Your Degree Is Worthless; Collaborate.

I’ve always been a self-motivated learner as well as a free thinker. I was never one to get involved in cliques or social ladders. Despite the fact that I was raised being constantly told that grades were the single most important thing in my life, I could never accept that. So I didn’t. I just did enough to get by. I didn’t pay attention much in class. I had no reason to. Class was beyond boring. So I’d spend all hours of the night hacking away on my computer, soaking in all I could, and most of the school day sleeping during class when I could get away with it. When there was a test, I’d try my hardest to stay awake, answer the questions as best I could – typically earning a low C in my Honors/AP Classes, and a low B in my ā€œOrdinaryā€ Classes. I found a good balance. Why would I study for 30 hours a week to get better grades when I could get by with 0 hours?

So, I graduated. And I did the next logical thing: I went to college. Ahh, college. The most important decision you could ever make in your life. The time to ā€œmake it or break itā€. Where every young man goes to be become a man. So I went. While high-school never engaged me, I assumed that courses about career-relevant subjects would interest me in a university setting. I was wrong. I was very, very wrong.

## College Life

I studied Plato, Homer, and Socrates, Turing Machines, and Single-State-Automata. I analyzed the progression of American Popular Music from the 1920s to today. I learned how to draw, play the marimba properly, and splatter paint on walls. I attempted jujitsu. Wonderful life experience. But what does any of this have to do with setting the foundation of a career? Nothing. At all. Of course, the higher up you go, the more relevant the courses get to your chosen major. But I didn’t want to wait. Especially when I was paying $20,000 a year for this. It was mostly useless information. The average college education in America costs 9 cents a minute. Every minute. Every day. A complete waste. And I was working 35 hours a week as a graphics design intern, working at odd hours of the night, attempting to pay for all of this. It was impossible, and I was unengaged.

## The Plunge

So, after totally losing interest in class or anything related to it, I gave up and dropped out. I didn’t want to get further in debt. So I moved back home, defeated, and tried my hardest to get my life back in order. I got my high-school job back at McDonald’s. I worked harder than I ever have in my life. I didn’t have anything else better to do, so I worked as much as I could all the time. I worked one 65 hour week - but that got old really fast. I was again, unengaged.

Then, one day, I quit McDonanld’s without notice. Not best practice of course, but I didn’t want to spend any more time there. It’s strange what a terrible work environment it is. After a few short weeks, you begin to think there isn’t anything outside those walls. It was clear that it wasn’t getting me anywhere, so I set out with my laptop to try to find something better.

## How It All Turned Around

I spent alot of time on some freelance websites, where you bid for odd jobs, usually settling for some ridiculously low amount of money here and there. That didn’t last long. I remembered coming across a guy on Twitter from my hometown, Winchester, Virginia, who was quite into the internet and technology. That’s pretty rare in these parts, so I looked him up. What I found was a local cowork center. I went and checked out the cowork, and what I found blew my mind.

In this little building off the historic old-town walking mall was a room. Inside: the COO of a major internet company, tech consultants, graphic designers, writers, author, bloggers, freelancers, and so much more. I met everyone in and around town. I sat in on think tank lunches. People cared about what I had to say. We collaborated.

## Collaboration is Everything.

For the first time in my life, I was meeting interesting people with awesome experience, willing to share and collaborate what they have learned with me. And I did the same. I soaked in endless amounts of information. One simple room full of a few people turned on some switch in me that the education system had failed to do year after year after year: teach me something.

I was finally engaged. Fully engaged.

As soon as I realized that, my entire life changed. I started thriving on my own, getting dozens of clients. Suddenly, I had a life with significantly less stress and worry. No tuition fees! I realized how valuable my skills were and how I didn’t have to be part of the institution if I didn’t want to be. I rose above. I am now a Web Applications Developer at a respectful technology firm. No degree. No debt. Only an open mind. I gain more knowledge and experience in a single workday than I did during my entire college career. I’m in the real world. And I’m loving every minute of it.

## In Conclusion

Looking back, I’m comfortable saying that dropping out of college has been the best decision I’ve ever made. If I would have gone through the entire education program, what would I have to show for it? $150,000 in debt, a piece of paper, and four years less of your life. No real experience. No connections. Just a piece of paper. And nothing more.

Please bear these things in mind before you decide to spend $150,000 on a bachelor’s degree in a field you’re not so certain about. Personally, I’d rather spend that money on something that will actually benefit me: like a house.