Why I Dropped Out of College
I’m a failure according to most people
Steps to a successful life
- Go to college.
- Graduate with a degree.
- Live happily ever after as you slave away in the rat race till retirement.
From a very young age that’s what most of us are taught to be the steps to living a successful life. Everything in our life is planned out by our teachers and parents to achieve those goals from the time we take our first steps into a school.
Any determent from that course would inevitably result in you becoming a failure and waste to society.
I grew up in a Southeast Asian household- and if you know anything about Asians then you are well aware of the extreme emphasis placed in going to a university and getting your degree.
In fact you only had three options in life- to become a doctor, a lawyer, or a failure.
I hated it.
I hated that everyone believed there was only one path to success and that was through college solely because that is the life they grew up in.
The world we live in today is not like the one’s of our parents.
We have access to so many other possibilities and there are thousands if not millions of people across the globe taking advantage of it and finding their own successes.
So out of stubbornness and as a big fuck you to society- I dropped out.
Dropping out wasn’t an immediate decision.
In fact there was a time where I did believe higher education was the way.
I enrolled and busted my ass through my biomedical engineering courses for 2 years; getting on the Dean’s List and maintaining an above 3.0 average.
But somewhere in those 2 years, my eyes opened up to the realities of life and myself.
I started hearing things and reading about this new wave of marketing emerging- Social Media Marketing.
Social Media is something our generation is glued to. We know all the ins and outs of it but most of us didn’t fully utilize how powerful of a tool it really is.
The internet and social media has been able to build businesses from the ground up, it’s made people famous and helped launched their careers, it’s reshaped political elections, and even aided in taking down whole government regimes.
But all we focused on were memes or our own social image.
In those 2 years of schooling instead of studying to become an engineer, I learning everything I could about digital marketing.
I dove into the rabbit hole and had no intention of climbing back out until I learned it all.
From Youtube videos to courses, leading thought leaders in the field and mentors; I studied them all more than any of my textbooks.
I learned about Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, Facebook Ads, Funnel Hacking, copywriting.
And to test how well I understood any of it, I built my own websites and e-commerce stores, applying everything I learned and knew.
The result?
My first couple stores were failures. They made sales but were never profitable (I honestly had no idea what I was doing and just tried everything).
But in an experimental view, I thought of them as massive successes.
I was actually able to sell online!
I learned how to sell to the entire world.
I kept practicing and learning- applying my knowledge to different blogs and other ecom sites and through years of practicing- I got better.
A lot better.
I reached a point where I was comfortable enough to reach out to local businesses and offer them my services and be paid for it. Most business owners didn’t know much if anything when it came to digital marketing- many saw the potential but few ever gave it a try.
From local restaurants to gyms and many more in between- I helped them all build little campaigns to provide their business with more growth.
This eye opening journey resulted in me dropping out.
I learned of the other possibilities that exist in the world and chased after a success society never taught me about.
There was a lot of struggle and nights spent with regret and fear for the future.
Everyone I knew told me how stupid of a decision it was and there days when I believed them.
I was adamant of proving them all wrong.
My stubbornness led me to becoming a freelance digital marketer- living a life full of freedom where I’m not tied down to a desk. My time is worth whatever I want it to be rather than what someone determines it to be.
I still haven’t become wildly successful- living in a mansion and driving nice sports cars but I am on the path of attaining my own success, on my own terms.
I’m a college dropout and I don’t regret it one bit.
Thanks for reading! By no way am I encouraging anyone reading this to dropout of school; I do understand the importance of it- going to a university or college provides you with a lot of learning experiences you won’t find anywhere else, helping you further your progress in life.
Clap it up for me and let me know what your thoughts are on dropping out in the comments.
To learn more about digital marketing or just to read more raw and very real moments from my life- hit that follow button!
