnny boy? Is school pissing you off and you find that it's hard getting up in the morning because you don't see a point?

I dropped out of college, but I don't recommend my brother do it because he's still too comfortable. He still finds time to play or shows to watch. All I could see was darkness when I was in college because I knew I was bidding my time. For my brother, I recommended he go travel the world and go to college if it's not going to put him into debt.

At the end of the day, college is just another path you can take. Though successful salesmen of the education system(your teachers and parents) convince you that it is the only path.

You could go get a job stack some money, take a gap year, and with that money travel to South Asia and find out what you want to do or build. Then when you get back from that gap year, see if you still want to go to college.

Your parents will think what they think. You're living your own life.

What might be useful is to be able to look from a birds-eye view and see what YOU need to do. That will take a lot of reflection and being honest with yourself.

Maybe you need to go to college and get in debt to know it's not the right decision. Maybe you need to work in the real world and let the Fastlane ideology marinate in your head. Maybe you need to go out and see the world and see how many problems that money is abundant.

What all of this requires is some self-awareness. A pen and paper is usually your best bet.

 

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[Syed Shah]

I'm 17 years old, and I'm halfway through the Millionare Fastlane. My parents are solid slowlaners, and they really want me to go. However, we aren't well-off and we would be paying out of pocked it I were to go to college. Should I go?

Brother, I was in a similar position to where you are, but, it is your choice.

Have you thought of the following:

• What you truly aspire to do within your life? Your life goals?
• Do you want a lambo or not?
• Do you really want to be the father, who says no to their child desires MOST of the time, because of financial reasons? (this hit me deep, like really deep)
• Do you really want to wake up in the same bed, same shirt, same car, same house, same office? Really?
• Money does buy happiness

These are just some things to consider. Remember gut feeling and rational thinking are different.

 

[James90]

You could also get a 2 year technical degree and learn a real skill...that way you'll have something to fall back on.
(Electrician, HVAC, Construction, mechanics, etc...)

Then use that to fund your business ventures in the beginning...

I received my certificate to fix airplanes in 2 years for just $12,000.

Mitigate your risks, and that will give you the confidence to move forward in your journey...

 

[Kevin88660]

You could also get a 2 year technical degree and learn a real skill...that way you'll have something to fall back on.
(Electrician, HVAC, Construction, mechanics, etc...)

Then use that to fund your business ventures in the beginning...

I received my certificate to fix airplanes in 2 years for just $12,000.

Mitigate your risks, and that will give you the confidence to move forward in your journey...

Hands on skills on very much resistant towards replacement by AI. You need good robots, not just software to replace humans.

Most office professional jobs such as accounting, law, computer engineering are not.

 

[Kingsman]

I’m in this same dilemma
It kinda makes me regret reading mj books
I mean I had it all planned out
Go to school and study to become a neurosurgeon but then I didn’t meet up for the cut off mark and then I read his books
I’m studying anatomy now but I feel like I’m wasting my time especially with the fact that I’m studying a course that’s not appreciated in my country (Nigeria )

 

[9w13cky7]

I’m in this same dilemma
It kinda makes me regret reading mj books
I mean I had it all planned out
Go to school and study to become a neurosurgeon but then I didn’t meet up for the cut off mark and then I read his books
I’m studying anatomy now but I feel like I’m wasting my time especially with the fact that I’m studying a course that’s not appreciated in my country (Nigeria )

My son's gf is studying anatomy to become a physiotherapist. Her attitude to that echoes something *I literally just read* in Fastlane: physios to world-class sportspeople make millions because their customers leverage a HUGE audience and entertain millions. Now it may take a while to gather together all the required degrees, but the plan is worthy.

Besides this, education is (almost) never wasted. You can do something with it, even if it's an underappreciated subject in Nigeria.

Some ideas (besides the physio to the stars one above, which I still think is a great plan - look at Angela Cullen, for example, who was physio to F1s Lewis Hamilton and now is free to pursue other interests) - might include doing some intensive trend research (yes, on Google Trends, I know, but it's a starting point, okay?) into what people want, and what pain points they have, in Nigeria (if you want to go local, and it's a growing market; I wouldn't know without my own research) and then develop assets to reach as many of them as possible with your knowledge.

