16 Y/O High School Student Contemplating Dropping Out

[ZW Keys]

Hi Everyone,

I am 16, currently entering the second semester of my sophomore year of high school. I had a 4.13 GPA my freshman year, and that was the highest GPA possible. The first semester of my sophomore year I had a 4.33 GPA, and that is what I currently have now.

I thought that I needed to have the good GPA for college and all, but after watching hundreds of hours of YouTube videos and reading books such as "The 10 Pillars of Wealth" by Alex Becker, "Drop Out and Get Schooled" by Patrick Bet-David, and of course "TMF " by MJ DeMarco, I am not sure if college is right for me.

The only reason I was working for the grades was primarily because of my parents, but after I was exposed to the new knowledge I began to want to put effort into what I wanted to do. I know I will be a successful entrepeneur at some point because I always become very good at something if I put my mind to it, but I am not sure if 4 years of my life should be spent at college and if that will be the best move for me, especially with the expensive cost of university.

I have been selling things ever since I was born, and I recently launched my first "official" company "Business Cannon" this winter. I have already made back a return on my investment into the company, and I plan on individually studying code and design and growing my business until I have enough money to begin investing in bigger softwares while also growing my business to be more autonomous and require less involvement from me. My dad is also an entrepeneur and he has been working for himself since 2006, and has seen many successes and also many failures and I think of him as a great mentor.

Thank you for reading this and I cannot wait to meet all of you on this forum!

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Finish high school. As for college, really depends. Not a one-size-fits all question.

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Sadik]

I concur. Dropping out from high school is vastly different from dropping out from college.

Secondly this whole dropping out thing is really an excuse. Why do you have to drop out of high school to work on a business? I have a family, two kids, a job, I freelance, I have real estate investments, I have a software product, a subscription selling business and STILL I have hours of time I think I am wasting by not doing enough. What are you spending your 24 hours of day on? Does high school take 18 hours of a day 7 days a week, 365 days a year? If not, you are wasting an ungoldly amount of time doing nothing useful which can be swapped for working on a business versus dropping high school.

And like MJ said, there's no one size fits all solution. If you develop a real product which thousands of people are using and paying you for, and high school is getting in the way, sure drop out for then it's a waste of your time.

 

[ZW Keys]

Those are good points! I suppose I could be using my time a lot better. School takes up 9-10 hours of my day every day and I typically get 4-6 hours of sleep per night. The other time I spend working on my business, meeting with clients, making cold calls and providing services for my customers, and I also spend a few hours a day playing golf, working out, spending time with my family and girlfriend, etc. I used to play video games but ever since I started working on my business and reading business books I haven't looked at the TV. I do catch myself doing nothing at some times and I am definitely going to cut back on that. Thanks a lot for the advice. I plan finish up high school and see where I am at once I graduate. Until then I am going to work on my business as much as I can while also attending school during the day.

 

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[AdamMaxum]

I won't advocate for dropping out of high school, but I think people hold it in too high of a regard. Similar to how most people view college as being the end all be all goal of every person finishing high school. I was forced to drop out in my senior year because I missed too many days of school (liked to sleep in!). I had A's and B's and they wanted me to come back for 1/2 year the following year to get my degree and I said screw that. So I signed up for the GED test, walked in, took it, got my GED and then signed up for community college. Did 2 years of that and easily got into a 4 year state college before I finally decided school wasn't for me. The one thing that sticks out to me is that I could have dropped out of high school in 10th grade and done the same thing and saved myself time. Let's face it. By the time you hit 10th grade you pretty much have the basics down at that point so unless you're trying to get into a career that requires a degree, what's the point really? The only good thing about high school for me was creating relationships with lifelong friends.

With all that said, just because you leave school doesn't mean you stop learning. Everything you want to learn can be done online now and through books and through 'doing'. Set aside time each day to learn something to advance your knowledge + put it to use and better yourself (which sounds like you had planned) and you'll be just fine.

