Stuck and not sure what to do

[psyvortex]

Hey,

So I've been running a small affiliate site for around 2 years now, making around $1000 a month, sometimes more, sometimes less. Before I went to a higher technical school here until I was 19, it was about industrial engineering, with a focus on mechanical engineering.

A year ago I decided to go to a local "college", well in its really a business school. It's about 75% management/business and the other 25% is IT. So I've completed 2 Semesters now. I want to emphasize that im not in the US, so college is basically "free" here, but of course there is "lost time" aspect I could spend working instead.

Now the problem is, that I really started to hate this degree. I saw that I just cannot get myself to remember facts about accounting, etc. I realized that learning about business subjects is not something that im good at, or that I want to do. I have no problem with the IT stuff, that comes naturally to me. However, the school is really bad at the IT stuff and sometimes I feel like I know more than my lecturers. Also the students that study with me are not really good, I just feel like I don't learn anything useful there. I already forgot 99% of what I learned in my accounting class.

If I look at the curriculum it just makes me feel bad when I see stuff like "business ethics", "entrepreneurship", "international marketing" I think this stuff is learned in practise, not in a degree.

In summer I worked as a web dev for a startup, and it felt like I learned 10x more in 2 months than I learned in those 2 semesters.

So yeah, I have a few routes I can take now:

A: Continue this degree (which will suck and I will probably not learn much), complete it in 2 years and try to do my own thing/build websites on the side/afterwards

B: Quit the idea of university altogether and keep working at the startup, eventually start my own business from there (would mean moving, because it's not in my city)

C: Get a degree in something that actually interests me which is physics (our university is actually really good in physics according to global ranking). I could also take some computer science courses, so I could theoretically work in IT afterwards. I would pursue this out of pure interest and I think the problem solving skills would be 10x more useful than the business degree. However, this would mean 3 more years for the bachelor, and 100% commitment (pretty much the hardest degree to get)

D: Work for another half year and then apply to a software engineering degree for the summer term (not in my city) (Not sure if this is worth it, since programming can be learned easily over the internet)

I feel like its a better idea to get a degree in anything right now, because I'm still young and university is pretty much free in our country.

Would be cool if someone could give some advice.

 

[CCarter]

FYI for correct programming styles I suggest taking it at school. The internet is full of bad programming styles from other self-learned individuals. School teaches you the basics of how to write and think efficiently therefore help you learn techniques that you can use when you want to learn a new programming language that isn’t taught in schools once you leave school and are on your own. (The internet self-taught programmers will cry “I didn’t go to school for programming and I’m a greater programmer” - reality check: You’re not.)

One example: “don’t repeat yourself” (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_repeat_yourself) is a programming principle that states if you find yourself writing the same code over and over it needs to be re-written in a function or class so you can delete all the copies of the old code and simply reference it once in one line through calling a function, reducing your code, making things easier to debug, etc.

That is a mental skill that transcends programming languages, it’s a technique that makes your write efficient code, it would probably take you months if not years to eventually run into that idea if you learned programming simply from the internet. By then you would already have formed bad habits of coding.

School is suppose to be used to get the basic understands of a subject and learn the foundation - not necessarily real life examples.

No one can tell you what’s best for you except you, but based on your comments you clearly are going to be miserable with accounting and have other subjects you would prefer. Also leaving school with no action plan is stupid. It’s like sailing your boat into the ocean with no course or destination.

The Mark Zuckerbergs or Bill Gates of the world that did leave college/university/school had an idea/gameplan in mind (and more importantly were already working on it) before leaving and wanted to pursue it.

An affiliate site you are half-serious about is not a gameplan. If you were serious you would be obessessed with it every waking moment and want to grow it, $1000 after 2 years isn’t obesession. The subject of the site doesn’t matter - it’s the way you are approaching it that tells me you aren’t that serious. To be obsessed you would be spenting your weekends and every free second on it, like Zuckerberg with Facebook. You aren’t.

So don’t ditch school without a serious gameplan or an idea you can run with and be obssessed with.

I personally would switch degrees to the university so option C - cause that start-up might fail and you are simply an employee, even then to move up the corporate ladder you’ll need a degree in the subject if you are to become CTO or something.