Anatomy is a fantastic topic, in my opinion, as people always have physical ailments that can be solved by knowing how the various bits of a person's body are connected together, and everyone LOVES to self-medicate.

I'm not saying swap to physiotherapy (I note that the #1 trending term in Nigeria happens to be "cut off mark for physiotherapy" on Top Related Queries, not Rising Related Queries, where it's *only* #5!) but I am saying that there may well be ways to leverage your knowledge into a fastlane business that other areas of study might not have.

Just some back-of-the-envelope thinking for you: and I wish you success in what you decide.
Guy

 

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[JordanK]

I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life so I went to college to study Software Development. Realized after two years that I didn't want to stare at a screen for 9 hours everyday. Quit college to pursue a Real Estate business that I had been building up on the side full time. Real Estate/Airbnb business was going really well then covid hit. Business was maintaining itself but I found it difficult to expand as Ireland had draconian lockdowns that tapered commercial confidence and no tourists allowed into the country. Decided that I'd take advantage of government handouts for business owners upskilling program and finished a degree in Cyber Security (all done online in the evenings) in the same college I had dropped out of for free.

2022 - Back to the business full time... 2023... all systems go... expansion resumed. Degree forgotten about!! lol

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

 

[gpetukhov]

I was a 2.0 student. Did no homework. I hated school AND sucked at it. But I would stroll in and score in the 95th percentile for the SAT and tests, as long as the test wasn't measuring my memory of the book I didn't read a page of.

Business is easier. I have college degree people on my payroll. They have to ask me for a raise.

It would take a gun to my head to get me to do more than an hour of homework. Now you have to pry me away from my business. I spend all my time on it.

Now, if you're just plain dumb, yeah don't be a businessman. We are smart and lazy. Being dumb means you should go get an education indoctrination so you can be middle class instead of having to ask me if I would like queso on my chipotle burrito.

wow so 1400 SAT ?

 

[Jon822]

I used to work at a college and I would get asked this all of the time. 95% of the time the answer is no. If you believe in your ability to navigate the Fastlane, then a college degree is effectively putting that plan 4 years behind. Some might argue that you could follow Fastlane pursuits while in college but that's just not realistic. Before I go further, I should add that I'm looking at college strictly from a mathematical and Fastlane view: if you have a scholarship or your parents are wealthy enough to pay for it for you, then going to college can be a fun and worthwhile experience -- especially when you're able to do it at the age most of your peers will be. From a Slowlane perspective, it is worth going provided you choose a degree that actually has market value. So the question really boils down to how much you trust in yourself to succeed in the Fastlane or if you value bolstering your Slowlane safety net. Overall, I would say there are far superior options for increasing your hourly wage in the Slowlane that also take less time (and, more importantly, delay your Fastlane progress by less).

I went to college right out of high school, met some amazing people, and enjoyed it a lot. However, I had my entire college paid for by my dad's military service. Again, it can be a worthwhile experience if it won't cost you much or anything. Strictly from a financial perspective (especially if you would consider yourself a Fastlaner), it is not worth it.

 

[Johnny boy]

wow so 1400 SAT ?

Old sat score was out of 2400, so different score much higher than 1400.

Got a 32 on act no studying just rolled up and took it. Got C- grades and became a community college dropout.

Now I hire university grads and tell them when they’re allowed to take lunch breaks! Me and my friend who is in the same boat as me laugh about this all the time.

I have no problem with school the same way I don’t get mad that farms are for raising cows to go off to slaughter, it’s the nature of things. It isn’t the school systems job to make more people like me, the very nature of it and the brainwashing it does means only people with my temperament break out of it. It’s actually designed just fine. The question is who will YOU become? The brainwashed wage slave or the rebel?

The irony is I’m called a “good writer” now. The writing was my worst section. I almost completely aced the math section. I got shit writing scores. Lmao