"Do Entrepreneurs Even Need College Anymore? Real Insight on Success".

He dropped out of high school. Got kicked out for disciplinary problems. Left home at 14. Then went back, got a certificate, an AA, a bachelor's in marketing from Flagler College, and a master's from Florida State University — graduating with a 3.9 GPA.

In this solo episode of the Un-Traditional Entrepreneur Podcast, host Juming Delmas gets completely personal about his own winding path through education and entrepreneurship, then breaks down the real question every aspiring business owner is asking: do entrepreneurs actually need college?

Using case studies from Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, and Jeff Bezos — one dropout, one who never attended, one who graduated — Juming makes the case that entrepreneurial success has never been about the credential. It's always been about mindset, execution, discipline, and risk.

Topics covered:
- Juming's full education story: from getting kicked out of high school to a 3.9 GPA at FSU
- Why college helped his business — and why it might not help yours
- Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos: three paths, one lesson
- The real cost of college vs. investing $50K directly into a business
- Why college is oversaturated — and what a degree actually signals today
- When college helps entrepreneurs and when it slows them down
- How to build business experience starting at 8, 13, or 30 years old
- Why experience always outweighs a degree in the business world
- Should you go to college, start a business, or work and learn skills first?

No agenda. No gatekeeping. Just the honest answer from someone who did it every possible way.

The Un-Traditional Entrepreneur Podcast with Juming Delmas. Real talk. No filter.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Yo, yo, yo, what's up everybody? It's your host, Jameen Delmus. I am the untraditional entrepreneur. In today's episode, you know, we is going to be discussing about, you know, is college really the best path for entrepreneurs. Not gonna lie, man, when you think about entrepreneurship for decades, right? Society has told us the formula was fucking simple. All you have to do is take your ass to school. After school, you go to college, and then bam, you get a job. That sounds simple. Shit sounds extremely simple. But entrepreneurs oftentimes typically take a different approach, right? In this episode of the Untraditional Entrepreneur, we're gonna explore whether college is still worth it for people who want to start a business, create opportunities, or just create financial freedom. You know, we want to discuss, you know, the real value of college for entrepreneurs, skills colleges teach that business owners may need, you know, the cost of student debt versus just investing that money into a business. Successful entrepreneurs who skipped college, dropped out of college, or actually completed college. And then we're also going to be discussing about when education helps and when it slows down, right? College may open doors, but entrepreneurship often requires y'all to do shit on your own, right? So the real question becomes: is college preparation or is it a distraction? Welcome to the other side of motivation. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, man. What up, what up, what up? I'm happy to be here. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited for you guys who are listening in, tuning in to the show today. I don't know, man. I think this is a good fucking topic. Real talk, I think that, you know, when we talk college and entrepreneurship, you're like, what does the hell does that look like? You know, I'll say, you know, I'll start off, I'll, you know, come out and say, you know, I did go to college. I did go. I went. Don't get me wrong, I didn't plan on going to college. Like it was, I mean, when I was in high school, I it was a thought, right? It wasn't like, it wasn't like, yeah, I'm definitely gonna go. You know, I'll it was a thought of going because everybody talked about it in high school. You just felt like that was like the norm to do. But you guys know my upbringing was a little rough. That shit was rocky. You know, the traditional route was definitely not in my favor. Um, but I definitely thought about going. More importantly, like, it made me think like for me, when I when I grew up, you know, we everybody have these aspirations and dreams, right? I knew that, you know, my life was a little bit different. I knew I was smart. I I didn't do well in high school at all. You know what I'm saying? Like, I fucked that shit up. I was making D's and F's. But also, to be fair, man, I left at 14. So, you know, what was more important for me was survival, not necessarily school. You know, I because I always I always had in the back of my mind I can go back to school whenever. You know, and I'll just be honest, like, when I when I dropped out of high school, to be fair, I didn't really even drop out. I always wanted to start, I I'm the type of person I always start shit, start that shit that I finished, right? I got kicked out of high school, right? I ain't gonna never forget my guidance talent counselor told me that you got too many referrals, too many disciplinary problems, and you know, we're gonna have