It’ll a depends on your end goal and gameplan for this life. Even if you don’t have one create one, then follow it, you CAN change it, you are allowed to. With a gameplan you have a destination for your boat at sea, have goals and a place you want to get to, like Christopher Columbus - he had a goal to a new route to India, he didn’t make it but along that course he found something much greater.

 

[psyvortex]

FYI for correct programming styles I suggest taking it at school. The internet is full of bad programming styles from other self-learned individuals. School teaches you the basics of how to write and think efficiently therefore help you learn techniques that you can use when you want to learn a new programming language that isn’t taught in schools once you leave school and are on your own. (The internet self-taught programmers will cry “I didn’t go to school for programming and I’m a greater programmer” - reality check: You’re not.)

One example: “don’t repeat yourself” (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_repeat_yourself) is a programming principle that states if you find yourself writing the same code over and over it needs to be re-written in a function or class so you can delete all the copies of the old code and simply reference it once in one line through calling a function, reducing your code, making things easier to debug, etc.

That is a mental skill that transcends programming languages, it’s a technique that makes your write efficient code, it would probably take you months if not years to eventually run into that idea if you learned programming simply from the internet. By then you would already have formed bad habits of coding.

School is suppose to be used to get the basic understands of a subject and learn the foundation - not necessarily real life examples.

No one can tell you what’s best for you except you, but based on your comments you clearly are going to be miserable with accounting and have other subjects you would prefer. Also leaving school with no action plan is stupid. It’s like sailing your boat into the ocean with no course or destination.

The Mark Zuckerbergs or Bill Gates of the world that did leave college/university/school had an idea/gameplan in mind (and more importantly were already working on it) before leaving and wanted to pursue it.

An affiliate site you are half-serious about is not a gameplan. If you were serious you would be obessessed with it every waking moment and want to grow it, $1000 after 2 years isn’t obesession. The subject of the site doesn’t matter - it’s the way you are approaching it that tells me you aren’t that serious. To be obsessed you would be spenting your weekends and every free second on it, like Zuckerberg with Facebook. You aren’t.

So don’t ditch school without a serious gameplan or an idea you can run with and be obssessed with.

I personally would switch degrees to the university so option C - cause that start-up might fail and you are simply an employee, even then to move up the corporate ladder you’ll need a degree in the subject if you are to become CTO or something.

It’ll a depends on your end goal and gameplan for this life. Even if you don’t have one create one, then follow it, you CAN change it, you are allowed to. With a gameplan you have a destination for your boat at sea, have goals and a place you want to get to, like Christopher Columbus - he had a goal to a new route to India, he didn’t make it but along that course he found something much greater.

Thanks for your answer.

You're right, I have not been dead serious with my affiliate site. It was always more of a side project to be honest.

Yes I think option C is the route I will go with, although I have some uncertainties. The thing is I would study physics out of interest, I think the skill of boiling problems down to the essentials is very important - also the unique world view you get from it. I had physics for 2 years in my earlier education, and I was always highly interested and got good grades. (I know this will have no impact on university level physics, which is on a completely different level haha) I also had more practical subjects like technical mechanics, but I was alwas more interested in the foundation behind it - which is physics.

However I have no idea how subjects like theoretical physics or quantum theory would help me with my entrepreneurial/money making interest directly.

I would try to get as many CS as extracurriculars as possible in the bachelor, and maybe get a Masters in for example Data Science afterwards, which is much more job relevant.

This path will take another 5 years of schooling (in case I go for the masters too).

The business degree would take another 2 years, but I have no idea where I would do the Master in afterwards (could only do so in a business related subject, which I have no interest in), and as I mentioned already I will probably not learn much there. However, I could build websites /freelance in the part time, but I can do that after the physics degree too.

Not an easy decision.

 

[CCarter]

However I have no idea how subjects like theoretical physics or quantum theory would help me with my entrepreneurial/money making interest directly.

It won’t.

I don’t think you really want to be a business owner/entrepreneur. Going to school prepares you to be a worker/employee.

An entrepreneur would grasp at the potential opportunity to make millions off that affiliate site and run with it, there would be no doubt in their minds on how they want to live their life.

A worker will always be answering to someone else - a boss, a manager, other colleagues. At the core an entrepreneur values freedom, creativity, and/or full control. There is no safety net, they rely on their own wit, skills, and brain to make the world they want to. They understand failure WILL happen, and embrace it. They do shit they hate to get to a place they want to be in life. A lot of sacrifices is made, not just 2, 4, or 5 years in school, that’s a drop in the bucket in terms of time.