 

[safff]

Those are good points! I suppose I could be using my time a lot better. School takes up 9-10 hours of my day every day and I typically get 4-6 hours of sleep per night. The other time I spend working on my business, meeting with clients, making cold calls and providing services for my customers, and I also spend a few hours a day playing golf, working out, spending time with my family and girlfriend, etc. I used to play video games but ever since I started working on my business and reading business books I haven't looked at the TV. I do catch myself doing nothing at some times and I am definitely going to cut back on that. Thanks a lot for the advice. I plan finish up high school and see where I am at once I graduate. Until then I am going to work on my business as much as I can while also attending school during the day.

Few things that apply

1) at 16 you have almost all the time in the world. It's appealing and commendable to want to jump right in, but you have time to at least finish high school (as for college at least have a plan of some sort)

2) It's not until you go through it for a while where you realise how much time you do have at school (to a degree, I was a solid B-C student and school took up an absolute max 8 hours a day including hanging and travel so maybe high school was a different experience for me due to the lack of care factor) College even less.

3) to put time into perspective, I currently work a minimum 12 hour day, and have two businesses running which I'm growing every day. Sometimes 'work' becomes a 17 hour day. It won't be come around 6 months time. Sometimes you just have to juggle and chip away until a point where dropping a big time 'consumer' is a good/viable option/risk - at which point you've grown the thing that's going to take over in the background.

most people hate school - but there's no need to jump ahead of yourself just yet

I won't advocate for dropping out of high school, but I think people hold it in too high of a regard. Similar to how most people view college as being the end all be all goal of every person finishing high school. I was forced to drop out in my senior year because I missed too many days of school (liked to sleep in!). I had A's and B's and they wanted me to come back for 1/2 year the following year to get my degree and I said screw that. So I signed up for the GED test, walked in, took it, got my GED and then signed up for community college. Did 2 years of that and easily got into a 4 year state college before I finally decided school wasn't for me. The one thing that sticks out to me is that I could have dropped out of high school in 10th grade and done the same thing and saved myself time. Let's face it. By the time you hit 10th grade you pretty much have the basics down at that point so unless you're trying to get into a career that requires a degree, what's the point really? The only good thing about high school for me was creating relationships with lifelong friends.

With all that said, just because you leave school doesn't mean you stop learning. Everything you want to learn can be done online now and through books and through 'doing'. Set aside time each day to learn something to advance your knowledge + put it to use and better yourself (which sounds like you had planned) and you'll be just fine.

Agree with a lot of that, I think I could have finished high school at 16 and still gotten to where I am, problem is in the UK it is (or was) very isntitutionalised in that sense, going to high school > college > university is just what people do and realising that at the time was a difficult concept. By 18 I knew studying wasnt for me so I put in minimum effort, barely scraped through each stage but barely tried either and decided that I'd at least turn it into a way to earn 6 figures and work in a country of my choosing which people shot down but I did. Upskilling is more than just what you learn in a curriculum

It's Attitude > Aptitude

 

[TheDillon__]

Find me one high-schooler who didn't plan to drop out.

Right now, having joined this forum and read TMF , you know what you have to do to raise your upper-line, and it seems like you're on good track for that. Though, right now, your bottom line is working full-time at McDonalds as a cashier earning minimum wage.

Finish high school, raise your bottom line.

If and only if your business grows to a point where you consistently need to be available on weekdays, you've tried outsourcing everything you can, and it is absolutely vital to the sustenance and prosperity of your business that you drop out, then you should drop out.

Until then, do your math homework.

Adure.

 

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[Akeem]

Find me one high-schooler who didn't plan to drop out.

Right now, having joined this forum and read TMF , you know what you have to do to raise your upper-line, and it seems like you're on good track for that. Though, right now, your bottom line is working full-time at McDonalds as a cashier earning minimum wage.

Finish high school, raise your bottom line.

If and only if your business grows to a point where you consistently need to be available on weekdays, you've tried outsourcing everything you can, and it is absolutely vital to the sustenance and prosperity of your business that you drop out, then you should drop out.

Until then, do your math homework.

Adure.

Pretty much took the words out of my mouth.

 

[ZW Keys]

Pretty much took the words out of my mouth.

Find me one high-schooler who didn't plan to drop out.

