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Successful Dropout

Interviews with successful entrepreneurs who left college to pursue their ideas.
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Now displaying: July, 2017
Jul 31, 2017

The epitome of what it means to be a life hacker, Maneesh Sethi went to travel the world using hacked plane tickets shortly after graduating from Stanford University. He created his website, Hack the System, with the intention of showing his readers how to achieve the lifestyle of their dreams (and teaching them how to get free plane tickets). His latest project, Pavlok, is a little magical haptic feedback wearable that helps train habits, improve athletic performance, and train learning. Know more about Maneesh and Pavlok here (pavlok.com).

I had a great time talking with Maneesh...the dude has done a lot, to say the least. It's clear that his passion lies in hacking well established systems that few people attempt to hack themselves or even think of hacking. Education, credit cards, music, fitness, habits...he seems to have a hack for it all. Maneesh is definitely the epitome of an unconventional thinker and doer...you'll also love his stories and experiences. Heck, I looked up his youtube channel and there was a video of him and Tim Ferriss slapping each other. Haha. 

We talk about:

  • Maneesh became a famous DJ in Berlin in 3 months
  • Hiring people from Craigslist to slap you when you get distracted from your work
  • How to hack credit cards and get free miles
  • Maneesh creating the Pavlok shocking wristband that tracks and eliminates bad habits.
  • Pharmaceutical system is in disrepair 
  • The philosophy of money and why Maneesh doesn't believe in money

Resources

THANK YOU!

Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.

Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them.

Join the Successful Dropout Nation!

  • Subscribe to the Successful Dropout Podcast.
  • Enter your email on the top right of this page for regular emails from Kylon Gienger on how to drop out, grind, and succeed.
  • Follow @kylongienger on Instagram!
Jul 28, 2017

In this episode Kylon explores what to do when you feel like you have too many interests and you are not sure what to pursue. If you are a student, and you are paralyzed by indecision, this episode is for you. Listen to it right meow. 

THANK YOU!

Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.

Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them.

Join the Successful Dropout Nation!

  • Subscribe to the Successful Dropout Podcast.
  • Enter your email on the top right of this page for regular emails from Kylon Gienger on how to drop out, grind, and succeed.
  • Follow @kylongienger on Instagram!
Jul 24, 2017

Man, I really enjoyed this conversation with Brett!

I don't often share interviews of myself personally, but I thought this one was really special. This is actually part 2 in a continuing series/collaboration between Brett Veinotte of School Sucks Podcast: The END of Public Education, and myself. Part 1 was me interviewing Brett and you can find that here.

In this episode, Brett was supposed to be interviewing me for his audience, but it ended up turning into a lively conversation between the two of us. I enjoyed the heck out of it and so I decided to post it for the Successful Dropout community to enjoy as well. 

Brett is such an awesome dude. We talk about everything from religion to budgeting and beyond:

  • What does "living the dream" mean when someone says it with a scowl?
  • Community and accountability through Christianity
  • Shame and judgment through Christianity too
  • The law of attraction! 
  • Self-trust: Kylon was an unenclosed child
  • Comfort zones and glamorizing "failure"
  • Confronting resentment towards success
  • Are you the average of the five you spend the most time with?
  • What does success really look like?
  • What is the right balance of contentment and discontentment?
  • Benefits of marriage
  • Using a cash system for personal finance

THANK YOU!

Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.

Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them.

Join the Successful Dropout Nation!

  • Subscribe to the Successful Dropout Podcast.
  • Enter your email on the top right of this page for regular emails from Kylon Gienger on how to drop out, grind, and succeed.
  • Follow @kylongienger on Instagram!
Jul 21, 2017

...Aaaaaand yet again another resurrected episode. To those of you who have been expecting new content on Fridays, it's coming back, I promise! Things have just been a little crazy in my world lately and so it works well for me to re-purpose some of my old content from a year ago that didn't get many downloads to begin with. BUT, this particular subject, talking with your parents about opting or dropping out, has been a question I still get often. So here is the answer and the strategy once again for everyone to hear! 

THANK YOU!

Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.

Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them.

Join the Successful Dropout Nation!

  • Subscribe to the Successful Dropout Podcast.
  • Enter your email on the top right of this page for regular emails from Kylon Gienger on how to drop out, grind, and succeed.
  • Follow @kylongienger on Instagram!
Jul 17, 2017

When Andrew Schneck was in college, he broke up with girls to spend more time in the library studying finance and long term investing. His interest in this led him to study more than half of the 3000 public companies in the US, attend shareholder meetings, and he even got in touch with a few billionaires. This activity put him on the map at his school as a hard working and budding entrepreneur. It wasn’t long until a college buddy’s father invited Andrew to join him in building a healthcare business. In 2016 Andrew went from 0-100 quickly as the healthcare business grew.

It was really a pleasure to have Andrew on the show since we have been friends on social media for a long time now. He is very active in the Successful Dropout community, Facebook group, and in entrepreneurial circles as well. Love what he is doing to solve a huge problem through entrepreneurship! 

