I need help, I have to make a tough fuckn decision

[built]

So I've finished highschool a year ago, didnt do the best didnt do too bad either.

I chose to redo some of my subjects but I don't think going to university would be worthwhile for me anymore. I dont have a passion to study to become an engineer etc and and other things like getting a marketing degree seems like a waste of time, Id rather read as many books as I can and try and learn that way than have to get a massive loan + paper certificate.

I have about 3 months left to study, havent even picked up a book. Just been working on these sites, thats what I love doing.

But if I risk it and not go to university, the fucks going happen? I dont know what I would do or if i would make it

 

[c4yrslf12]

But if I risk it and not go to university, the fucks going happen?

They'll still be around to take your money later.

Do you, man. I did the University thing. I loved the people I met, the relationships I forged, and even the job I held--classes sucked. I was meant to be a marketer, and I see it as a great learning experience personally, but professionally.. I lost time. You can't get that back.

 

[Ryuzaki]

You're in a possibly advantageous position. What you're doing is recovering 4 years of abstraction and debt and investing them into experience and practical knowledge. I went to college... twice. I use neither degrees now and am as successful if not more successful than 90% of my classmates.

As a youngster, I'm worried that you'll squander those four years messing around with stupid sites. Which is fine. Iterate fast. Fail fast. Learn fast. BUT, and please take this very seriously:

Start one website in your passion niche that can earn money, and treat it as CLEANLY as possible. Add unique content. Build legit links. Promote it without getting it banned from Reddit, etc. Build legit social network pages. Don't buy fans. Just plant these giant seeds and let them all age. At the end of the four years when you realize all of the smaller goofy sites weren't worth the time but DID bring you experience, you'll be able to apply that experience to your one solid, clean, safe asset. And you'll be in the upper 90 percentile of internet marketers. Trust me on that one. Just ONE site that you treat like your precious baby. Touch it every week and never compromise it. You'll be very happy you did 5 years from now.

 

[built]

Thanks for the reply guys @c4yrslf12, @Ryuzaki definitely gives me more confidence in making this decision.

@Ryuzaki I will do exactly what you say and see what happens. I dont want to distract myself but is it still beneficial building smaller sites to build up more and more revenue? Then just keeping working on the main site for a few years.

 

[Meatplow]

It's always beneficial to build smaller sites, especially if the following are true:

1. You don't "burn" them via SPAM or something else
2. They pay for themselves (ie. hosting, content, domain reg. etc.)
3. You learn from them...

 

[Andrewkar]

Too much competition on the job market, plus getting a nice paycheck will cost you a lot of health, time etc. Unless you really want to be that engineer (but you don't want this).
Better invest in your business. You can get diploma any time if you want... But I doubt you will want that diploma once business is running and you feel great about it

 

[stackcash]

I've found that university gives marketers and businessmen the fast track to big projects / big money. I'm not sure if it's the same in other industries, but it's definitely true for the two I just mentioned.

I know moronic girls who are account reps for media buying companies. They make $200k+ a year to babysit publishers. I know dudes that went through business school and now work in private equity making $500k/year.

I got my associates and didn't pursue an economics education at Columbia because I thought that I would just be paying for a piece of paper. 5 years later or so, I've been building my business up to the point where I'm just getting in reach of possibly hitting those kinds of numbers.

If you know that you're going to absolutely work in X INDUSTRY and you don't mind the grind of finding a position, I would say go to school if you're still young. If anything, just get a generalized degree in your field that would allow you to get an MBA in a specific focus at some point down the road.

You can definitely earn big money by bootstrapping and learning on your own....but that piece of paper definitely fast tracks your career if you choose to follow a traditional path.

 

[Ryuzaki]

To add to what I was saying and what others have added:

Yeah, smaller, quicker projects are still good. They let you take risk without putting as much on the line and meeting ruin, they come to fruition faster and can be liquidated for future cash flow, and you can test isolated experiments on each one.

College wasn't a bad experience for me. I was already an entrepreneur in high school, actually with a successful line of products and a forum attached to the e-commerce part. But there were expectations of me and I didn't know better at the time than to question the guiding "wisdom". Who knows how the storyline would have gone if I didn't go to college. Could have been better or worse. I'm not worried about changing the past. But the future is opportunity if you have the wherewithal to make the choice FOR YOU and for the right reasons.

If you don't get college done immediately after high school, the chances of ever doing it diminish each year. It's really about understanding the ramifications of the choices we make NOW and making them with integrity and thinking clearly about the long-picture.

What do you want from life, and what do you want to pour your energy into in life.

Maybe you don't want college as an ends in itself or a means to a job, but you do want some bad ass job in this sector. As @stackcash said, it can be a stepping stone and fast track. It's definitely not a black-or-white decision. You can manipulate the game too.

 

[turbin3]

There's a lot of good advice here. What I will say is this. You don't need a degree. There are billionaires out there that don't have a degree. They're also the exception, and not the rule. Having a degree (especially a relevant one and not a bullshit "liberal arts" degree) can help get your foot in the door with a lot of professions. Don't totally write off the idea of a formal education. I liken it to high school and college sports players. A lot of them want the money, the fame, the success, and focus solely on that sport to the detriment of their education. Okay, but what happens if their primary focus doesn't quite work out?

Personally, my thought on college at this current point in time is that, it's a potential opportunity to grow. It's not a guarantee. Unfortunately, with the ever-increasing social engineering in academia, the value of college and a degree is quickly being marginalized to the point where it's like a fucking "gold star"; everyone gets one, and none of it means anything. So my personal opinion, based on my experiences, is that I honestly could not recommend investing significant future debt towards a formal education. Considering how much knowledge is available practically for free online, I honestly don't think it makes sense for most people to waste $50k, $100k, or more on that piece of paper. That's a freaking house, or a significant down payment on one.

