That’s the bad news. But fear not, there is good news. 

    The good news is this: by skipping college, your head will not explode. You will not turn into a Pumpkin. You will not end up homeless on a garbage barge outside of Tijuana. (Note: I don’t know you personally. You might end up on a garbage barge outside Tijuana, but it won’t have anything to do with your Educational attainments). 

     The contrary is true. By skipping college, you will access more clarity, freedom, and power than you imagined possible. You will be able to make more money, have more fun, make more friends and have a brighter future than those people blindly attending college. 

  • You will be liberated from the stress and inane nonsense associated with standardized tests, college admissions, grades, midterms, and graduation. 
  • You will avoid the crushing misery of student debt.
  • You will start your life (and making money) 4 years faster than college graduates. 
  • You will learn that you don’t need a degree to get a job.
  • You will be freed up to focus on what really matters to build a life of your own creation.
  • You will see you don’t need to be a Mark Zuckerberg Super Genius to skip college. 
  • You will learn how to be well rounded, well travelled, well educated, well informed, and fulfilled without college.

     You really can just skip it. Opt out. Move past it. Accelerate.  

     This goes against everything you’ve heard for your entire life, so actually it’s going to take a while to sink in. That’s why I wrote an entire book. 

     With instructions, details, illustrations, and examples.    

Skipping Success Stories

     We live in a culture where 70% of high school students are indoctrinated into going to college with no other choice or options spelled out. So it’s more likely you’ve met a Civil War Veteran or spotted a Hobbit then met someone who has actually followed this path. The ideas in this book are brand new, unlike a tenured college professor, who is so old he remembers the Lincoln assassination. 

    So throughout this book I am going to sprinkle in some examples. Example of young people living unimaginably awesome lives, free from the stress most people are experiencing. Pioneers on the Skip College for Success path. 

    I’ve spent more than 10 years giving no BS advice to young people on my various websites and YouTube Channel – youtube.com/sethjared. Sometimes I randomly strike up conversations with teens at Starbucks when I hear them stressing about college admissions. Through my Digital Marketing Career Blueprint course, I’ve helped hundreds of people skip past college and begin their lives powerfully by getting jobs in one of the fastest growing and least understood fields (by people over 40).

    Not only that, these young people didn’t sacrifice the “best years of their lives” or become social pariahs by skipping college. They learned how to make friends, network, and be happy all without incurring debt or wasting 4 years in a classroom. 

                                 Me with Some of My Successful Students in NYC

  I’ve also helped hundreds of college graduates who were left clueless and in debt after school. I wrote this book to try and reach more people before they make that mistake.

 

Here’s an interview with Lorena —

And an interview with another student – Corey – who was making $30/hr at age 19. He took my course right after high school.

The future for these students is so much brighter than every other young person I’ve ever spoken to. Imagine having your life 85% figured out at age 21 – knowing how you were going to earn a living, a flexible schedule that allowed you the freedom to spend time with friends and explore the world and your passions. Imagine being free of the stress of school, grades, tests, and debt. 

     One of my students, Karen, works part time doing bilingual SEO for a big insurance company. She makes $40/hour remotely, about $52K a year, and has no debt. 

     She is 23 year old. She Skipped College for Success. 

     In 2019, she just decided to go to London. She worked while she travelled. 

Later that year, she was hired by Glassdoor with an $80K salary – combined with her  freelance clients, she makes over $100K a year and has no student debt.

I have more to share about Karen elsewhere in this blog – but I wanted to post some screenshots of messages from her over the years. First there’s the one where she was actively hiring college students. Yes, the young woman without a BA was the boss of many students who were getting their Bachelor’s degrees.

Then there’s the college students reaching out to Karen to get advice because she is actually working in the real world while college students are learning a lot of silly theory.

Then there are messages from all the recruiters trying to hire her because of her skillset – with absolutely no regard for the fact that she does not have a Bachelor’s degree.

 

Lastly, Karen said it best in a message to me last year:

Here is a pic of me and Karen when I finally met her in SF at her new job.

 

I’m sharing this to let you know that there is hope. A lot of hope. 

And you’ll find even more interviews with smart young people who skipped college and are now making more money than college graduateson this blog.

School Vs. The Real World

This book is written from the perspective of The “Real” World. Also known as “Adult Life”. Or “Reality”. It’s light years away from you’ve lived your entire life, in a fantasy land called “Academia”. 

Academia is the realm of school, textbooks, theory and make believe. “Academia” is as far removed from reality and mystical as anything you’ve seen in the movies. Fairies, Mutants, Witches, Dragons and Elves have nothing on grown adult human beings who think $50,000 in debt and a Philosophy Degree leads to a brighter future. 

Life in the Magical Land of Academia

Everything in Academia is upside down and the complete opposite of the Real World. 

In Academia, the Pythagorean Theorem is incredibly important. In Reality, nobody gives a flying… hoot… about the Pythagorean Theorem. 

Or anything else you’ve learned in school.

I designed the book to help you make the transition from the imaginary land of Academia into Reality in a powerful way. 

In the first parts of this book, we expose the many great lies, myths, and fantasies you’ve been told about college. I will help you find your own peace and confidence to make your own choices in a world that wants to do the thinking for you. I’ll be discussing statistics and realities you’ve never heard in school. Or perhaps things that you’ve thought to yourself but no adult has confirmed them for you. 

It will help strengthen and sharpen you with the inevitable backlash you will encounter when you decide to break free of the herd of sheeople blindly going into debt for college. And to bolster your inner confidence as you set out on your own path.

Then, I will actually answer that question terrified and hysterical Parents everywhere ask when you try to have a rational conversation on this topic, “WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO INSTEAD?” As if a “Final Destination”-esque calamity will befall you without enrolling in school.  

Yes, there is a reliable practical series of actions you can take instead of college that will put you ahead. And it doesn’t require you to be a genius like Steve Jobs either. 

*Spoiler Alert* Once you realize that you should skip college, you are already ahead of the game. You have a 4 year head start on your peers and no debt. You could literally lock yourself in a closet for 4 years and be better off than your peers graduating with a degree and debt at age 22. 

But I’ll do you one better, and actually provide you with actionable and practical advice about building a life of your own creation. And the majority of this advice is about Making Money.