to kick you out. I mean, I didn't have the grades, I didn't have the test scores, I didn't have shit. And they said you don't have to kick you out, you know. So she let me go. But I knew that I I always knew that school was something I needed to do. I always felt like it was something I needed to do. And I always felt like if I didn't do it, I wasn't fully complete. Not saying that that way of thinking was fucking true. It's just the way I thought about the shit. I just knew I had to do it. And I knew later on I was gonna do it, even if I didn't do it right then and there. So I went to job corps, got a certificate. It didn't still feel quite complete. So I went to uh community state college, got an AA, still didn't feel quite complete. Um, the only reason I even went to college, real tall, was because I was dating this girl, right? And we was dating, and you know, we had roles in the crib, you know, I fixed the crib, do shit, do the yard, whatever the case is, go to work. Um, she, you know, came to the house, cooked to go to work, right? She would always complain about shit, about like making it seem like the reason why I can get so much shit done was because I didn't have to go to school and she had to go to school, right? So that was just like a heavy topic of conversation. It was always an argument because it was always like the reason why you can be so successful and you can thrive is because you don't have to go to school. I have to go to school, go to work and do the house. You just gotta go to work and do the house. I'm like, for me, that fucking challenged me. I'm gonna be honest. Like it was one of the things that was like, hey, like, you make it seem like this school shit is hard. You know what I'm saying? Like, I can come in here and do this, I'll do what I'm doing and go to school and make good grades because at the time she wasn't making like good grades either. So you know, it wasn't like this girl was a 3.0 student. She didn't graduate with 3.0, but at the end of the day, you know, it's like, why you coming at me about making it seem like, you know, school is your biggest distraction, and then you got work and then you got the chores, so I can't talk. It's one thing if you bringing home 4.0's and shit, and you bring home all hey, motherfucker, you ain't bringing it, man. What the fuck is this shit? What the hell? What the hell are we talking about here? Like, fuck no, no. Like, um, and I used to argue that shit. I'm like, yo, first of all, it ain't like you around here bringing A's and B's and shit. God damn it, you you scraping the bre with the bottom of the barrel here. Anyways, that challenged me, man. So I'm like, so you telling me if I go to school, I'm gonna probably have the same problems you got. Like, I'm gonna go to school, I ain't gonna do the same shit. I'm like, I'm gonna come in here and fuck up. Like, yeah, it's a lot of work, because now you gotta work, then you gotta school, you're gonna I back. So fuck it. You know, I didn't go immediately. Um, something had to kind of like some things had to work in the position, and I had happened to be at the college at that time, and I was like, ooh, I'm at the college. Let me let me enroll now. And it was one of them things I had to prove that shit. And so I I enrolled, right? I enrolled. When I enrolled, went to Flagler, I enrolled into Flagler, right? Flagler College. And ain't gonna lie, man. When I got in there, I mean, when I graduated, I graduated top of my class. I graduated with a 3.8 GPA, right? What was that? Magnum cum lati, whatever the fuck it was. So I graduated with that. Just to show. And I was still working, I didn't stop working. I was still working, I was still doing shit around the house, and I was still, and I still graduated with a 3.8. And then I remember she was like, well, the reason you did that was because, like, I mean, that's flagger. I mean, I go to a university, this, I go to a major university, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, I goddamn. I got my bachelor's, I got a 3.8 manual from a college, and now you damn, it's still some old shit. All right, back. So I said, fuck it. I'll go to FSU, Florida State University, and go for my master's. I wasn't gonna do double bachelor's. I just think that shit was dumb. I went for, I got my bachelor's in marketing at Flagler. I went to FSU and went for communication media study. Basically, it's the same shit. Just in a bigger, much level, more level bands of marketing. So I went to Florida State University. I well, I applied, I got accepted, whatever the case is, and then I, you know, then it was on. Listen, I'm the type of nigga, I gotta prove shit. Don't tell me nothing. Like, I went to college, graduated from college, graduated at the top of my class, still took care of the bills, still took care of the household, still went to work. You know what I'm saying? And then now you trying to make it seem like it's because I ain't go to no major university. Fuck it. I went to a major university. And then when I graduated from Florida State University, I graduated with a higher GPA than I graduated with Flagler. I graduated with a 3.9. And you if anybody don't know shit about Florida State, Florida State's a PWI, right? So black people be going there. We always feeling like