Should You Quit College? My Journey from Dropout to Millionaire

Should you quit college? Why did I quit my college when I was actually starting my own business? Before I tell you my brief story on why did I quit college, I just want to give a quick introduction about myself. Hi, my name is Nikhil Sai. I'm the founder and CEO at funnelingmedia.com. I started as a 19-year-old broke dropout, turned millionaire in just 2 years running my own marketing agency, and in the process, I've delivered over $500 million in verified results for my clients. Now, I I don't think I could have done that along with my college for a fact. But coming back, there was a very strong reason on why did I quit my college. Maybe this can help you to understand if you should quit your college or maybe quit whatever you're actually doing to pursue your dreams. Understand this, I come from a traditional Indian background, especially South Indian background, where my parents entirely believed college was the only way to go and getting a government job is the best thing you can ever do in their life. And that was like my agenda. Like that was rubbed onto me very, very strongly from the beginning, even though my parents were not super strict on what I can become. But that was like the whole idea. They used to always tell me the success story of somebody got a government job. Now they get salary credited on 1st of every single month. And, you know, my family don't want to take a lot of risk and they would like a secure job for their kid, which is a traditional Indian mentality. Not a big problem. That's the exact background I come from. Now, coming back, for me, I always dreamt big. I always wanted to live up to my full potential. The problem was I couldn't most of the times. For example, I only studied my entire education in my own local city where I was born. And trust me, it's not the best standards. And my family didn't have enough money to send me to the best quality schools at the same time because they were making less than $300 a month as a family of 4. We were living in a 10-room small house. So, you know, I couldn't ask for much, but I'm grateful they at least sent me to an English medium where my English is at least what I'm actually speaking. And of course, I worked upon it to make it to what it is today, but it gave me a good foundation at least. Coming back, I've done all the odd jobs, uh, you know, when, when I was in college. So after my 10th, where I failed terribly— in terms of not failing in terms of the exam, but failing in terms of scoring the marks which I wanted— I was in the top 5 people in the class. But when the results came in, because of my bad handwriting, I was not even in the scoreboard overall because I was like the 12th guy in the results, the board exams actually secured. So my score was 8.7 for 10, which was not great. And people make it to the board when they at least score 9. So I was out of that. So my dreams of, you know, having a great score, then doing something I love, which was back then when I was in my SSC, was Agriculture B.Sc. was no longer something I can do because there were two problems. One, only people from village background can actually do it when they have a lower score, or people from a city can only do it because I was in a small town that was considered as a city, can only do it when you actually have greater than, you know, 9.5 or 9.8 brilliant score. You know, again, my handwriting looks like shit, so I didn't score much, and that was like a wake-up call that I actually had. I was just helping everybody else in the class, not focusing on my own exams. So that's a lesson. If you're doing it, don't do it. Write your own exam to score first. Now then, you know, we couldn't pay for great college, and luckily what I've done was I've written an entrance exam called Polytechnique, which allowed me to get a free seat in diploma in my own city. Once again, it was like 10 miles away from my own place, but overall it was still in the same city. So, you know, I used to travel back and forth. My dad used to give me, I don't know, 20-30 rupees, which is like 25 cents, 40 cents, something like that, like crazy small amount for me to go back and forth. I finished my 3 years of diploma. Diploma is a smaller version of engineering, you know, and I'm glad I actually joined that because I clearly understood how the engineering culture overall is, you know, the hostel life. Again, I was not in hostel, but My friends were in hostels, I used to constantly bunk and visit their places and whatnot. And the culture, the education, how it is, the labs, the records, the exams, like everything. And in 3 years, I almost learned nothing because I was actually learning mechanical engineering where I know that mechanical elements, especially all this petrol diesel engines and any other mechanical instruments, will no longer be relevant for a very longer-term basis. Didn't make a lot of sense, but I realized after that I joined. Okay, now I finished that. In my last year, uh, you know, of the last sem, I had an optional chance where I could travel to a different place for training. It was a 6-month optional training opportunity, and I really wanted to come to Hyderabad, which is the exact location I am in, uh, to actually get training in a good institute. So there was this institute called CITD, uh, where they teach some computer skills to design tools online in computers. I was very interested in that, but I couldn't come here because of financial reasons. Like, I don't have enough money to join and pay the fees for the training institute for 6 months, then be here in Hyderabad physically and manage my expenses. I did all the math and no way I would actually be able to afford it. So I gave up on that dream as well. Now, in the process, I had a lot of drama going on when I was in my diploma because 10th standard, it was just like I was childish But then after getting to diploma is when I actually was exposed to the real world, the actual world, you know, having fun, looking at friends who actually