10/15/2025
To Study or Not to Study at University —That Is the Question
A fictional story based on real events
A few years ago, a young man approached a modest businessman with the intention of becoming his apprentice. When someone wants to learn from you, it’s always flattering—but it’s also a great responsibility.
The young man had big aspirations; he was full of energy and curiosity, yet strongly influenced by those “life coaches” who flood social media. He admired figures like Amadeo Llados, Andrew Tate, and others who promote the idea that university is a waste of time. He used to say that four years spent studying were four years wasted—years he could be using to “get ahead” and “make money.”
The entrepreneur listened to him, trying to find the right words to make him see the flaw in that way of thinking without discouraging his drive to progress. Although the young man’s ideas seemed somewhat extreme, they gave him a lot to think about. The young man insisted that university doesn’t guarantee success—and he was partly right. Times have changed: a university degree is no longer the currency it once was. Businesses and markets move at a pace that traditional education can’t always keep up with. By the time a student finishes their degree, the market has often shifted, and what they learned may already be outdated.
Still, the businessman resisted accepting that view entirely. Because while it’s true that university no longer guarantees success, it’s also true that dropping out without a solid foundation can be a risky bet.
In one of their conversations, the young man said:
—But look, you didn’t finish university either, and things worked out well for you.
That phrase stayed with the mentor for a long time.
He knew his case wasn’t an example to follow—it was the exception, not the rule. He hadn’t left university by choice, but because circumstances didn’t allow it. Throughout his life, he had faced obstacles that he might have avoided had he earned a degree.
In his reflections, he often thought about his own son. He didn’t want him to grow up thinking the way that young man did—so lost in his own ambitions. He thought: “It may seem like I’m doing well, but I don’t have the connections I could’ve made in college, nor a diploma to certify my knowledge or endorse my professional abilities. In my case, anyone who wants to see what I’m capable of has to take a risk—and not everyone is willing to do that. A diploma, at least, opens doors and builds trust.”
People who knew him often told him he had achieved a lot without a college degree. And while he didn’t hold a formal title, his education never stopped. He had learned from practice, from mistakes, from challenges, and from people with greater experience.
Over the years, he had completed various diploma programs and courses related to his field—logistics, operations, customs, and digital marketing, among others. He always kept studying on his own: reading, researching, designing his companies’ websites, following tutorials, attending conferences, and learning from the daily experience of running a business.
He deeply believed in education—he had simply lived it differently. And he kept learning every day, with the same curiosity as that young man who once wanted to learn from him.
That’s why he thought education still matters—not just for the opportunity to earn a degree, but for the process itself. Studying sharpens the mind, broadens one’s culture, teaches you to think, to compare ideas, and to understand the world. But those who rely only on what university teaches won’t learn much either. A student must go further: study independently, read both fiction* and nonfiction—business, sociology, economics, philosophy, and general culture—learn languages, listen to and watch expert lectures, observe how the sharks of the business world and top academics conduct themselves, and above all, learn applied strategy, not just theory.
University shouldn’t be seen as the destination, but as the starting point. True learning lies in the constant pursuit of knowledge and growth—personal, professional, intellectual, and, for those who believe, spiritual as well—even long after the diploma is earned.
And that, ironically, was what the businessman ended up learning from the young man who had once come to learn from him.
*Note: “Fiction” is not the same as “science fiction.” Fiction is any narrative born from the author’s imagination and not necessarily based on real events. For example: Battles in the Desert by José Emilio Pacheco, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, or Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling.
Science fiction, on the other hand, is a subgenre of fiction that introduces scientific, technological, or futuristic elements—real or imagined—like Interstellar or Back to the Future.
