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:
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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.
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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:
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...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!
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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.
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:
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?'"
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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.
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.
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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.
*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.
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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.
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. :)
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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.
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."
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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.
This week Kylon shares a personal story of depression, worry, and anxiety. He uses this story to talk about how to kick the habit of worrying in the a$$.
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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.
Brett Veinotte has worked in education for the last 17 years, in a variety of capacities. Most recently, he was the vice president of a tutoring and educational consulting company in New Hampshire. Brett began working as a counselor and outdoor educator at a boarding school in Vermont in 2000, and was eventually promoted to lead teacher of a specialized campus. He then taught at a private day school in Manchester, Vermont from 2004 to 2006, where he designed new curricula for all classes he taught, including American History, World History, Media Ethics, Film History and a variety of mathematics courses. He completed masters level coursework in educational leadership, and the secondary education certification program at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. After leaving classroom teaching in 2006, Brett began to work exclusively as a private tutor in the greater Boston area. Much of this work was related to standardized test prep but also included providing essay writing support to college applicants, leading training sessions for prospective teachers planning to take state certification exams and serving as a liaison between parents and public schools to address student needs and parent concerns.
I discovered Brett through the School Sucks Podcast and Youtube channel where he teaches thousands of people the art of self-education, critical-thinking, self-knowledge, personal growth, and a whole lot more. Loved chatting with this guy!
Here are a few of the things we discussed:
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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.
This week Kylon chats with Derek Magill. Derek helps people skip college, build a career, and educate themselves. He is also the Director of Marketing at Praxis and the author of an upcoming book on building an unconventional career.
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.
Gautam is the founder of Peeyr.com, a peer education marketplace that connects top high-school and college students to their peers for in-person tutoring sessions. He's a high-school dropout on a mission to create more opportunity within our education system and help students find their passion. Previously, he launched satus.org, a "How to Start a Startup" program for young founders and was a partner at Ankorhem, a product design agency based in Dallas. He's 19 years old.
Gautam is another Successful Dropout who is changing the way we educate ourselves. I had an absolute blast chatting with him and I love the "why" behind everything he does. Everything he's built, he's built to solve a problem or challenge that he himself experienced...I think that's the essence of entrepreneurship - building creative solutions to solve problems, and the best way to do that is to solve your own problems.
Here are some of the topics we cover in this episode:
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.
Kylon shares some insight from entrepreneur and philosopher Derek Sivers on how to make life sized decisions.
I enjoyed this episode because Dallas is really the first "blue collar" guest we've had on the show. He's a great example of the fact that you can have a lot of success in the skilled labor and trade industries without a college degree or even a high school diploma. It was great to chat with him because one of my first jobs and eventually my first business was in the trades, so we had that in common. I notice that a lot of people tend to shy away from blue collar work, or they view it as less desirable than, say, working at a startup. But there is a lot of value in learning a trade, and if you enjoy hands-on work plus instant and tangible results, you would probably enjoy a career in the trades, and developing a great career here is very possible!
Eric is a former philosophy student and screenwriter and an accomplished writer and researcher. He is best known for his blog Barking Up The Wrong Tree, which has been around since 2009. Much of the blog’s popularity is due to how useful it is to people and there are currently just under 300,000 subscribers to Eric’s newsletter. His blog topics typically revolve around science-based answers and expert insight on how to be awesome at life.
I shared a post of Eric's on my FB recently. The post followed 81 valedictorians after graduation to see where they ended up. It sparked an interesting debate in the comments and so I decided to invite Eric on the show to talk about his findings.
Rainesford Stauffer is a 23-year-old writer who has been published by Forbes, USA TODAY, and The Hill, among others. After a diverse high school education, she dropped out of college her freshman year and spent two years shaping her own education through internships, writing, and communications. She's given two TEDx Talks and serves on the Advisory Board of (south by south west EDU) SXSWedu. For her day job, she works in communications, and is the editor of Gap Year Stories, a platform that publishes student perspectives on shaping your own learning experiences.
Rainesford and I have a lot in common with our mindset around education and entrepreneurship...she also owns a hot yoga studio, which is one of the businesses I own as well. In this episode we talk a lot about uncertainty, not knowing the answer, anxiety, and how messy and unclear times are actually the key to finding your way, learning, and ultimately success.
