When Doubt Strikes Bold Choices Lead to Success

I think I was 17 years old and my economics professor came up to me and said, "You're not going to graduate from high school. I just don't see it for you." And what he said to me in the nicest way— I believed him at that time— was, "You are a good people person. You're really good with humans. You're really good in customer service. You don't even need a degree to do that." But it seemed nice at the time. He was doing me a favor, like, don't bother with trying to finish school, just go do the other thing. I had other ideas. I was smart. I went and aced my SATs and ACTs, which were the big tests back then, right? And then I went and got into— I literally closed my eyes and dropped my finger on a college in Florida that was cheap because I lived here, and I landed at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and it set me up for the rest of my life.