them white teachers be coming out there. Like, it's usually when I go to when you go to that college, it's usually like one black person in the classroom against like 30 white students. So the odds, you know, so it's really difficult. Um, you got more to prove. So I did, I'm not gonna lie, Florida State. I fought a lot as far as like fighting for my grade and shit. So fuck it. Did that shit, proved that shit wrong. You know, she ain't said nothing. Anyway, we ain't together, but still, she ain't said shit about that. Because at the end of the day, for me, I went to college not because, you know, I necessarily wanted to go. I went because, you know, I need, you know, I wanted to prove a point. But I ain't gonna lie, you know, I learned some things through college that if I didn't go to college, I I don't know if I would have fully learned it or I probably would have taken some time for me to gather it. For me, like when I went to college, a couple things I learned. Biggest thing was discipline. Like, I was already a disciplined person, so when I say I'm gonna do something, I'm gonna do it. But I don't give a fuck. Like, I don't know if college made me smarter or whatever the case is. I know that it disciplined the shit out of me for real. Like the homework assignments, the classwork assignments, getting shit done on time, getting shit in, blah, blah, blah, blah. I was the type of person, when I was in college, I got shit, I was doing assignments that was three months, that was three months ahead. Cause like I was just trying to get shit done. The teacher would say, hey, just read pages 16 through 24. Fuck that. I read the whole chapter. Like, I read the whole chapter. I don't like reading in between chapters what you think is going to be beneficial for you to learn about when you learn. I needed to read the whole chapter to understand the shit. Um, so it so that was another thing. Like, I hated reading before I went to college. Like when I went to college, you know, college forced me to read, hated to read, hated that shit. You know, now I read. But see, the thing about college reading is like you're reading to, you know, test your knowledge on something that you're learning in that subject. I like reading now because now I'm not reading, you know, college books. I'm reading like self-help books or entertaining books, books that are that are more entertaining than college books. And that's any fucking book. So for me, it taught me reading, it taught me that. College also taught, you know, taught me. I I ain't gonna lie, I still didn't do well in fucking college when it came to collaboration. Students would get on my motherfucking nerves. I ain't gonna even hold you. When we give group projects, I'm like, oh my fucking God. I I hated group projects. Why? Because there's always a lazy motherfucker. There's always a lazy motherfucker in them group projects where you're gonna end up having to do the work of the lazy motherfucker. And but you know what the professors do? You still gotta work with them. Even if they don't do it, you just still have to work. Like, what the fuck are you talking about? Literally, I had somebody on a group project that didn't do shit, did all the work, did all the work. We did all the work. It was a group of like six of us. This motherfucker ain't do shit. Always made excuses as to why his ass could not do the work. I'm like, bro. Yeah, he was black. I'm like, man, fuck this shit. Like, I ain't I ain't I ain't about to sit here and nah. So, anyways, people ain't like me in the groups because they knew that I'm like, I'm the type of person I ain't about to sit here and argue with you. Fuck it, I'll do it myself. I ain't about to argue with you, I'll do it myself. And that's what I did. And you know, it was so crazy because during college for my bachelor's and masters, shit, I was always the leader of the group, always. I've never not been in, and it wasn't because I chose that. Everybody always was like, Well, let you mean be the leader. Jamie, I'm like, no, no, no. And I and I would genuinely be like, nah. And the reason why people would say that is because I ask a lot of questions when I was in college. I asked all the right questions in college. I even got to a point where students would come up to me and be like, man, I love when you're in a class because it's like you ask all the right questions that some people just be scared to ask. So for me, I already like had leader style qualities that people naturally just wanted me to be the leader of groups always. Every time, like there were like I kid you not, anytime I went to college, and there was like this professor, like, you gotta pick a leader of the group who holds people accountable. I was always voted to be the leader of every group. Always. And I didn't like that shit because with the leader of the group, you gotta hold people accountable. But if people don't get the job done, you being the leader, you gotta figure out what you gotta do to make sure the group gets what they need. So for me, that's what started teaching me entrepreneurship and leadership because I had already started acclimating myself with being a leader, uh leading groups and things like that. Fuck shit. My business started in college. It was started as eight of the stars. We had