I’ve worked on projects for 4 years here another 4 years here, 5 here, 2 over here - all which ended up failing. But I ended up failing “upward”, if that makes sense. The projects put me in better positions than I was in before.

I wasn’t worried about time, I was willing to risk it because of a greater outcome. If you are this indecisive with what to study and aren’t already willing to taking a path of being an entrepreneur that you already are making money off of - that life simply might not be for you.

You have to be willing to risk it all over and over again, most people aren’t. That’s why only 1% of society even think about starting a business and even less attempt it.

School is Plan B for an entrepreneur, I don’t believe in Plan B.

 

[becool]

However I have no idea how subjects like theoretical physics or quantum theory would help me with my entrepreneurial/money making interest directly.

Virtually any type of formal education will teach you to think. Granted, there are those who are able to think who have not undergone formal education, but some semblance of a formal education will provide you with the framework necessary to learn to think. Education provides other opportunities, such as the ability to create and adhere to a work flow, as well as allows you to develop organizational skills by providing you with a regiment, among other things. From my vantage, the particular course of study you select isn't what's important (as long as it interests you or otherwise captures your attention enough to pursue it). It is not uncommon for a person who underwent a particular course of study to pursue an entirely unrelated career. Frankly, I obtained two degrees in order to pursue a particular career. I pursue that career and it provides me with a stable income. In addition to that career, I market a site that pertains to my career.

Lastly, I am a fan of maximizing my options, to the extent possible (i.e. as long as you're not spreading yourself too thin). In this case, if it were me, I'd pursue the affiliate site and the course of study that interests you.

 

[bernard]

Physics is always going to be a useful field going forward, one of very few fields, where you can safely say that you won't be unemployed.

In the modern economy, it really doesn't matter that much what your degree is in, except if it needs certification like doctor, lawyer etc.

I just want to say with absolute certainty that you should NOT study a field you dislike or hate. Don't do it. Been there, done that, hated it, worked out horribly. Go for what your passion is NOW, you're very young and can easily change career well into your mid, late twenties.

 

[psyvortex]

It won’t.

I don’t think you really want to be a business owner/entrepreneur. Going to school prepares you to be a worker/employee.

An entrepreneur would grasp at the potential opportunity to make millions off that affiliate site and run with it, there would be no doubt in their minds on how they want to live their life.

A worker will always be answering to someone else - a boss, a manager, other colleagues. At the core an entrepreneur values freedom, creativity, and/or full control. There is no safety net, they rely on their own wit, skills, and brain to make the world they want to. They understand failure WILL happen, and embrace it. They do shit they hate to get to a place they want to be in life. A lot of sacrifices is made, not just 2, 4, or 5 years in school, that’s a drop in the bucket in terms of time.

I’ve worked on projects for 4 years here another 4 years here, 5 here, 2 over here - all which ended up failing. But I ended up failing “upward”, if that makes sense. The projects put me in better positions than I was in before.

I wasn’t worried about time, I was willing to risk it because of a greater outcome. If you are this indecisive with what to study and aren’t already willing to taking a path of being an entrepreneur that you already are making money off of - that life simply might not be for you.

You have to be willing to risk it all over and over again, most people aren’t. That’s why only 1% of society even think about starting a business and even less attempt it.

School is Plan B for an entrepreneur, I don’t believe in Plan B.

I think it will make more sense to at least get a bachelors degree where I live, since there are basically no fees for college. I think I don't have enough skills / resources / ideas right now to start anything big, I think its better to do that later, and in case it doesn't work out, im better off with the degree as a backup.

Virtually any type of formal education will teach you to think. Granted, there are those who are able to think who have not undergone formal education, but some semblance of a formal education will provide you with the framework necessary to learn to think. Education provides other opportunities, such as the ability to create and adhere to a work flow, as well as allows you to develop organizational skills by providing you with a regiment, among other things. From my vantage, the particular course of study you select isn't what's important (as long as it interests you or otherwise captures your attention enough to pursue it). It is not uncommon for a person who underwent a particular course of study to pursue an entirely unrelated career. Frankly, I obtained two degrees in order to pursue a particular career. I pursue that career and it provides me with a stable income. In addition to that career, I market a site that pertains to my career.