fail, getting responsibilities, manage my own finances. You need money when you're in the college. In school, you don't have any expenses, but once you come to college, you need to travel, you need to hang out with friends, you need to be in the parties and whatnot. Just was crazy. But yeah, coming back, I was always looking for that money part, like how can I make my money? So I used to play this game called 8-ball pool. One of my brother's friend actually was making some money out of it. So I was like, let me talk to him. So I was literally showing up at his home at 8 PM in the night and he was like, why are you here? I was like, you know, I heard that you're making money from this game. And he was like, yeah, there are these little Facebook groups. You need to go and sell these coins and then, you know, you can actually make some percentage of money, good money, you know, considered, you know, like $10 a day or something like that, right? So I was like, wow, finally I found something to make money. Before that, I tried a lot of things. Every time I used to wait for my mom to come home so that I can snatch her phone and basically look for videos on how to make money online. I was like, the only thing I used to do, I've tried building apps, creating self-cleaning apps, which was not compliant, doing a lot of shit, even crazier, crazier shit, filling CAPTCHAs for 10 to 12 hours a day. I've done a lot of stuff. So I always had this mindset to make some money because I always had a shortage of it. And every time I have some money, I used to hold on to it. You know, like my friends at a common place, they never used to have even $20 in their bank accounts personally. But I used to hold on to at least like $200-300 just for any emergencies which I want to pay for, which never happened anyways. And so, yeah, like that was like, that was just give me like a better feeling of myself. Now coming back from that situation, uh, I'm going pretty bad so that you can understand where I'm coming from. Now the next situation was me actually being able to make— starting to make some money from that 8-ball pool game thing. And it did work out. I made like, I don't know, $300 or $400, something like that. I bought my first computer from it. I wish I had a computer. I mean, that was one of the things I didn't have the infrastructure which I should be to actually be making money. You know, I used to fight with my mom every time to snatch her phone because my customers used to message me they need coins and I couldn't reply them back on time and they would buy from somebody else. And you know, it was just insane. Now coming back, I bought my computer to be able to communicate with my clients continuously. And you know, there was a glitch in the game when you do it on computer, you can earn more coins. So I used to sell a lot more coins back then. And then I actually purchased my own phone as well. I did lend $15 from my mom, but I paid it back as well, so I can claim it. So I bought my own phone and computer. This was still— I was in diploma while I was doing it. And then the final year, I wanted to make something bigger, you know, like making that $100, $200, $300 a month wasn't like a huge thing for me. So I was like, okay, now it's time to level up. Let's do something more. So I was actually scrolling Instagram and I found my first mentor technically. At the digital marketing space. His name is Noam Ben, who actually introduced me to affiliate marketing, online digital marketing, funnels, and whatnot. Before that, in between me doing online business, you know, selling coins, and me actually doing this affiliate marketing thing, I've actually tried to do something like a startup. Like, you know, I looked at this Momo case study. It's called Wow Momo. They're a brand from Kolkata. They started very small. Now they're a huge brand. So I wanted to badly do it. This is back in 2019, January. I was basically forcing all my family to start a momo stall, which was a ridiculous idea. I laugh at myself. Now coming back, that didn't happen because my family didn't have the funds and they were not okay opening up momo stall. We tried to do a demo of the momo and we tasted it. It tastes like shit. So no South Indians eat that because we don't like that type of taste. So I gave up that idea. But I still couldn't take my head. I used to watch a lot of videos. He used to be the business guru in Hindi. And then I was like, I should do something offline to start making some more money. Then I stumbled upon the juice center idea overall. So I started a juice center in my dad's shop. My dad used to own a small tea stall kind of thing in, you know, like in a very busy area. So I pleased him without rent. Can I put a stall? And He said yes, but the crucial part was I shouldn't be there. So I partnered with my friend at the investment standpoint and also execution standpoint, that he should be the face of it, he should be running it. And we did that for maybe a week, you know, and we made some money, but it was a complete loss. And the reason was we couldn't hold on when the rains were happening back to back in the summer. And, you know, the income was down and I didn't see a scope. And after running it for a week, I did understand that I did some math and I was like, okay, I can get to this stage, but this is not where I wanted to be. I wanted to be here somewhere in the higher range. So it didn't make sense as well. So we stopped that thing. Then I stumbled upon affiliate marketing. I started making a few hundred bucks and this is exactly when I actually joined college. I used to go to the college. I was from the 60 people who joined the diploma. Maybe I'm guessing this, I don't know the exact number. Maybe 15 people actually passed out and joined the engineering, the B.Tech engineering. And we joined directly in the second year, not in the first, because we finished 3 years of diploma. Now coming back, I was one of the very few who joined the engineering. And so the engineering college was exactly beside the college I actually joined. So