to do a marketing project at Flagler during my marketing uh course. We had to create a fictional business, right? That was not real, and and we had to come up with a marketing plan for the business. And I ended up creating that business, I ended up creating that business, a project, and I really turned it into a fucking business. Now here we are, Jeremy Double Studios. The original was called A-list Stars, because that's what the name of college was. So you if you look me up, you might see things with A-list stars. That's where it derived from. Um, anyways, that's so that's what college taught me. It college was the reason I started my business. I didn't start my business because I was tired of fucking work and people was pissing me off. I started my business because I felt like I had a good idea about a company. And when I was investing all this time, I realized when I was working on this project, this business project, that I spent a lot of time on it. I spent a lot of time on this project. And I spent more time on this project than any other projects we had in college. So I was like, damn, I really enjoy problem solving for this business. I really enjoy spending all this time on this business. Now here I am. I still feel like it still feels like a college project to me, to be fair with you. I'm still figuring shit out as I go as an entrepreneur. And I think the love of problem solving for entrepreneurship is the reason why I started the company. Because I enjoyed that shit. That shit was hard. I was like, all right, that. And I and I walked away with like a 97% on that assignment. Like I killed that shit. And now I'm in the business, right? So college taught me that. So when I be, when people be like, you know, is college for me, do you need to go to college? Like, I don't think, I think like what people fucking up is at is that like it's like when they say it's do I need to go to college, I think what they really asking is, do I need to go to college to get a job? Do I really need to go to college to be successful? And I want to say no to all of the above. Now, don't get me wrong, I do think that in my business, my college degree does help me, especially with white people. I I don't give a fuck when nobody says shit. If like if I'm a black man in the business, I know white people looking at shit. They need to know that nigga educated. Like, they need to know that shit. I feel like as a black man in business, like I had to have something. Like, if I didn't have that, then I would have had to have a lot of experience with a lot of shit to prove. So I do think that the white clients that I do have, or white people that I have worked with, the college degree expedited that shit. I ain't gonna lie, that's just how I feel. I could be wrong, but I feel like, you know, that's what it was. Because other times when I meet some clients, they'll ask me, you know, they said, What did you go to school for? They asked me that during like our consultation, right? Where I'm like getting ready to try to book a new client. What did you go to school for? That's their way of saying, Are you educating? And I just tell them, yeah, this is what I want. And then it's kind of like put this ease on them. Would I have had as much success? Probably not, especially being a black man with dreads and shit. Probably not. But I would have been successful. I think it just would have taken me longer had I not gone to college. So I think that that thing's important. So for me, college taught me structure on like deadlines. It taught me to be account holding people accountable, um, which also led to me running my own business. And it does teach you networking. I don't know if I talked to anybody I went to college with. I see them on TikTok and shit. I see them on social media, but I don't really, I went to school to fucking learn and get the fuck out of that. I wasn't part of the college culture. I wasn't doing all the fraternity bullshit. I wasn't doing none of that. I went there to learn, and I was 30 when I started. So like it was different for me. I didn't motherfuckers that I was young. So it wasn't worth it for me. And I didn't and then, you know, the other thing people worry about who don't go to college are young. I ain't gonna say like college is for everybody. I and I if would I be where I'm at today if I didn't go to college? Most people probably asked. I think so. I think I still would have been all right. I think that I still would have, because I'm still smart. I think that I will let me take let me redact out. I think I would, it would have just taken me longer. Again, I read a lot now. So that shit like heavy. And if I didn't go to college, I probably wouldn't have read as much. And I wouldn't have learned as much, and I wouldn't have been able to obtain as much had I not gone to college. So I will give college that. So I think me reading a lot, me learning a lot about the business, me studying a lot, me understanding data, shit like that, that shit got me on, that shit got me on go. That college taught me that, right? But you know, most people like college puts you in debt, and it does. Shit. That shit will put your ass in debt. And it's like, fuck it. Do I want to use that money to go to college, college and get a degree, or do I want to use that