I would like to share my story and open a discussion for advice.
I'm 18 yo, currently "studying" Aerospace Engineering at a big-name leftist university. I'm fortunate to not get in debt for it. I go to zero lectures, take 2X the credits of an average student, and will finish in a total of 3-4 semesters. I don't want to call myself smart, but college is a bit of a joke for me. It is just painful to have put up with the BS of multiple exams, labs, and fluff essays/papers. I spend most of my time ~ 30-40 hours a week working with a bipropellant liquid rocket engineeering team, but even though it is literally the best in the nation, I'm dissapointed in its culture, level of work ethic, and overall output/progress. I spend a lot of my time self-educating through books, wikipedia, and videos on youtube. Although mild in success (a few grand in annual profit), I also spend a decent amount time on my side-hustles (ecommerce, crypto arbitrage). For context, I don't have a lavish life - I live in a dorm, can't afford a motorcycle, can't dress well, and eat from a dining hall. I don't even own a car - I get around on a half-broken electric scooter.
I went to a pretty competetive HS (think 15+ kids sent to MIT and Harvard), and had to learn the hard way what school was really all about. But I also learned very lucrative ways to game the system in order to spend minimal time on schoolwork while maintaing a stellar GPA. It was in HS (16, 17 yo) that I started reading many many books (like TMF ) that changed my perspective and made me understand the rat race and what it takes to escape as an entrepreneur. I also fell in love with physics and engineering (outside of school) and overtime gained a pretty solid understanding of its laws and how to utilize them for developing new technology.
Around my senior year of HS, I was already doing a bit of eBay with retail liquidation arbitrage. But it was not like I could just pack my 4-figure net worth, skip college, move to Austin, and go rags to riches. In fact, that was not what I wanted to do - finishing HS I already had a pretty concrete vision: to spend my 20s working on Starship in TX, working my a$$ off with most elite team of engineers, and gain such a high-level skill in engineering to then start a billion dollar company in my 30s. I also had some semi-materialistic dreams - to have a beautiful European girl, have kids at a young age, have enough money to pull up to Starbase on a Ducati Panigale, get into base jumping, explore Antarctica/Siberia, and have *experiences* in space.
Getting to SpaceX as fast as possible became my singular goal (still is) after HS. I was working at a technology startup the summer after HS and thought that if I later find a bigger startup's couch to sleep on, work really hard, and continue learning engineering hands on, eventually SpaceX would take me. But that was too idealistic - I found a few mentors from SpaceX and was suggested that while not pretty, college will get me faster and easier to SpaceX, as well given the fact there is an implied degree requirement (yes a poor reflection on the company). And I vividly remember getting back from work at 4am one day and swearing to myself that if I go to college I will finish in 2 years. I was originially super against going to college and that became the only condition under which I would go.
I finished my first/fall semester with 69 credits. And after what I went through, I'm not sure if I want to go back. Every day I woke up and I just hated it. I was super motivated however - in fact the entire Nov/Dec I woke up at 8am, did some physical training, and just WORKED until 1/2am. Every day. I don't go (neither want to) go to parties, I don't go to american football games, I don't drink, and I don't "network"/"hang out" with a bunch of future minions working for New York Times, or some Facebok, or some Ford Motor company. I will say, I learned a good amount (working with the rocket team, self-educating, working on my business). But even with my skillful gaming/hacking of the system, I just utterly hated all the BS work (that taught me little) which I had to do for the degree requirements. And I said this already, but while I was learning stuff from the rocket team, I was dissapointed with the pace of it. Now I want to be clear, I'm not trying to complain about the work I have to do. I have an extroardinary pain tolerance and can work pretty hard; but the key here is it just feels so wrong that this is what I need to do to get to SpaceX. I think it takes a lot of work/engineering skill to get on the level of working with the Starship team, but I can't accept that it is exactly this BS work. And that is my current dilemma with the winter semester approaching - is it even worth putting up with this BS for another 2-3 semesters? And I am still in no place (neither want to) flip the life switch and live the stereotypical internet entrepreneur lifestyle.
I am almost lost. Yes, this does bring into question my SpaceX goal. If it wasn't, I would not be in college. Yet I don't see myself doing anything else in my 20s. I'm in the process of building a subscription software startup for hacking/saving money on college degree requirements (gaming the system), and down the line selling it to Chegg for some 7-figure sum, but am I truly passionate about this? I mean, when I'm 25 and have money, is what I want the mansion-laptop lifestyle?
I would appreciate any advice/blindspots on this situation. And if there are any engineering entrepreneurs ahead of me here, I would love to chat. But also, hello to all - I joined the forum to learn from you all and network with mentors/entrepreneurs/partners and surround myself with people sharing the fastlane mentality. Cheers to freedom.