nothing changed, the same 50 cents, you know, given to me every day to go to the college and whatnot. And yeah, that's how much money we had. But I used to make my own money, so I I used to sit in my home and eat biryani a lot of times because I had money. Coming back, I went to the college probably for 3-4 days. I found nobody I can vibe with. The class was shit. All of these losing guys, they were always talking about stuff which doesn't really matter in life. And I was like, this is not my place. I don't vibe here. You know, even my diploma was similar to that, but at least I had those bonds, like those friendships which I made when I was not making money, which made more comfortable for me to have a conversation. But these people, I wasn't even aligning myself. I only found 1 or 2 people who I actually vibed with, who I always used to do fun stuff and bunk the college and have fun. But coming back, the only few days I've actually gone, I decided not to pursue it. So I used to make bullshit excuses to sit in my home. I used to run dozens of Instagram accounts and post endless content to attract inbound leads and convert them into my affiliate weight loss product sales, and I used to make a few hundred dollars here and there, good money. And I was actually comparing myself to my mom. And, you know, she was like, she was like 43 years old back then, and I was like 19 or something, 18, I don't know, 18, I guess. But I was making as much money as she was without a degree, without anything, only sitting on my phone. I was like, okay, I'm going somewhere. Now, coming back, that's when my mentor introduced me, like, hey, you know, like, I'm unable to scale. He was like, hey, your website is converting at 1%. If you can make it more by using a funnel, now it could be higher. I was introduced to the funnel. I built a funnel for my own affiliate marketing business and it 17x'd my income. And that was an aha moment for me. Then I started following media. I started making so much money and whatnot. Okay, now coming back, why did I quit college? After that quick backstory is it was a zero value add for me. Like, it was the same information I already learned in diploma, which was basically repeating, I already finished my diploma in mechanical engineering, which was like 80% of the information you will learn in the second year of the engineering. And it didn't make sense. It was just like a rephrase thing. I was like, I already know all of this shit. Anything new? It was nothing. So I was like, didn't make sense. Theoretical bullshit, let's put it that way. And I was desperately broke and I was really wanting to make some money. And But the best part was, even I was making money, I did show up for the exams and I cleared all of my subjects, you know, without anything. And till then I was like this guy who doesn't show up to the college, but suddenly I was famous in my class because there were like, again, a lot of people in the class, but only like 7 people actually passed all the exams and I was one of them. So all the remaining people were actually the first benchers. They used to show up, they used to do the work, and now they pass. And I was the one who actually was the not-comer to the college and still passed. So, you know, my head of the department called me and had a conversation with me like, hey, how did you pass? And I was like, whatever, I did what I supposed to. So yeah, coming back to the point, the college was absolutely waste of time, right? And I was making enough money with affiliate marketing that even my professors were not making. You know, the problem with the education system in India, especially at an engineering standpoint, was you have underpaid professors who have no passion for what they're doing. Everybody is working there for a salary. Like, if you delay the salary for 30 days of everybody, like, 90% of them would quit. They would find something else. They are living on a complete paycheck to paycheck. They don't have a clue on what's going on in their life. They don't control their life. These guys are utterly underpaid. Like, I used to ask them questions, and I got to know that these guys used to make a few hundred dollars, like, $100 $300, $200 as income. And I don't know, I question myself, like, who am I learning from? What am I getting there from? So it didn't make sense. And okay, like, whatever, that's their personal thing, you know. And the only reason they were working there for the respect and the consistent money which was getting credited on the first of the month. So coming back, they were low quality, unprofessional, frustrated, not talented engineers who were becoming teachers because I couldn't afford to pay for a bigger college for my engineering purpose. I only settled with what I got as a free seat once again. Okay, now one fine day, this is what happened. This is like the legit real story, what actually happened. I used to show up for college sometimes because my HOD was like, hey, you know, you can write your exams and clear them. But in engineering, there was this bullshit clause, like if you don't show up for your college for at least for certain percentage, like you will be debarred. It. Like, you know, you can't write your exams as well. So we made a deal, like, you know, if I show up for a few days, he can add a few more days and I could actually do my exams. Because I transparently told him I have a business to run and he was— he seemed fine with it, uh, you know, because he was kind of like, oh, how are you doing it? You're so young, this and that. But whatever. Coming back, I was like, I used to show up for a few days at least. Now the classes were bullshit. Half of the teachers would not teach anything. They would Waste time in the class. So I used to carry these thin little books in my bag. You know, I used to have one book with one pen, then I had one of the books along with my phone. So that was technically it. And I used to have a lot of my friends, you know, talking to girls and, or, you know, watching, you know, some shit on YouTube or playing