A letter to my college dropout self
An awesome Quora-inspired prompt that I answered 7 years after dropping out of college
This is part 4 of 4 of a series called “Starting From Scratch.”
Next week we’ll begin a new 4-part series called “Sharpening the Blade.”
Dear Brandon,
For you, it's January 2010. I know you hate it when people say this, but you’re freakin young.
But.
You were right.
Prestige isn’t everything.
Living for your parent’s dreams isn’t worth it. Finding your own is so much better.
People matter, and you intuitively know this. Good people who have your back and will go to war with you, will get you exponentially further than any solo run.
You’re going to have some dark times. Doing charity work is not exactly lucrative, but it’s not like that’s the reason you’re diving into it, so you’ll be fine, but it’ll have its challenges.
You’ll soon realize that the more you know, the more you’ll know how much you don’t know.
There will be some older and wiser people coming along to give you some friendly advice. Don’t be all cocky, they’ve got some good things to say. Don’t write them off, but don’t take it blindly either.
Your love of learning and love for sharing is going to carry you very far, you should double down on this.
Oh, there’s this thing called “philanthropy,” and I know you think only rich people can give their money away, but turns out, lots of people work for foundations and help people who already have money, give it away. I wonder what might happen if you explore this sooner?
You won’t be paying much attention to women in the next few years — don’t worry, you won't even realize it until after the fact and spoiler alert, you won’t have missed much, there’s plenty of time for that.
Mom, as you already know, doesn’t approve of your decision. But it’s ok, she still doesn’t. But she will still love you and support you and constantly ask if you’re eating well and sleeping well.
Church conditioned you to be pretty judgmental of people. I hope you can pick this up sooner than I did, but there is so much to learn from people who are different than you and believe different things. Stay humble, stay curious. You’ll miss some of the best friendships just under your nose if you don’t get this.
Right now, the idea of getting good at learning is just a small sprout, nurture the hell out of this. Make sure this grows into a towering, strong oak. This will future proof you. I know you love that quote by Alvin Toffler, and I’m telling you, it’s spot on.
“The illiterate of the twenty-first century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.”
Now, I know for sure you’re not going to believe this, but you know how you got B’s and C’s in English in high school? You’ll eventually learn to love writing. I’m not going to tell you how, but school just taught it wrong. School taught you to dread and despise it, but you’ll see pretty soon how awesome it is. Actually, if you’re reading this, it’s a testament of that.
This answer was originally published on Quora and had over 300 views.
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