Right now, having joined this forum and read TMF , you know what you have to do to raise your upper-line, and it seems like you're on good track for that. Though, right now, your bottom line is working full-time at McDonalds as a cashier earning minimum wage.

Finish high school, raise your bottom line.

If and only if your business grows to a point where you consistently need to be available on weekdays, you've tried outsourcing everything you can, and it is absolutely vital to the sustenance and prosperity of your business that you drop out, then you should drop out.

Until then, do your math homework.

Adure.

All great things to consider. I really appreciate the responses! I'm so glad that I joined this forum! Thanks guys, I really value the advice and expierence that you all have, and as a 16 year old, I am trying to learn as much valuable information I can while also enjoying the time I have .

 

[The-J]

High school is easy.

High schoolers with business aspirations should use the vast amount of free time they have to start a business.

People who say 'high school is hard' have purposely chosen a difficult high school path (IB, AP, etc) that gives them more work. Honestly? Maybe that's where you need to be.

Being successful in business requires a work ethic and a thick skin. You're gonna get kicked in the teeth while you grow. Difficult problems, difficult customers, difficult suppliers, difficult solutions to implement.

At least difficult high school paths like AP and IB teach kids how to work at their goals. It teaches kids how to fail and get back up.

Dropping out is stupid as shit and teaches you to run away from your problems.

The exception is to those who HAVE businesses that they are running that require extra time be given to it.

With your business: do you have a client base? Are you growing that client base? Who is working on the delivery? Why a marketing agency, since you can't possibly have a ton of experience in the field as a high schooler? What do you provide to the market that others don't?

 

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[ZW Keys]

High school is easy.

High schoolers with business aspirations should use the vast amount of free time they have to start a business.

People who say 'high school is hard' have purposely chosen a difficult high school path (IB, AP, etc) that gives them more work. Honestly? Maybe that's where you need to be.

Being successful in business requires a work ethic and a thick skin. You're gonna get kicked in the teeth while you grow. Difficult problems, difficult customers, difficult suppliers, difficult solutions to implement.

At least difficult high school paths like AP and IB teach kids how to work at their goals. It teaches kids how to fail and get back up.

Dropping out is stupid as shit and teaches you to run away from your problems.

The exception is to those who HAVE businesses that they are running that require extra time be given to it.

With your business: do you have a client base? Are you growing that client base? Who is working on the delivery? Why a marketing agency, since you can't possibly have a ton of experience in the field as a high schooler? What do you provide to the market that others don't?

High school is very easy, I'm taking 4 AP classes right now and 3 Honors because I couldn't take any more AP and I still have one of -if not the highest- GPA's in my class without spending any hours outside of school studying. School has always come easy to me though.I learned a lot about hard work in middle school, because I wanted to be a pro soccer player, and after practicing for hours every single day, I made the varsity team in 8th grade and ended up starting in many games and scoring many goals until I got burnt out and realized that soccer wasn't for me.

As for the business, I do have a growing client base, however all of my clients thus far are from word of mouth, because I am just testing the waters right now. Its mostly for web design, and I just launched it last month. I am not 100% sure exactly what I want or what is different about my company, but I am trying to gain as much expierence I can in business and keep growing my business. As I learn more by doing and studying other successful marketing businesses, I will figure out more in that regard. I have been doing affiliate marketing for a few years and I've learned a lot about online marketing from my mentors, so I will apply that knowledge to my business as well.

 

[SteveO]

What would happen to your home life if you dropped out? Would you lose support from your father/mentor? Would you lose their respect?

What about your business relations?

I personally don't care much for school. Most of it is a shit show. But there can be plenty of hidden ramifications for not continuing.

 

[ZW Keys]

What would happen to your home life if you dropped out? Would you lose support from your father/mentor? Would you lose their respect?

What about your business relations?

I personally don't care much for school. Most of it is a shit show. But there can be plenty of hidden ramifications for not continuing.

Parents, especially mother, would not approve. My father said he would be fine if I was making over 10k per month, which I think I could possibly attain by 2019. I do not think it would be a well respected move by my clients either. Thank you for bringing up those points, I did not consider all of that. Either way, I suppose I should finish high school and then I will have to decide: College or no college....

 

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