If it was me, I would consider some cost-effective options, such as a local community college, and maybe taking a part time class load in relevant courses. Along the way, you'll have time to build your sites. If, along the way, you're also taking some digital marketing classes and/or web design classes, it's value-added. Whenever you need to get a job, you will then have formal education as well as a lot of your own personal work you've done, which the vast majority of people don't even bother with. It can make you stand out, and sometimes in a very significant way.

Whatever you do, if you decide to take some college classes, get in and get out quickly and efficiently. I can't tell you how many people I've known that spent 6, 8, or even 10 years in college, often with not much of anything to show for it. One of my friends took something like 8-10yrs to get his Master's in something unimportant, and has literally never held down a single job consistently for longer than ~1 week at a time. 10 YEARS gone, for nothing. If you go at all, get in, get what you can from it, get out, and move on with life as quickly as possible.

 

[Andrewkar]

@turbin3 well said. I believe that current educational system is outdated, and just don't fit well today's fast moving world. Unless someone can receive education from high end university (or is determined to be in the TOP3 best students in any school) he should think twice about taking that road.
What's the point in having degree and being one of 1000s of mediocre graduates? That doesn't give much advantage over competition in job market.

For example, I have tested myself twice. I have technical high school education and it has nothing to do with marketing, computers etc. I'm a food technologist. I've applied twice for job in different London marketing agencies (where one was for a low level management position). In both cases my CV went through the selection process well, and I was invited to their offices for a final interview.

I don't know, maybe I would get that job, maybe not. But my point is that experience is more important than level of education (or even profile). Of course, I'm talking about low/middle level management positions. High management positions require high school education (but once in the firm, it always can be done if someone really wants this).

Unfortunately that's true, chances that you will go and study are getting smaller each year. On the other hand, you have a lot of time to fail many times till you get your business up and running. Plus you have no kids (?), no wife, no debt!, no house, no serious obligations whatsoever. You can make risky decisions quite easily.

Here is something that might help you if you have a really tough choice. Of course, your gut is the most important tool you have...

http://www.helpmydecision.com/

I think it's provided by MJ Demarco, same guy who wrote The Millionaire Fastlane.

And to make your decision even more complicated read here http://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/pages/do-i-go-to-college-dropout/

 

[RiverStyx]

I thought my university was a great learning experience BUT that wasn't because of the classes. It was because I left my country and went to Uni in Switzerland for 4 years. I got to travel most of the world as part of their travel program - which was all included in the tuition. It allowed me to meet and learn from people that came from many different socioeconomic backgrounds and it was loads of fun.

However, there was one guy there who was like 28. He had already been successful in running his own business and then at age 28 he decided he'd like to finally go to university. He was easily able to pay for it in cash as a result of the business he built when he was your age.

So, what I'm saying is, university is fab but unless you want to work for someone the degree is not necessary, and you can always go later - not a big deal.

 

[dzianis]

I honestly could not recommend investing significant future debt towards a formal education.

This. Only buy things you can afford. And if you're thinking about whether you can afford it - you can't.

College was a lot of fun for me, but at that point I had zero practical or commercial intent connected with my education. The social aspect, the experiences, the challenges, the fun - I was all about that and I am happy I had that time, made some amazing friends I still have, and managed to open my mind and learn a bunch of new things. But it was relatively cheap, I paid for most of it with blue-collar summer jobs and I had zero debt, I'd probably never sign up for a college loan. Only years later I started grinding and learning new stuff myself, and it was nothing degree-related.

Everyone's life is different. You are driven and motivated and I don't know what you are really after inside your heart - you can benefit from college greatly and you can waste your time there too. Whatever you do, don't just dump all the money you have (and especially don't have) into it.

 

[animalstyle]

Why are you choosing school? Everything in life that you have (not material) came to you because you wanted it, worked on it, desired it, lost sleep over it, and followed it till it was yours. Do you have these feelings for college? Probably not since you are here asking about it.

Schools aren't going anywhere, there will always be someone looking to take your money for an education. All the other advice here is something I wish I had at the same age. I went to school for a year and never went back. I would say that developing socially is something college is great for, but when it was all said and done, developing socially for me didn't happen during the year of college after high school. Infact that year was spent around most of the same people, doing most of the same things just not living a home. Not until a year later when I moved across the country to a completely new place and a new situation did I really learn who I was. I recommend this strongly to everyone. You will learn more by launching yourself out into the world someplace new and out of your comfort zone. If college is that for you, that's great, but watch out for debt. Due to proper planning and good fortune (health) I have remained debt free by choice. Small dips when I need a new car or something for utility and then quickly paying it back, but never maxing credit cards on stupid luxury shit/girls/gambling etc.

I would say a good majority of college kids connect college degrees with success and while it may help, you're not there purchasing success by the credit. Debt is weight, weight that is not easy to rid yourself of. Take it on VERY carefully. "Debt" from a business investment vs debt to buy success via a college degree are different.

 

[turbin3]

I just wanted to clarify that, everything I posted was said from the perspective and assumption that most reading here are probably focused in the digital marketing world or other similar niches that don't necessarily require a significant degree of formal education to achieve success in. For some industries and job sectors, the same logic may not apply. For example, if you want to get into the legal profession, or become a doctor, in most cities and countries you are likely going to need a good degree of formal education and/or specific degrees or certifications to even be allowed to practice. So please don't take that advice as a blanket statement about the efficacy of a college education. As always make smart and/or cost-effective choices when you can.