In this episode we:

  • Talk about the importance of relationships with close friends with whom you can go deep with, wrestle with tough questions, and call each other out.
  • Talk about some tough periods in Andrew's life where he dealt with health issues that held him back.
  • Talk about all the disparities within the healthcare system and what Andrew and his partner are doing to combat these.
  • Talk about a ton more!

My favorite quote from Andrew:

"Society tells you, 'hey you're supposed to row the boat, you're supposed to row it here, you're supposed to row across the lake etc'...and then you look down and the boat is actually a skateboard and you're like, 'what the hell is going on?'"

Resources:

THANK YOU!

Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.

Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them.

Join the Successful Dropout Nation!

  • Subscribe to the Successful Dropout Podcast.
  • Enter your email on the top right of this page for regular emails from Kylon Gienger on how to drop out, grind, and succeed.
  • Follow @kylongienger on Instagram!
Jul 14, 2017

This is actually another old episode that I decided to resurrect. Again, it has too few downloads and it's such an important concept! For several months I put out content that barely anyone listened to, and now that there's actually a substantial audience I don't want people to miss some of the great content from the earlier days. I'm especially fond of this episode because it explains my reasoning behind signing off every blog post and episode with "stay hungry, stay foolish". I really believe the philosophy behind this phrase is essential to the core philosophy of what it means to be a Successful Dropout.

THANK YOU!

Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.

Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them.

Join the Successful Dropout Nation!

  • Subscribe to the Successful Dropout Podcast.
  • Enter your email on the top right of this page for regular emails from Kylon Gienger on how to drop out, grind, and succeed.
  • Follow @kylongienger on Instagram!
Jul 10, 2017

*My apologies for the audio here guys...not sure what happened. Guess I should have gone to college for audio engineering. Dang it. ;)*

Jimmy Tomzak lives to inspire. He's launched multiple creative ventures, commercialized inventions, and built a rich network of personal and professional relationships. His work has earned awards including recognition as a Crain's Detroit Business 20 in their 20's honoree, a Maker Faire Blue Ribbon, plus honors from organizations like the Elks National Foundation where he was named Alum of the Year. Jimmy has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, CNN and other prominent media. His new book, "Lakeside & Tide", hit top 100 on Amazon Kindle and #1 in its category. Jimmy is an author and speaker who tells his story to audiences internationally. He recently gave the TED talk, "Living Your Best Life Now Starts Today."

I loved talking with Jimmy. In this episode we chatted about what success really means to both of us, and how many people have ideas in their head of what success looks like to them without putting much thought into whether or not they will actually enjoy and be fulfilled by that idea of success.

What if making a million dollars a year isn't REALLY what you want? What if everything you ever wanted in life could be achieved earning only $100,000 a year?

What if instead of setting financial goals, you set lifestyle goals? How much free time do you want to have? What kind of work do you want to do? WHO do you want to spend your time with and HOW do you want to spend your time? 

What if your idea of success is more inspired by what society thinks than what you would ACTUALLY enjoy and find fulfilling for yourself? 

It's an important question to wrestle with. 

Resources:

THANK YOU!

Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.

Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them.

Join the Successful Dropout Nation!

  • Subscribe to the Successful Dropout Podcast.
  • Enter your email on the top right of this page for regular emails from Kylon Gienger on how to drop out, grind, and succeed.
  • Follow @kylongienger on Instagram!
Jul 7, 2017

This is actually an older episode that I decided to resurrect. It has too few downloads and it's such an important concept!

Get in the habit of just in time learning. You will be more efficient, and you will retain more knowledge since you are learning in the context of something you are genuinely curious about and working towards. Just in case learning is for recreation. As much as you can, learn things in the context of taking action. Simple as that. :) 

THANK YOU!

Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.

Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them.

Join the Successful Dropout Nation!

  • Subscribe to the Successful Dropout Podcast.
  • Enter your email on the top right of this page for regular emails from Kylon Gienger on how to drop out, grind, and succeed.
  • Follow @kylongienger on Instagram!
Jul 3, 2017

Tom Szaky is the Founder and CEO of TerraCycle, one of the world’s leaders in eco-capitalism and the reuse of non-recyclable, pre and post-consumer waste. In 2002 he left Princeton University to spend all his time growing TerraCycle, which began as a two-man outfit out of his dorm room. Since then Tom and and TerraCycle have experienced great success. In 2010, TerraCycle was named the #288th fastest growing privately held company in America by Inc. Magazine and in 2016, Fortune magazine listed TerraCycle as one of “7 World-Changing Companies to Watch.”...among many other awards, publications, and successes.

I didn't think I could ever get excited about garbage, but Tom's passion is contagious and his ingenuity is inspiring.

One of my favorite quote from Tom (slightly paraphrased):

"Entrepreneurship is a mountain of failure, and the outside - the crust of the mountain is the success, and the more you take risks and the more you inevitably fail, the more success you'll end up having. We usually only see the entrepreneur on the outside because that's what the magazines talk about, but we don't see all the failures that led to that point."

Resources:

THANK YOU!

Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page.

Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them.

Join the Successful Dropout Nation!

  • Subscribe to the Successful Dropout Podcast.
  • Enter your email on the top right of this page for regular emails from Kylon Gienger on how to drop out, grind, and succeed.
  • Follow @kylongienger on Instagram!
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