Taking Back What the School System Stole from Me

No... Hell no... It’ll be a cold day in Orlando before I voluntarily pick up a book and read through blocks of text.

I’ve been through my fair share of textbooks. They’re boring. They’re dry. The information serves no purpose in my life other than my grades.

Do you think I’m engaging in that on my own time? Of course not. And it’s here where I was screwed by my experiences in a classroom.

I’ve struggled my way through many books. In science books, math books, history books, fiction books, and whatever books I can’t think of, never did I find anything worth my time. If it weren’t required of me, I’d never flip a single page of anything I’ve read in school.

Thanks to those times, I developed a strong dislike for reading as a whole. Maybe that’s you, too. Maybe it isn’t. But if it is, let me tell you: you are missing the fuck out.

Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know it’s completely contrary to everything I’ve said up to this point. I just finished shitting on the idea of reading, and now I advocate for it? What’s the sense in that? Either you’re for it or you’re not. I hear you.

Allow me to explain: reading, in the wrong context, sucks. But in the right context, reading separates the average and the extraordinary.

Reading in the Wrong Context

Reading becomes unappealing when the reader can’t connect with the information. That’s basically every book in the school system. No wonder why most students end their time reading at the same time the final bell rings. If it has nothing to do with how my current or desired lifestyle, why in the world would I find interest in it?

This describes the type of reading I was exposed to in the classroom and it’s why I hated it. Like any other kid, I never touched a book if I didn’t have to. Little did I know of the power I was ignoring.

Reading in the Right Context

Things started to change for me when I began following successful individuals through social media. I noticed that there were people blowing past the limits society has imposed on us. These people refused to give up their lives to an occupation. These people aren’t enslaved to their debt. These people went beyond paycheck to paycheck and created a life tailored to their dreams.

It was an eye-opening experience for me. The things I hear them talk about were never things I heard from my teachers. Financial freedom? What’s that? Environment design? Habit triggers? Huh?

I quickly came to the realization that there are factors in play which go unseen by the average and prioritized by the extraordinary.

Once I knew that there was no going back. I needed more. The more I learned, the more I understood how much I lacked. How do I get access to this information, you ask? You already know the answer.

So where do you stand? Are you only a reader when your grade depends on it? Your job? Do you not read on your own time? Let me give you a few reasons why you’d want to change that.

Convert years of effort into hours.

Even if it’s not exactly the same, there are people in the world who’ve made it to the point you’re trying to reach. By following their work, you get the opportunity to bypass the mistakes they’ve made on the way to success. Without their insight, you’ll waste time, making the same mistakes that they made, if not more. Why put yourself through the frustration when it could’ve been easily prevented?

To give you an example, I’m currently reading Unshakable by Tony Robbins. It’s a short read on the proper ways to invest your money. Fantastic read, if you didn’t know already.

Anyhow, he goes into the reasons why it’s better to put your money in an index fund rather than a mutual fund. He backed up his ideas with numbers, testimonies, and real experiences. Looking at it from my perspective, it’s easy to go: “Damn. I just saved myself a lot of trouble by reading this.” Clutch...

Open up your realm of consciousness.

Reading is also great for exposing yourself to new, proven ideas that you weren’t aware of before. I hope you have already, but if you haven’t, please accept the fact that you don’t know shit. There’s a lot of useful information out there and none of it matters if you don’t have an open mind. The capacity for education comes first.

Recently, I came across a guy named James Clear. James is an expert on habits and posts a new article on his website every week. Man, you want to talk about new ideas? This guy writes about things I didn’t even know existed. It’s crazy because they have incredible influence on my day-to-day behaviors as well as yours. If you do all of your reading in a classroom, you will lose and have no idea why.

It's better to drive with navigation.

Here’s the last thing: reading is great because it gives you the direction you’ve been looking for. We all have ideas. We all have aspirations. I want to become a legitimate social media marketer. I want to be able to build brands and help people get the word out.

Sounds great, right? But there’s one thing: I don’t know a damn thing about social media marketing.

If I’m going to do this, I need to learn the skills that make up a successful marketer. Will I find that information in a textbook? I hope you said no. In fact, I hope you said hell no. Maybe you said yeah. Maybe you said colleges do offer courses on marketing.

If you did, you’re right. There are classes at the college I currently attend. There are courses at my school taught by professors who don’t know marketing in 2019. Yes, I can take classes at my school that offers outdated information to get me nowhere but in debt. I’ll pass on that. I want the real thing and I’m not going to get it at the university.

Social media marketing is my thing. For you, you may need education on personal finance. It may be productivity. It might be self-care. The point is: you’re missing out on valuable information that can be found in the right block of text.