When I was in high school, I thought I was stuck.
I thought that that was all I could do.
In freshman year and sophomore year, I was thinking to myself,
I got to do this for two more years, three more years.
And then I also have college.
But one thing I wish that I knew earlier was
that you can actually organize your schedule in such a way
to where you can graduate early,
but you can also not go to college.
Now, there are lots of different caveats because in high school,
you're most likely to be financially dependent on somebody.
So that means is you basically are relying on your parents
or someone else to actually help you survive,
like actually provide for you.
So that is a little tricky when it comes to not going
to high school anymore if they want you to.
So when you are in high school and you don't like it,
you just got to push through and it is tempting to drop out.
Like I genuinely want it to drop out.
But the thing is that you got to play smart.
I'm very grateful that I played smart
because if I dropped out, I probably would not be
where I'm at right now.
I would probably be, I don't know where I'd be.
But there's this framework that I basically followed along the way
to actually make it through high school.
And actually, right now, I should be in class.
Well, it's 6.44 in the morning.
But today, I should be going to school.
But I'm not.
Why?
Because I graduated early.
So what that means is I basically finished all of my credits,
all my required credits, and I told my counselor,
I'm graduating.
I asked my counselor if I could graduate early.
And that just means that I can not
go to the last semester of school.
There's a process I followed.
I wasn't really aware of it at the time.
But one huge advantage that I had was self-improvement.
I showed that I was different from other people.
And I was willing to do different things.
And I was willing to do the work on my own time.
Most people, they go to school.
And then they put the work in at school.
And then once they get home, they just watch TV.
And I was like that in middle school.
And even at the beginning of high school, I was like that.
I put in the work at school, got like A's and B's.
And then at home, I just lounged.
I wasted all my free time.
And I wasn't showing that I could actually put into work.
I wasn't showing that I could put in the work for myself.
So that's huge.
If you want to escape high school,
you basically have to go through and start
working for yourself.
Self-improvement taught me how to do that.
I started lifting weights for myself.
That's something that school doesn't tell you to do.
And then I started being healthier, exercising more.
And then eventually, I started reading books.
And that was a huge game changer.
Because I proved that I am willing to and I actually
enjoy and prefer to put in the work at home
during my leisure time.
Instead of lounging around, watching Netflix,
wasting the day, I'm actually reading books
to make my future better.
So those actionable things that I was doing every day,
I wasn't saying it.
I was showing that I am literally just putting in the work
on my own so then eventually I can actually
make it on my own and not have to rely on the school system
and the college system to get a degree
and get a normal job.
So self-improvement and then reading books,
then there's another thing.
I was scared to even say that I didn't want to go to college.
And then also, I was scared to even say that.
I was a little nervous to even graduate early.
When I had to go into the counselor's office,
it was a little nerve-wracking.
But I was very well prepared.
Why?
Because what I did just weeks before
was comfort zone challenges.
Literally just cold-approached girls in the mall.
And then I cold-approached.
Originally, I cold-called businesses, local businesses,
and then I cold-approached local businesses.
So I literally just walked in and asked them
if I could help them.
And then eventually, I got my comfort zone
expanded a little bit more so then I cold-approached girls.
And this helped tremendously because the things
that I had to go through to get the early graduation was crazy
because I had to go to the counselor's office
and she didn't want to help me.
So I had to go to a different counselor.
He didn't want to help me.
So I had to go to their boss.
She didn't want to help me.
But then I persuaded her somehow and then, boom,
graduate early.
So there's some steps that you can take.
First, make sure you're getting all your required classes in.
Your required classes are essential to graduate.
And you want to get out there as soon as possible, right?
So it makes sense.
Get all your required classes done.
If you're taking any classes that are not required,
drop them right now because they're not going to help you.
They're just wasting time.
Every single, I don't know if this stat is true,
but over summer, I heard someone say to me
that every single period you spend at school for a semester
is 250 hours of your life over the course of the semester.
250 hours.
So I have a background in video games.
So I understand how good someone would
be at a specific video game depending on how much hours they
get.
10 hours, they're bad.
50 hours, they're all right.
100 hours, they're pretty good.
And then 250 hours, you're pretty good.
So and then I also read books.
So I know how to kind of, I'm familiar with how long it
may take to read a book.
10 hours, 5 hours, 15 hours.
You can read 10 books instead of that,
instead of go to one class period.
So that means every single period you save yourself
from going to is 250 hours saved in your life.
And then if you save an entire semester,
I don't remember the actual math,
but it's something like a couple thousand, like 2,000
or something like that.
Like eight periods in a day, 250 each.
That's 1,000.
That's like 4,000 hours.
Each semester you save is 4,000 hours.
So I save 4,000 hours.
Plus my first semester of senior year,
I only had like four classes.
So I probably saved like 6,000 hours or something like that.
6,000 hours.
Put that into perspective for a moment.
There is a common belief that you need 10,000 hours
to become an expert at something.
Now, whether or not that's true, it's debatable.
There's varying beliefs on that.
But just think about that.
If you are an expert, that means you're like the top person
in your field.
Most people are not experts the moment they leave college.
And that's college.
That's four extra years of your life.
So that's literally like 30,000 hours more.
I don't know.
So if you just drop one semester like I did,
that's 4,000 hours.
You're basically halfway to expert status.
Oh my goodness.
That's crazy.
So take that into account.
Actual steps.
Drop all of your non-required classes.
And then only take required classes and have a full schedule.
So if you're a freshman year, full schedule.
And me personally, if I went back in time,
I would do summer school.
Because the time, like the return on investment
is way quicker.
Because summer school is only a few months.
And you can get an entire semester done.
Whereas a normal class, like a normal semester,
is like way more months, like three or four months.
So the return on investment of time for reward in summer
school is way better.
I would, like me personally, if I was restarting,
I was in eighth grade right now, I
would schedule my high school career
to literally get an entire schedule of required classes.
And then I would have summer school.
So I would do summer school going into high school
and every single year until I get to graduate.
And if you follow that, you'll probably
be able to graduate like junior years, maybe sophomore year.
I don't know.
So, man.
But there is one caveat.
Parents may not like that.
Because in my experience with where I grew up,
or where I am, like where I'm growing up,
is normal society does not like it when you stray off
the well-beaten path.
So the well-beaten path is go to high school, go to college,
get a crappy job, work a crappy job for the rest of your life,
and you have a miserable existence.
That's the well-trotted path.
But if you try and stray off and leave during high school,
well, people shun that.
They don't like that.
Because it kind of makes them nervous.
But what you got to do is prove yourself.
Self-improvement was my greatest asset
for getting the leverage or the influence that I needed
in order to build the life that I wanted,
like actually graduate early and not go to college.
Because if you're taking the normal path,
you're probably like a normal person.
And normal people don't really work on themselves
outside of the main career.
They work hard on school.
But then at home, they're just like kind of wasting
a lot of the day.
But if you can show that you are working hard during school
and you're working on yourself, then you'll actually
build it, like steer off course, and build the life
that you actually want.