money to open up a business? I really think it just depends on what you what the fuck makes the most sense for you. Um, where the fuck are you getting the money? Yeah, did you save it up? I mean, if you got if you got 50 grand in your pocket right now and you're deciphering, you're just like, all right, bad, should I do college or should I do business? Or should I open my business? What what what makes the most sense right now? Um I think that's gonna really determine. I ain't gonna lie, I think college is over oversaturated, right? I think it's oversaturated. Like, there's too many people. Just cause you got a degree now don't mean shit. Everybody got a fucking degree. They ain't gonna make the G don't make gonna mean shit when you're applying for a job. Now you gotta have a degree and experience. So if I got 50 grand, I started over and I have 50 grand and I'm like, am I gonna spend this 50 grand to go to college? Or am I gonna spend this 50 grand to open a business? I probably would open a business. Shit. I mean, because like that's 50 grand. I'm gonna start my business. I can get ready to start making money. How am I gonna double up on this money? Like, I'm gonna get this degree, I'm gonna be debt-free, but for me, like, I got a degree, but I probably don't have the experience. And with 50 grand, I can still get the experience and I could still go to college later. I could still open a business later, but I need to make money now. I need to start understanding the process of running a business now, right? So if I had, if I didn't have a degree and I had to choose between college and opening a business with$50,000, I would have fucking opened that business with$50,000. I'm like, I'm gonna use this money to hire a team, hire a salesperson, hire a marketing person, hire some type of manager, and each and every last one of them have to be problem solvers, right? Now I got to make sure that I get my money back, right? Because that's the that you know, that's the con to it, right? If I open the business with 50 grand, am I gonna get that money back or am I gonna close doors after a year or two? That's the gamble. At least with the 50 grand for college, I had a greater chance of getting that degree as long as I stayed on top of my grades versus work or business, you might not get that money back. You might invest it. I'm a risk taker. That's just would have been a risk that I wouldn't have been willing to take. So for me, I knew if I'm gonna use 50 grand, I need to use it strategically. Who do I need to hire now? Right? Who do I need to hire now for my business? And I know for a fact it needs to be whoever operates the business and it needs to be somebody who can market our business because we need to know, let people know we're in business. I will always say marketing. Marketing will always trump over everything because marketing is how people are gonna learn and how you're gonna get your money back. One major advantage of college also was access to networks. Like, I'm a part of all these different groups. I don't be doing that shit though. Like, you know, college, you know, it is good for that. I just can't do that shit. I mean, college is good for relationships, but you could do that at networking events, right? You can go to you can go to networking events, you can go to conferences as a business owner. I don't need college to necessarily net. So I would have been alright with that, right? And to be fair, like, like I said, I know college is fucking overrated. Motherfuckers can learn shit online now. Like, I mean, you could do like you can learn a lot of shit online. Again, the degree creates credibility for you. I think the degree is beneficial for people who are starting a business and never started a business, and then their business is started in the respective field that they study. I just think that uh, you know, when it comes to start, you know, your degree. And is it necessary? Like, it just depends. Like, for me, college is overrated. Sometimes you be fucking overqualified. And I I hire people who have college degrees, but I also they're so fucking annoying because they're entitled. They want, they feel entitled to shit. And more importantly, they ain't really learn shit. You know what I'm saying? So it's like, God damn, it's a catch to it too here. And so today, we can learn, people can learn online. People can learn from mentors. They gotta go to college. They can learn from internships. You ain't gotta go to college. You can get an internship without going to fucking college. Just start building that experience. If you were smart, you would get internships when you were young, like 16 and up. So you can start building that experience because real beer business experience is gonna outweigh your degree anyways. So the degree ain't gonna mean shit to me. It ain't gonna mean shit to a lot of these people. It just lets us know that you have the necessary skills to you, you're capable of doing the job, but just because you're capable of doing the fucking job, don't mean you can do the fucking job. God damn what the fuck are you trying to talk about? The internet changed the game. You hear me? The internet, you learn so much from the internet. That shit changed the fucking game. You don't need really college to do shit. You