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The Valedictorian of University of Maryland drops out of school two weeks before graduation

• Published on May 20, 2017

From https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/valedictorian-university-maryland-drops-out-school-two-

managadze

Dear University of Maryland,

I was your Valedictorian until about a month ago and almost gave the Main Commencement

Speech at graduation, but instead of giving the speech, I decided to follow my dreams, fail all

my classes this semester, and drop out of school two weeks before graduation without getting a

degree. If you would like to know why your Valedictorian dropped out of school, you're

welcome to read my email to my parents below:

Dear Mom and Dad,

I finally found my destiny this semester in college.

I have finally understood how leadership, happiness, and fearlessness actually

work.

Leadership is very simple.

All you need to have is a lot of confidence and a lot of empathy both at the

same time.

You need confidence to know what you want to do and do it.

You need empathy to understand other people’s perspectives, emotions, wants,

and desires so you can lead them and help them achieve their goals.

You make yourself happy and you make everybody around you happy.

You can’t have confidence without emotional intelligence or emotional

intelligence without confidence.

You need both.

I have learned that there are only two real emotions in life: love and anger.

Life is not as complicated as people make it out to be as long as you’re not lazy.

Life is actually very simple.

We are always mentally at either peace or war.

You show love to your friends in peace and anger to your enemies in war.

That’s it.

Peace or War.

People are also easily divided in two categories: real friends or enemies.

This is what a real friend is: he supports you in every way possible, makes you feel

better no matter what you’re going through, never judges you, never makes fun

of you in a bad way, and always has your best interest in mind.

Every “friend” that does not fit this description is a fake friend.

You need to get rid of fake friends immediately. They’re only slowing you down.

Either try to convert them to your real friends or just completely ignore them

forever.

I have finally also understood what passion really means.

Every human being on this planet only really has one passion - the passion of life.

If we are mentally at peace, we are passionate about life by doing what we

love.

If we are mentally at war, we are passionate about life by fighting for it and

protecting it.

Very simple.

You’re always happy, though.

Happiness is a choice.

You’re happy in peace.

You’re happy in war.

You’re always happy.

If you stop being lazy, stop listening to haters, and take control of your mind and

all its thoughts and emotions, you can literally choose to be happy all the time.

From right now, till the second you die, you can always be happy if you want to.

Happiness is a choice.

I’m always happy, no matter what happens.

You think you need a reason to be happy?

I’m happy because I’m alive. Period.

There are no other emotions in life other than love and anger.

Fear?

What is fear?

Fear doesn’t make any sense to me.

Fear is not an emotion.

You can’t feel fear.

Fear is all in your head.

If it’s in your head that means you can completely block it out.

This semester I was able to block out every single fear I had in my head about

absolutely everything.

I’m literally, by definition, fearless, and you can be too if you want to.

What are you afraid of?

1.

Are you afraid of other human beings?

What?

Why?

What does that even mean?

Why would you fear someone of your own species?

If someone is a threat to your happiness in any way, then they are an enemy.

Aggressively defend yourself from your enemies, but also show mercy.

Just because somebody is your enemy, does not mean you necessarily have to

hurt them.

You should do your absolute best to solve all your problems without unnecessarily

hurting others.

Other human beings should not be your enemies.

Life is a collaboration, not a competition.

These are your real enemies: cancer, hunger, homelessness, all other diseases, the

fact that we're running out of resources and haven't colonized other planets yet,

the fact that we haven’t discovered life somewhere else in the universe, etc.

2.

Are you afraid of failure?

What?

Why?

What does that even mean?

There is no such thing in life as failure.

Every “failure” and “mistake” is just a lesson.

Lessons on lessons on lessons.

Blessings on blessings on blessings.

Learn from your mistakes as soon as they happen, bounce back immediately,

and move on with your life, faster and smarter than before.

3.

Are you afraid of death?

What?

Why?

What does that even mean?

I could die right this second. I would die absolutely happy if I died right now.

And so on and on with all your other fears.

Fear is literally not a thing.

Fear is not a thing in peace.

Fear is not a thing in war.

Fear is never a thing.

Period.

I have learned that the number one most important part of getting rid of all fear is

being completely honest to absolutely everybody (starting with yourself) about

absolutely everything absolutely all the time.