There are so many quotable snippets in this episode, Rainesford is the real deal - a go-getter, a self-teacher and an entrepreneur. She's the epitome of a Successful Dropout.
"Usually when you are shaping your own path, it's a combination of belief in something that matters to you, incredible amounts of effort, and just the right amount of risk."
"Sometimes the greatest opportunities, moments and endeavors in your life are really messy. They aren't cookie-cutter, they aren't picture perfect and to me I think that's the magic of it."
Kylon helps us learn a couple new words he made up that allow us to understand what type of credentialing we are pursuing, and which type is best. Don't get lost in the weeds here. The basic idea to remember is that direct-credentialing is always better than indirect-credentialing.
Blake Boles is an author, educator, adventurer who helps young people become more self-directed. He designs and leads life changing trips for teenagers through his company Unschool Adventures. He's also the author of three books, he speaks for alternative school and homeschooling conferences, and his work has appeared on The Huffington Post, New York Times, USA Today, BBC Travel, Psychology Today, and Fox Business.
Blake and I share a lot of the same interests as far as self-directed learning, snowboarding, unschooling, adventuring, and just doing and thinking differently in general. I really enjoyed this episode and Blake is an incredible resource for you if you listen to this show! Go and check out his stuff!
Kylon shares one of his worst entrepreneurial moments. A moment when he wanted to just curl up and die. If you've ever wanted to hear a grown man break down and cry on the mic, this is the episode for you (totally joking lol...) Kylon extrapolates some valuable lessons from this experience.
Also, head over to successfuldropout.com and look at the show notes for this episode to listen to a song from Kylon's band.
Sorry for the poor audio quality on this one guys. Ross and I were both in our cars during this interview, I was sitting outside of one of my businesses and Ross was outside of the title company about to buy another rental. Sometimes you have to mix a little business with the pleasure of a great conversation. ;)
Ross Alex is a full time real estate entrepreneur who made a life changing decision three years ago to drop out of college, move from New York to Houston and quit his bartending job to create a real estate business. He is 26 years old and he has successfully created two six-figure real estate businesses in just under two years. The guys is a rockstar!
This is the first time I've ever had a guest on the show for a second time...Ross is worth it! We dive deep into the real estate business and Ross shares some incredible action steps and thoroughly explains three different ways you can make money in real estate. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced real estate investor, you'll find a lot of value in this episode!
This week Kylon shares the be-do-have paradigm...which will simultaneously blow your mind and give you a brain twister. So basically you might get a headache. But all joking aside, this is a foundational concept. If you get this right, everything else comes a little easier. #bethesource
Hillary is a writer from Walla Walla, WA who loves saving money. After earning her bachelor's degree for under $10,000 from Thomas Edison State University, she decided to share the resources cultivated and researched during her degree journey by writing College Without the Campus, a guide to credit-by-exam learning for students of all ages. Currently, she enjoys running a jewelry and supplies shop on Etsy and working for her family's heating and cooling business.
This was a special episode for the podcast because we haven't had a guest on the show yet who advocates for earning your college degree, but in the most efficient way as far as time and money goes. College is right for some, and not right for others, and the fact is ANYONE can succeed in business and in life without a college degree...BUT...if you want to earn your degree there is most certainly a better way to do it than just following the standard pipeline. Hillary shows you how with her book, College Without The Campus.
If you have any questions whatsoever about how to maximize your time and money earning your degree, connect with Hillary, she would love to chat with you!
Kylon shares three lessons on purpose, productivity, and preparedness.
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Aj Cartas was 19 years old working 3 jobs and going to school full-time when he discovered Instagram. He was ultimately able to gather over 1.2 million followers across his social platform. He was also very successful with Vine (RIP) which dramatically increased his exposure. He was able to work with brands such as JC Penny and RedBox and movies such as Hercules and How To Train Your Dragon.
After dropping out of college he went on to be a Finalist for Forbes 30 Under 30 2016, he Co-Founded an influencer-driven events company which became the #1 influencer network in the Bay Area, he lead the social media initiatives for a company valued at $10 billion, he is already making 6-figures.
I really enjoyed chatting with Aj! He shares some broad (but great) advice on how to become a social media influencer, he tells us about a failed trip to Iceland, his worst entrepreneurial moment was when he was scammed into joining a company that cost him thousands...and there's a lot more! Stay tuned for his new book, Startups and Downs.