summatix

Why drop out?

Many people ask me why I chose to drop out of university. The question comes up time and time again. It gets a little tiresome answering all of the time, and many people still don’t understand.

So why did I choose to drop out? Why didn’t I just stick it out and finish my degree? Why not go back and complete it now? After all, I only have one semester left to finish. Surely education is important to me?

I think a better question is, why would I actually complete my degree? I’ve contemplated this a lot. I can’t come up with a single reason of why to go back to university and complete my degree. It’s actually advantageous that I didn’t complete it and receive that piece of paper.

And really, that’s all graduating entails: a piece of paper. The piece of paper doesn’t actually say much. It says nothing, really. Just that you did something for some specified period of time. Well, that’s helpful.

What baffles people the most, I think, is the fact that I did so well in university, and yet still dropped out. Usually people pair dropouts with the unintelligent fools who are actually incapable of completing a degree. I on the other hand accelerated my course twice, and dropped out of my advanced honours degree that I was accepted into. I also declined an exclusive scholarship opportunity to continue study at PhD level. I was the top of the top, but I didn’t care. I threw it all away – the bachelors, the honours, the PhD. Screw that crap!

A piece of paper saying I completed university is absolutely worthless to me. It may be valuable to people in different professions, but to me, it’s worthless. I get job offers on a regular basis. I was turning down six figure salaries before I was even close to finishing my degree.

It was never my intention in the first place to go to university to get a degree. This seems odd to most, but I actually went to university to learn. When I started I assumed everyone went to university to learn, but I quickly discovered that this wasn’t the case. Almost everybody (i.e. everybody except me) goes to university to get a piece of paper saying that they went to university. This seems absolutely bizarre to me. I just went to learn.

It’s always been my goal to run my own company. Even before I was a teenager I was dreaming of running my own company. The reason I went to university wasn’t because I thought I needed a piece of paper so I could go and run my company, but because I thought I wasn’t ready, wasn’t educated enough and wasn’t mature enough to start my own company. I went to university to learn and wait until I was mature – to wait until I was ready.

When the time came that I was ready, I saw no need to continue university. I knew I was ready at the end of my second year. But I stayed enrolled, because that’s what everyone else was doing. I applied for accelerated honours at the beginning of my third year, and got accepted due to my high GPA. I was excited about the possibility of completing a PhD. Being called a doctor would be pretty cool. Everybody encouraged me to continue.

I was unsatisfied though. I didn’t want to complete my degree. There was no need to. I had everything I needed. I had already been working on startups while studying. By the start of my third year I was already well into development of the startup I wanted to pursue.

But people kept telling me, “You only have one more year left – don’t give up now! Just a little bit longer and then you’ll be finished.” I was naïve. So I listened. Big mistake.

The only thing I regret now is not dropping out of university sooner. I should have dropped out second year, but instead I listened to the incorrect opinions of others. Everybody was unsupportive of me wanting to drop out. My mum had told me bluntly that she would completely stop supporting me if I didn’t complete my degree.

So what did I do? I wanted to keep everyone happy. So I just pretended that I was still doing university. I was enrolled, but wasn’t attending classes, doing assignments or attending exams. I was failing all my units. I just didn’t care. I was working on my startup instead, and using the university’s resources to my advantage.

My mum didn’t actually find out that I dropped out until after I was supposed to graduate. Heck, I’m pretty sure half my family still thinks I’m studying. Sure, I spend the majority of my time at one university or another, but I’m not actually participating in any educational course. I still have a desire to attend lectures and learn. I have no desire to receive credit, do assignments or do exams. I have real work to do.

Being a dropout gives me more opportunities. I don’t have a piece of paper that tells me what I can and can’t do. I can work with those who have never gone past high school and we can be on the same level. Titles are meaningless to me. I don’t care whether or not someone has a bachelors, a masters, a PhD, or has never even attempted university. What I care about is what an individual is capable of.

I’ve already proven what I’m capable of. I can go to any university I want to and complete a PhD. I can work for any company in the world. A piece of paper says what I can and can’t do, but I can do anything – there are no restrictions. A degree is a restriction.

There is no disadvantage of me being a dropout. There are only advantages. So the question isn’t, why did I drop out, but why did I not drop out sooner?

At first people thought I was crazy. Then people realised I was crazy, and just accepted it. People also realised that I’m going to do whatever I want to do regardless of what stands in my way.

People also continue to ask me whether I’ll go back to university in the future. This is completely absurd to me. Why would I ever want to go back? There’s no benefit from me going back to university to study. I’m capable of doing whatever I put my mind to.

I cringe when I see people so focused on their schoolwork. I feel like vigorously shaking them and telling them to relax – there are more important things in life than school! It’s painful to watch people put so much effort into homework, assignments and studying for exams. You go to school to become educated, mature, make friends and have fun. Most people don’t seem to realise this however. If all you’re doing is homework, assignments and studying, then something is very wrong with your priorities.

Personally, I’d like to see more people drop out of university. I encourage it if it’s the right choice for you. I don’t judge an individual based on what pieces of paper they have. As an employer, I care about what people are capable of accomplishing, not whether or not they can conform to educational institution standards to complete an irrelevant course only partially applicable to the real world.

There is more reasoning behind my decision to drop out. It was a long and difficult decision to make. But essentially, what it comes down to is I just didn’t want to finish it, so I didn’t finish it. Simple as that.