only need you don't you ain't going to college to learn. I ain't gonna give a fuck what nobody says. I don't give a fuck if these colleges tell you you're going to school. No, I don't believe that shit. You are not going to college to learn. You're going to college for a fucking degree. You're going to college for credentials. The credentials of that degree. Because half the shit we learn in college, we don't even remember that shit. Only even remember, you know, college, you get out of college, what you put into college, right? So for me, making sure, you know, those things, you know, align. I'm a tru I'm an untraditional person when it comes to going to college. I went to college, I dropped out of high school, went to a trade school, got a certificate, went to a uh community college, got an AA, got a bachelor's, got a master's. You know what I mean? So like I took the traditional route. I was always fascinated with education, and I'm always fascinated with learning. But you don't need that shit. You don't need you don't really need that shit. You know what I'm saying? I'm black, I need that shit right now. I need that shit because like, like, people will think you ain't educated. Like, it's it is a status thing. It's just like uh, you know, I didn't just go for my bachelor's motherfucker, I went for my master's and graduated with a 3.9 GPA. And and I would have had a 4.0 had this dude not fucked up my grad. I don't care if this dude was racist and say, I don't listen, I don't fuck people. I don't do that shit when it comes to black people. Black people love to say when they don't get their way with something, a white person was racist. I'm not that person. I ain't that person. I hate when black people do that shit. But this motherfucker was racist. I wanted to know he was racist. Look, set this out. We had a project in the classroom. Everybody had to do a video project. Everybody, right? Everybody had to do it. I'm the only black dude in this classroom, the only black dude, right? Working on it, we all working on a project. We all working on the video project. This man, it was our final project before the end of the semester. Um, he was my final class, too, that's the fuck up part about it. This man, he uh, we all had to turn it on assignment. I did, we did the video. This man gave me a fucking 84 on the assignment. An 84. I know people like, man, that's a B, bro. That's good. No, fuck that. A B is not good for me, right? It ain't good for me. And in the Master's program, you gotta make a B anyways. So you can't make a C. So for me, that's a low grade in a master's program. So I was pissed off. I'm like, bro, what the fuck is this? Here's how you use racist, bruh. He wouldn't even, one, he didn't, he didn't talk to me in class because I tried, I set up a meeting, we had a meeting, he didn't, he didn't, he didn't, he, he, he canceled the meeting. Two, I was the only person in the classroom whose video, whose video, won, at multiple film festivals. But I got the lowest grade in the class because on on the uh on the Canva, you can see the average grades. It shows you the highest grade, it shows you the lowest grade. I told you I got an 84. The lowest grade was a fucking 84. The highest grade was like a 99. And I was, and I, and my video, my video out of everybody in the classroom was the only video that won at film festivals. And I got the lowest grade in the classroom. I was fucking pissed. Had that man not gave me an 84, I would have walked away with a 4.0. And now I gotta live with the fact that I got a 3.9 at Florida State University, which is still fine. I'm cool. I ain't trying. Anyways, let's talk real quick about some successful people who went to college, who dropped out of college, who never even went to college, right? So it just depends because I think everybody has their own path. Everybody has their own path, and you just gotta decide which path you are based off of some people who did it, right? So we're gonna start with a case study, right? Uh, we're gonna start with case study number one, right? These are gonna be some names you guys are familiar with. I hope y'all are familiar with it. If you ain't familiar with them, you're gonna we're gonna have a problem, like for real, for real. You need to get your ass up and smoke a blunt or something because you fucking tripping if you don't know anything. So here's a case study on Steve Jobs. So Steve Jobs enrolled into college, right? He went to Reed College. He ended up dropping out of college six months after attending, right? He dropped out because Jobs felt like college was expensive. He didn't see the value and required classes that didn't align with his interests. Instead, he stayed on campus informally and audited courses he cared about, right? The lesson he learned from that was one class he audited was like called calligraphy, right? Later influenced the typography and design philosophy of Apple Macintosh was created, right? So, you know, the outcome, he co-founded Apple 1976. He built one of the most influential tech companies in history. Then the takeaway from that is dropping out didn't mean dropping learning, learning things, right? Jobs had pursued curiosity-driven education, which shaped Apple's focus on design. Like, okay, so here's where I relate to