Lastly, I am a fan of maximizing my options, to the extent possible (i.e. as long as you're not spreading yourself too thin). In this case, if it were me, I'd pursue the affiliate site and the course of study that interests you.

I would not say the content of my program is useless, but im just not interested in studying this stuff in this school environment. I think I will learn more on "how to think" in any STEM degree than in this business degree.

Physics is always going to be a useful field going forward, one of very few fields, where you can safely say that you won't be unemployed.

In the modern economy, it really doesn't matter that much what your degree is in, except if it needs certification like doctor, lawyer etc.

I just want to say with absolute certainty that you should NOT study a field you dislike or hate. Don't do it. Been there, done that, hated it, worked out horribly. Go for what your passion is NOW, you're very young and can easily change career well into your mid, late twenties.

Yeah, I think I will just burn out if I continue with studying business. It's not like I don't think about starting a business - but I don't see any value in studying it in a school environment.

 

[Ryuzaki]

I don't have time for a long reply but it's pretty obvious you aren't serious about physics. You like physics and it's an easy escape route from the business degree while still getting degree, but you're not serious about it. You're talking about doing physics while trying to get as many computer classes in as possible... Just take the computer science degree or whatever option there is. To me, it seems obvious that that's what you want to do, but are dodging it for some reason.

Otherwise, grow that affiliate site. It's a proven concept that's bringing steady income. You can do this regardless of your school program. Just take the $1000 a month and outsource content for it.

 

[MrMedia]

Option E:

Sell me the site and with some bankroll behind you have a think about what you REALLY want to do.

In my experience money in the bank helps clarify thinking.

 

[psyvortex]

I don't have time for a long reply but it's pretty obvious you aren't serious about physics. You like physics and it's an easy escape route from the business degree while still getting degree, but you're not serious about it. You're talking about doing physics while trying to get as many computer classes in as possible... Just take the computer science degree or whatever option there is. To me, it seems obvious that that's what you want to do, but are dodging it for some reason.

Otherwise, grow that affiliate site. It's a proven concept that's bringing steady income. You can do this regardless of your school program. Just take the $1000 a month and outsource content for it.

You might be right - I like physics - however I don't know yet how I would apply that knowledge. Computer Science seems like a good option (or more software engineering), however the degree program in my city has a bad reputation, so I would have to move.

I'm considering another option (F) now, which is working for 1 more year (or half a year), and then going somewhere else to study Software Engineering or CS.

Yes I was stupid in regards to the affiliate site - I was getting profits for months and months without reinvesting anything. The site dropped and now I'm working to increase its earnings again. Right now im investing 100% back in the site, which I should have done earlier.

Option E:

Sell me the site and with some bankroll behind you have a think about what you REALLY want to do.

In my experience money in the bank helps clarify thinking.

If I had a big bankroll behind I would probably study physics.

 

[psyvortex]

Just found out about option G which is a online part-time Software Engineering BSC degree which I could combine with working for myself/freelancing etc.. Seems like a good idea at first. However the degree is from the same school im in right now. The good thing about the degree would be that I could decide to do a Masters in Software Engineering at another University too, if that's what I want to do after the bachelors.

 

[psyvortex]

Any opinions on studying software engineering in a online degree? Advantage would be that there are only 4 hours per week online lectures, the rest of my time could be spent working/freelancing/learning on my own, while still earning a BSC.

Downside is that its not a real university (although its a accredited higher "school"), and there are no courses which I can pick from, its all fixed.

 

[kyescontent]

I'll throw in another perspective here by sharing an article I read recently.

CCarter has painted a great portrait of an opportunity entrepreneur.

But there are also necessity entrepreneurs, who come to their work with a completely different mindset and situation. They get less press because their stories are not as "sexy" as those of opportunity entrepreneurs. But they are just as dedicated and passionate--just in a way which values the instrumental dimension of their work more than an intrinsic love of risk or new pathways.

Right now you seem like you have a lot of options, which is a good thing. But I can tell you that if your options ever start to run out, you will discover quickly how to get "serious" about something if it offers you the means to live well and perform meaningful work--even if it isn't something you initially thought you would be passionate about.

I think it's important for you to find something you can dedicate yourself to. Just remember that the shape that takes for you will be unique to your situation and personality. Maybe you will be better off as an employee, or maybe you really will do better on your own. Ultimately you just need to find the most efficient pathway to your financial and personal goals.