songs, or somebody in the back is playing games, somebody else in the back is fighting with each other. And making fun noise and whatnot. It was just a mess. I mean, you can imagine how a bad school looks like. Now it was just BS. So one fine day, what was happening is everybody was wasting their time. So I was like, I have this book, why not read it? So I opened it up. I was actually reading through, and this is a very small book. As you could see, I only used to carry small books for a reason. So Steve Jobs was the book overall. Like it was like a summary of like a smaller version of his biography. So here is what happened. I was reading this, then the professor came to me. There was like a dozen people shouting at each other, fighting, you know, watching some dumb shit, you know, having fun. But I was the guy who was silently reading his book. He came to me and he snatched my book away from me, and he was like, what are you doing? I was like, I'm reading a book. And by the way, just to be clear, there was nothing being taught, nothing was happening in the class, everybody was just having fun. I was reading book, but then he walked to me, and because I didn't go to college every day, he had this bad impression on me. I don't know, maybe he's like a little frustrated bitch, I don't know. But he was like, he snatched the book away from me, and I was like, I'm reading a book, what's the problem? Then he was like, no, you can't read novels in class. I was like, first of all, this is not a novel, this is a self-help book, and everybody in the class is actually having fun, and I'm trying to read something to improve my knowledge. Like, what's the problem? Then he had this XYZ, like, no, you're not allowed to do this and that. You don't show up to the college. You know, it's not just about passing exams. You gotta be having high attendance. You need to listen to all the classes. Don't bunk the class. He was like— I was like, bro, I mean, it's not an egoist thing, but it didn't make sense. Like, I know personally he used to make like, I don't know, $180, something like that, as a monthly salary. And he was teaching me on what to do. It didn't make sense quite because I was making like a few thousand dollars back then. And it's like, do I need this? Like, should I be in this place? I looked around and I was like, nah, this is not where I should be. Then I was like, okay, give me my book. I'll take my bag. Bye-bye. Goodbye for the college. And that was like my last day of the college. I was out of the room immediately. I was out of the college immediately. And I never did go back other than for one party, which was like a, you know, a college party. But like, that was pretty much it on why did I quit college. And it didn't make any, any sense because the environment was completely crappy. And it was like absolutely making no sense for me to be there. After that, immediately the good thing was the COVID happened. So I got serious on my business. I transitioned from affiliate marketing to using funnels and making more money, then transitioning into full-funnel agency. Then I started to make $1,000, $3,000, $5,000, $10,000, $15,000, $20,000 a month within just a very short period of time. You know, like, to be very exact, in my first 2 months of my execution, I actually was doing multi-five figures, which is $20,000 in revenue back then. So it was a huge sum. You know, my family was absolutely not okay with me quitting college, especially when I was making a few hundred bucks or a few thousand dollars here and there, because they didn't believe in what I was doing. Like, it was like they were thinking I was making some lucky money. Let's be real. Like, who do you know is an 18-year-old guy making some internet money and building fortunes? Not so realistic in India where I'm coming from. So my parents didn't believe in me. But then suddenly what happened was I turned everything around. Like, I started to make so much money that we paid off all the debts. We moved into a different house, a better house and whatnot. And then they were like, okay. I was like, you know what? Even though after COVID the college reopens, I'm not going there because I know I can make more money and be better than that. So after I have proved myself, they were okay with the fact. And the rest is basically history, which is You know, we started as a 19-year-old dropout to become a millionaire in just 2 years running my own marketing agency and whatnot. Now, what do you learn from this? Should you actually do the same to quit college? And the reality is I always made money. And you know, it might be inconsistent, it might be small or big, but I always made money. And that is the number one goal. You know, you should actually— you should be financially free about yourself before you actually make any big decisions. Like, I genuinely believe in this concept of doing what you're best at, and college wasn't the best thing I can do. I could do so much more, so I quit. But in your case, maybe if you're in a job or a college where you're already doing your best, then you should continue what you're doing. It is what it is. You gotta explore new things, do it as a side gig, and once you have a proof of concept, that's when you need to make the transition. Think about that. I made multi, multi-five figures and paid all of our debts all of our loans, made my family happy and proved who I am. And we moved from a small 10-bedroom house to a big 3BHK apartment and whatnot. And that's when I actually kind of quit my college at a logical standpoint because the COVID was happening. And that's when my family was okay with me quitting it. Then I made consistent 5 figures, then I hit, you know, multi, multi 5-figure months. Then I actually moved to Hyderabad. That's when I got serious business. Then I bought a home for my family. Then I built a car wash business for my dad and gifted him a car and whatnot. So there was like too many things which I was doing, which actually, you know, gave me like a much bigger scope on what I can do. And my family continued