that. For me, I started my company because I went to college. Jobs started Apple because he went to college. While I completed college, Jobs did not complete college. But we both learned the same thing from college, which was I went to college and it sparked an idea for a business. He went to college and it sparked an idea for a business and he didn't finish. But he got more money than I motherfucking feeling. I but he, I mean, he passed away, but we all know that. But we have there. All right. Next case study. Richard Branson never attended college. He struggled in traditional school due to dyslexia, right? At age 16, he left school and started a magazine called Student, right? The experience led him to is that this experience led him into music distribution and eventually the founding of Virgin Group, right? The outcome of that, Virgin Group expanded into airlines, music, telecommunications, space tourism. Today, Virgin Brand spans hundreds of companies. Branson's success came from risk taking, networking, market intuition, not formal education. Right? Okay, let's relate this back, right? My man never even went to fucking college, right? School was a struggle for him. Public school, right? That's what me and him share similarities. I struggled in public school. It wasn't because I had dyslexia, it's because, you know, survival. But I struggled. I mean, I was making D's and F's. I never made honor roll in public school ever, even before I left public school. I never made honor roll, even in elementary school. So it was just something that just wasn't for him. He was like, you know, fuck this. I don't need school. I think that he became successful with his business because in entrepreneurship, I said this in a recent episode. Entrepreneurs have to learn how to struggle. If you don't know how to struggle, it's going to be extremely hard to be an entrepreneur because struggling creates problem-solving skills in the brain, forces you to solve problems and figure out the issues that you got going on. I felt like Richard Branson did well with business, not because he went to college, he had a disability, dyslexia. He succeeded because he was able to overcome problems. And while most people say, you know, dyslexia is a problem, whatever the case is, he was able to still overcome that, graduate school, public school with dyslexia. So naturally, he he was built to problem solve, even with uh, I wouldn't call it a disability, I just call it a different ability, you know, and I think that that's what fuck happened with him. All right, my last case study, right? I know y'all know this motherfucker. You don't know this motherfucker? Hang up the call down. Don't even listen to this podcast no more. You and I will never be cool again. That's it. Go back to your regular job. So Jeff Bezo went to college and graduated college at Princeton University, right? His degree was in electrical engineering and computer science. So in college, he graduated after college. He worked for Wall Street in finance technology before leaving his job to start Amazon in 1994. So Amazon became one of the largest companies in the world and transformed global retail, cloud computing, and logistics. I mean, the takeaway here is Jeff Bezo, you know, gave strong technical knowledge and analytical thinking, right? Which helped him build complex systems and scale Amazon, right? Jeff Bezo went to college, graduated. I went to college, graduated. So Jeff Bezo took what he learned in college and applied it to his business. You know, basically, you know, he he took the technical knowledge, analytical skills, same thing that I did. I went to college because I went to college for marketing, right? And communications. So took that and created these businesses. Same exact path. You know, I'm on the same path. There's bits and pieces that I'm pulling away from all of these successful people who are multi-billionaires, right? So he still, he, so he did go to college, use college to his benefit. He worked a regular job, said, fuck that shit. I'ma just go run my own business, ran his own business, used his technical analytical skills that he developed in college and applied that to his business, and now he has one of the largest companies in the fucking world, if not the largest company in the world. So when we think about the insights of these individuals, right? Steve Jobs dropped out of, he went to college and dropped out of college. But the lesson that he learned from college was curiosity and self-learning. He never stopped learning, even though he dropped out of college. Richard Branson never even went to fucking college, but he was a risk taker and he was also a problem solver by his nature. So therefore, he was able to establish and open this business. And Jeff Bezo did graduate from college, was successful in college, and used the technical and analytical skills that he got from college and brought it to his business and created one of the most successful companies in the world. So the real difference wasn't really college. It was more individuals with vision, individuals with execution, individuals with discipline, individuals who were willing to take fucking risks. You know, college can be helpful, but entrepreneurial success depends solely on your fucking mindset and the actions