Will Kelly earned an associate's degree online while in the military but refused to pay $300 to receive his diploma. He argues that formal credentials don't matter for building a business, and that real learning comes from mentorship, failure, and hands-on work, not a piece of paper.
When I was in the military, I went to school in college online, and I got an associate's degree, and it was in general studies, right? So I could take that and apply anywhere, or at least take it and go get a job. Okay, look, I finished my associate's degree. Whoa, the other thing is they, they wanted to charge me for, for my degree, which I thought was like wild at the time. I'm like, hold up, so I just went to school here for 2 years and you're gonna charge me like $300 to Have you sent me my degree in the mail? Pfft, the heck with that. I ain't doing that. And so I never got my degree. I did 2 years. I graduated, but I never got the piece of paper because there was something inside of me in my brain and my heart that was like, I'm never going to need this. To build a business, you don't need schooling. You need real-life education. You need mentorship. You need to fail 99 times. And then get it right once and actually win. That, that's how it works. You see, school teaches you pass or fail, right? It's binary, good or bad. But entrepreneurship teaches you to what degree. You see, things can be good and bad. What degree does it fall in line? Okay, it's not a binary thing. It's not you passed or failed. It's how well you did and how much you failed.
