Successful Dropout

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.

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.

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• Enter your email on the top right of this page for regular emails from Kylon Gienger on how to drop out, grind, and succeed.
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*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.

• Jimmy's website
• Lakeside & Tide - Jimmy's book
• Pretty sure this was the Quora question Jimmy was talking about

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.

• 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!

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. :)

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.

• 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!

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."

• TerraCycle
• Great article on Tom and TerraCycle

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.

• 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!

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$$.

• How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie

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.

• 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!

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:

• Thoughts on career, college and School Sucks
• Above the Snowflakes? the current college culture the future of higher education
• The student loan bubble and the "college is necessary" bubble
• Aesthetic diversity versus intellectual diversity
• The consequences of social engineering in college
• Live off campus!
• Direct vs indirect credentialing
• Just in case learning vs just in time learning
• Transferable skills
• Personal accountability, success is not an option
• Kids are not defective

• School Sucks Project - Go check this out. HUGE website and podcast full of great advice and resources.

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.

• 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!

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.

• Magill.co - Derek's website. Also a great example of a personal website that showcases your value very effectively.
• Discover Praxis

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.

• 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!

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:

• Can entrepreneurship be taught?
• Gautam cheating on a test and how it changed his life - great story!
• The ridiculousness of teachers unions
• Competing in the closed formal education system
• Permission versus freedom mentality
• The ABSOLUTE importance of introspection, examining your thoughts and experimenting at an early age
• A bunch more!

• Peeyr.com
• [email protected]
• Gautam's LinkedIn
• Gautam's FB
• Satus.org
• Sam Altman's "How to Start a Startup"

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.

• 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 Snapchat!

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!