@MJ DeMarco
-Dan
I'm 18 yo, currently "studying" Aerospace Engineering at a big-name leftist university. I'm fortunate to not get in debt for it. I go to zero lectures, take 2X the credits of an average student, and will finish in a total of 3-4 semesters. I don't want to call myself smart, but college is a bit of a joke for me. It is just painful to have put up with the BS of multiple exams, labs, and fluff essays/papers. I spend most of my time ~ 30-40 hours a week working with a bipropellant liquid rocket engineeering team, but even though it is literally the best in the nation, I'm dissapointed in its culture, level of work ethic, and overall output/progress. I spend a lot of my time self-educating through books, wikipedia, and videos on youtube. Although mild in success (a few grand in annual profit), I also spend a decent amount time on my side-hustles (ecommerce, crypto arbitrage). For context, I don't have a lavish life - I live in a dorm, can't afford a motorcycle, can't dress well, and eat from a dining hall. I don't even own a car - I get around on a half-broken electric scooter.
I went to a pretty competetive HS (think 15+ kids sent to MIT and Harvard), and had to learn the hard way what school was really all about. But I also learned very lucrative ways to game the system in order to spend minimal time on schoolwork while maintaing a stellar GPA. It was in HS (16, 17 yo) that I started reading many many books (like TMF ) that changed my perspective and made me understand the rat race and what it takes to escape as an entrepreneur. I also fell in love with physics and engineering (outside of school) and overtime gained a pretty solid understanding of its laws and how to utilize them for developing new technology.
Around my senior year of HS, I was already doing a bit of eBay with retail liquidation arbitrage. But it was not like I could just pack my 4-figure net worth, skip college, move to Austin, and go rags to riches. In fact, that was not what I wanted to do - finishing HS I already had a pretty concrete vision: to spend my 20s working on Starship in TX, working my a$$ off with most elite team of engineers, and gain such a high-level skill in engineering to then start a billion dollar company in my 30s. I also had some semi-materialistic dreams - to have a beautiful European girl, have kids at a young age, have enough money to pull up to Starbase on a Ducati Panigale, get into base jumping, explore Antarctica/Siberia, and have *experiences* in space.
Getting to SpaceX as fast as possible became my singular goal (still is) after HS. I was working at a technology startup the summer after HS and thought that if I later find a bigger startup's couch to sleep on, work really hard, and continue learning engineering hands on, eventually SpaceX would take me. But that was too idealistic - I found a few mentors from SpaceX and was suggested that while not pretty, college will get me faster and easier to SpaceX, as well given the fact there is an implied degree requirement (yes a poor reflection on the company). And I vividly remember getting back from work at 4am one day and swearing to myself that if I go to college I will finish in 2 years. I was originially super against going to college and that became the only condition under which I would go.
I finished my first/fall semester with 69 credits. And after what I went through, I'm not sure if I want to go back. Every day I woke up and I just hated it. I was super motivated however - in fact the entire Nov/Dec I woke up at 8am, did some physical training, and just WORKED until 1/2am. Every day. I don't go (neither want to) go to parties, I don't go to american football games, I don't drink, and I don't "network"/"hang out" with a bunch of future minions working for New York Times, or some Facebok, or some Ford Motor company. I will say, I learned a good amount (working with the rocket team, self-educating, working on my business). But even with my skillful gaming/hacking of the system, I just utterly hated all the BS work (that taught me little) which I had to do for the degree requirements. And I said this already, but while I was learning stuff from the rocket team, I was dissapointed with the pace of it. Now I want to be clear, I'm not trying to complain about the work I have to do. I have an extroardinary pain tolerance and can work pretty hard; but the key here is it just feels so wrong that this is what I need to do to get to SpaceX. I think it takes a lot of work/engineering skill to get on the level of working with the Starship team, but I can't accept that it is exactly this BS work. And that is my current dilemma with the winter semester approaching - is it even worth putting up with this BS for another 2-3 semesters? And I am still in no place (neither want to) flip the life switch and live the stereotypical internet entrepreneur lifestyle.
I am almost lost. Yes, this does bring into question my SpaceX goal. If it wasn't, I would not be in college. Yet I don't see myself doing anything else in my 20s. I'm in the process of building a subscription software startup for hacking/saving money on college degree requirements (gaming the system), and down the line selling it to Chegg for some 7-figure sum, but am I truly passionate about this? I mean, when I'm 25 and have money, is what I want the mansion-laptop lifestyle?
I would appreciate any advice/blindspots on this situation. And if there are any engineering entrepreneurs ahead of me here, I would love to chat. But also, hello to all - I joined the forum to learn from you all and network with mentors/entrepreneurs/partners and surround myself with people sharing the fastlane mentality. Cheers to freedom.
@MJ DeMarco
-Dan
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