behind your mindset, then the credentials. Like for me, like that's what it really all, that's what it's really all about. It ain't about is college for me. Like, like make the shit make sense. Like make it make sense. I had to everyone took an extreme path. I took a little bit from everybody. I've always struggled. I come from struggles. Didn't do well in school. But I'm also a very calculated person. I know how to apply what I learned to what I do in life. And I think that's, you know, the hardest part. So, you know, I guess the question is, I want to leave you guys with a question then, you know, you know, and we could debate this, right? If someone wants to be an entrepreneur, should they A go to college? Should they B start a business immediately? Or should they C work and learn skills first? I would say for me, if you want to be an entrepreneur, work and learn skills first. And I think that you should do that at an extremely young age. So that by the time you get older, like you've already established the skill set. You can also, while you're younger, start the business, even when you're young, and then continue your business and go to college. See, I think that that is a much more successful route, traditional route of becoming an entrepreneurship, right? Start as a kid. Say, hey, you know, I want to do this. Start cutting grass, whatever. Start, start building skill sets as a kid. Because if you start at what, eight, by the time you're 18, finishing high school, you got 10 years of experience. Experience out the window, right? Now, and then if you start at eight, you've been doing it up until you're like 13, what's that five years? Now you've been doing a job for five years. Why not fucking open your own business? Start a little lemonade business, whatever start your own little lawn care service business, whatever. Now you've got a business at 13, right? From the skills that you've developed, and now from 13 to 18, by the time you graduate high school, you would have had the skill sets, a business, and education. So this way, when you go to college, you've already got a running business while you're getting your education, right? So, I mean, so for those of you who have children, let's start there. So, adults, right? So it's like, alright, fuck that, Jamie. I ain't a kid now. What what would you suggest in this situation? So if you're not a kid, I'm always I'm almost assuming you're still working. You can still do the same exact thing that the child has done. Just in, you know, it's just an older form, right? You've already started working. So you've already established the the history of work. So you've already got that, right? Start the fucking business. Open a business, starting. If it's for you, right? If you are an entrepreneur, if it's for you, start the fucking business. Start the business, you know, and then go into college if that's the route you want to go, you know. But start the business. If you know you're an entrepreneur and you're supposed to be doing this shit, start the fucking business and shut the fuck up. Get to work. Everything else. You can go to college later. You get your ass up. Rise up. Come on. Get up. Get your ass out of the goddamn chair. Get on a computer. Start your business. Get started. If this is what you're supposed to be doing, get your ass up and get to work. So that's what I got for you guys today, man. Listen, I hope this episode inspired you. I hope this episode gave you some nuggets, some insights. Do I think college is for everybody? Fuck no. I will still say that it is not for everybody. And it is okay. It is okay that college is not for you. If that's okay. Like we need to live in a society where it is completely okay if shit is not for us. It's okay if entrepreneurship isn't for you. That's okay. It's okay if we're working at a job you don't like is not for you. Find one that works. Like, find your lane, right? Find your fucking lane. It's okay that it does it if it's not for you. There's plenty of people who are still successful and never went to college. It's okay that you tried it and you dropped out. There's plenty of people who went to college and dropped out, say, fuck that. I'm gonna do my own shit. That's okay, right? And it's okay to graduate from college. That doesn't make you any lesser or any bougie because you went. Like it's all right. It worked for you. It don't work for everybody else. For me, I took all the fucking routes. I had to figure this shit out like shit was gluing in my head. But that's who I am. I'm a part of all of that. I have to have all of it. I knew I needed to go. I knew I wanted to go. I knew I wanted to challenge myself. I knew child college was going there to challenge me because I like a challenge. You know what I mean? So, all right, listen, man. Thank you guys for tuning in. I hope this episode really gave you guys some insight, fed you guys some knowledge. I'm your host, Jamini Delman's. And until then, you guys know to find us that we're on all streaming platforms. We're on all uh podcast streaming platforms. You can find us on YouTube if you want to watch the video for the listeners out there. In the meantime, I'm your host, Jamini Delman's, and we will see you guys on the next episode. Welcome to the other side of motivation. Talks.