to believe in me overall. I was hitting amazing numbers with my clients and amazing numbers for myself. So coming back, if you really want to consider to quit college, like have an action plan, do it as a side hustle, prove yourself that you can do something, that's when you quit. You should make— let's say you're spending $1,000 a month for yourself and your college cost, I don't know, $50,000 a year. You should at least make, uh, you know, $50,000 plus $1,000 a month, which is $12,000 a year. You should at least make $74,000, which is double what you spend and your tuition fees. That's when I think you're eligible to quit your college. At least that's my formula. I might be completely wrong. This might not apply for you, but that's how I did it. I had a free college education because I was a scholar. I made so much money, more than my mom, more than all the professors who were teaching me, and that's when I decided to basically make that decision. But I don't think like just because you watch some motivational videos and few stories, you should decide to quit to do something else or quit your college for no reason and then be ideal. I don't think that's a good place. You should never empty your cup without having a better stuff to put in. So I was always going from, okay, small money, which is 8-ball pool, to some big money, which is building apps, better money, which is selling affiliate products, and best money, which is building funnel as a freelancer or an agency. Then getting to like 6-figure months was like always a better cup for me. So that's what you should actually look at. So if you really have something to do, you always have time. You can leave your college, temporarily like I used to. I never used to go to college, very, very few days, and I used to prove my thing. And once I made enough money, I made the transition. I hope this video actually added some value to your life after understanding my journey on why did I quit college. So if you have a professor in your college where they will snatch your book while you're reading it, you're in the wrong college, or maybe you're in the wrong place entirely. So quit it. Like, that's what I've done. When I had that experience. So tell me what you would do if you had a professor in your class who would snatch a book when everybody else was basically having fun and you're reading a book. Well, how would you react? Did I be, you know, an ego guy? Did I be some, you know, not respectful guy? Let me know your thoughts. But that's it for this video. I hope this video actually added you a better perspective on how I look at college. College is a learning source for information. And information could be like absorbed from anywhere. Like I learned more from YouTube. I would say the most from YouTube, talking to my mentors, coaching programs, masterminds I've joined, and doing my interview and talking to other people on phone where I learn about their business and whatnot. I learned so much more about life from them than any other college. The relevancy of college education is not so much in real life. Because, you know, what's most important is health, wealth, relationships in life. I've never seen a college talking about health in the first place— psychological health, physical health, mental health, whatnot. They don't talk about wealth at all. They only make bitch money, like a few hundred dollars a month, and they don't even have a clue on how to make money. And, you know, most MBAs are taught by people who never built businesses. Like, it doesn't make sense. I want to learn from people who have done it. Like, if I'm taking any input on how to live my life, I am borrowing a truth or belief. And if I'm getting it from the wrong person, I need to question everything what's happening in my life. Because a, like, a bullshitter can only think so much. A person who have achieved something will have a much bigger perspective. Like, every time I talk to a deca-millionaire, centi-millionaire, they have a very different perspective, and it just opens up new neurons in my brain. And that's what I love. That's what gives me a better scope. So have mentors, learn from better people, invest in coaching program, invest in yourself. That's what you got to constantly do. I always invested in myself whenever I used to have extra money. Even till date, I always invest in better mastermind, better programs, better software, better teammates, better infrastructure, better coaching, better mentorship, whatnot. I always keep myself first, and that's what you got to do as well, if I'm not mistaken, unless you are wanting to be a professional a lawyer or a doctor or somebody, uh, you know, who need a degree to pursue what you want to. But if you really want to build a business, look at what you really want to build, find them, find somebody who actually built it, go and learn from them, go and work for free for them to actually learn. That's how I've done it as well. So I hope that actually I added a better perspective in life. This is me, Nikhil Sai, uh, giving you a brief story on how and why I actually quit my college and what is the framework you might need to take as an approach when you actually plan to quit your job or your, uh, college, whatever it could be, because the same approach applies. So that's it for now. You got to always be, uh, growing and live up to your full potential. Even if you don't want to, do it anyways. Like, I don't like shooting this video right now, but I'm doing it anyway. So I hope this inspires you. If you like this video, please consider subscribing and like this video. Comment what would you do if you had had, you know, somebody snatch your book when you're reading in your college, and share it with your friends who might get some value out of this. And I'll see you guys in another video. This is me, Nikhil Sai, 19-year-old dropout turned millionaire in just 2 years, running my own marketing agency, now helping dozens of clients build million-dollar businesses. Working with us generated over 500 million results. And bye for now.