Many people ask me how I got started doing what I’m doing and they story always ends up with me telling them how I took the leap of faith and dropped out of college to build my business and be able to work on it full time. This is scary for a lot of people, and I had no clue that things would work out when I made my decision, but I knew a few things that I wanted out of life and following the “right thing to do” path was not going to allow me to do those things, or at least not right away. Since making that decision I have done things I could have never dreamed about doing before, met some amazing people and most importantly I am my own boss.

Getting back to making the decision you know the only reason I was in college is again because it was “the right thing to do”. At that point in my life I really did not know what I wanted to do and nothing really excited me except for computers and technology. I went to college for information systems technology and honestly I was bored out of my mind in class, that got me to thinking what do I really want? I thought about that for a good while and I knew what I was really interested in, it was ThinkComputers. I loved reviewing tech products and the idea that I was building a community around the site really excited me and made me motivated. Thinking about it was I wondering if I could actually make a living off of it so I started spending more and more time on it. During this time I also thought about other things that I wanted. One big one was to be my own boss, I mean who likes taking orders right? I also wanted to feel like whatever my job was I was actually making a difference or contributing to something. So in the end ThinkComputers was a win-win for me. It took a lot of hard work, but I was able to make a business out of if.

Now I’m not at all saying college is a bad thing or that you shouldn’t go down that route. You can be extremely successful by going to college, it just was not for me at the time. One quote that reminds me of my journey figuring out what I wanted to do with my life is this:

“The commonsense rules of the “real world” are a fragile collection of socially reinforced illusions.”

This quote is from Tim Ferris the author of the 4 Hour Work Week and basically it means that society has these rules that we are supposed to follow, but in reality we can do our own thing and it will be ok. Think about it, we are taught all through school that going to college is what you are supposed to do, then you are supposed to work a 9-5 or worse for 30+ years. Just think about that, sounds miserable right? Many of the worlds most successful people did not even complete college, but in the end that is not what this post is about. This post is about breaking away from the norm and doing your own thing.

So you know why and how I broke away and did my own thing, but how can you? Taking a large risk is hard for many people, but if you have the right mindset it is so much easier. Honestly I would suggest reading the 4 Hour Work Week. For me, it made me realize a lot, one of the most important things was that we don’t wish we had a million dollars, we wish we had the life that we believed that million dollars could buy. Believe me you don’t need to have a million dollars to live and enjoy life.

Once you have that mindset it will be so much easier for you to work on a project or to start your own company. Once you know the reward or have just tasted the reward a little bit, you are going to want it more and more and that will give you the motivation to really make it happen. That sort of what I did, I started to make money with ThinkComputers and month after month I was making more and more and I was only doing it part time. That was my taste and I knew if I was doing it full time I could make it a real business and not be stuck working an unfulfilling 9-5.

It’s been great living by my own rules and at times things have been hard, but I would never want to go back to the “real world” lifestyle that’s for sure. So if you are thinking about doing your own thing and going against the norm then go for it!