Do you realize that when you lie, you literally create fear in your head that the

other person might find out the truth?

You create fear?

In your own head?

On purpose?

Is that a joke?

Why would anybody do that?

If you want to be completely fearless, you have to be completely honest.

Very simple.

Boredom?

What is boredom?

Boredom is not an emotion either.

Boredom is literally the absence of life, the absence of passion.

Why would you ever be bored?

Do you enjoy being bored? That doesn’t make sense.

Being bored literally wastes your life away.

Every second of your life that you are bored, you are throwing those seconds

away.

Please don’t ever be bored ever.

Boredom is not a thing.

There’s only two kinds of things in life: things you can do something about, and

things you can’t do anything about.

The past is something you can’t do anything about because it’s already past.

Regret?

What’s regret?

You’re feeling bad about the past?

Why?

There’s absolutely nothing you can do about the past.

The only thing you can do is make peace with it and learn from it.

Regret is not a thing.

The future is something you can do something about.

It’s all in your hands.

Your story has not been written yet.

You are the only one who can write it.

Worry?

What’s worry?

You’re having a negative thought about the future?

Why?

If you want something, do something about it.

Make it happen.

Make your dreams actually come true.

Worry is not a thing.

The present is your greatest present.

Always live in the moment.

You only have one life.

Life’s beautiful.

You can do anything you want.

I cannot see heaven being much better than this.

Stay focused.

Don’t multitask.

Focus on one thing at a time.

Completely immerse yourself in what you are doing without any distracting

thoughts.

That means, yes, when you are working, your phone should probably be on

airplane mode.

All you have to do is make sure that you are absolutely happy in the present, no

matter what you are doing.

If you are always happy in the present, then you will be happy in the past,

present, and future. Think about it…

What’s the point of having any negative thoughts about the present, past, or

future?

What’s the point of having any negative thoughts in your head at all?

You can’t be happy if you have any negative thoughts in your head.

That means when you judge others, you are literally creating negative thoughts in

your head on purpose and purposefully making yourself unhappy.

Are you kidding me?

Why are you making yourself unhappy?

Why are you judging others?

Judgement means misunderstanding.

You don’t understand why other people are doing what they are doing.

They clearly have a good reason for doing what they’re doing, or they would not

be doing it.

Stop judging.

Try to understand people instead of judging them.

Judging is not a thing.

Here’s one of the most important things in life: commitment.

How did Cortes overtake the Aztec empire with only 600 men against hundreds of

thousands of enemies?

After landing on the beaches of Mexico, instead of charging right into battle, he

camped out on the beach, gave motivational speeches to his army for multiple

days, and then burned every single one of his boats.

There is no way back.

There is no safety net.

There is no backup plan.

There is no escape plan.

You only have two choices: you can either die, or you can ensure victory.

That’s it.

You’re one billion percent committed to your goal.

No thought of escape or failure whatsoever.

We all know how that story ended.

This semester I have finally understood that my true passion and dream is to

become a self made entrepreneur.

A CEO.

That means I want to start my own company.

From scratch.

Without a degree.

Without getting a job anywhere.

And become a self made entrepreneur.

Why am I getting a degree if my dream is to not have a degree?

I don’t want a degree.

I don’t want any job that requires a degree, ever.

To me, a degree and any job that requires a degree, is an escape plan from my

dreams.

I don’t need escape plans from my dreams.

I don’t need a back up plan in my life.

I don’t need a safety net.

I don’t ever want to work with anybody who thinks having a degree is more

important than being fearless.

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t waste any money, I fully completed my computer

science major and technology entrepreneurship minor.

I got a computer science education and became a Valedictorian.

I only dropped out of school two weeks before graduation.

All I didn’t get was a piece of paper.

I believe in people.

I believe in honesty.

I believe in fearlessness.

I don’t believe in concepts the society made up if they don’t make sense to me.

Why are most people unable to become successful entrepreneurs?

Because they don’t persevere.

After a few ideas and start ups fail, they give up on their dream and get a job

with their degree.

Guess what?

By not getting a degree, I completely eliminated the option of giving up on my

start ups and getting a job from my entire life.

I will literarily never ever even have the option to give up, literally ever.

I will make my dreams come true or I will literally die trying.

That’s how passion works.

I will never work a day in my life, while also working every single day of my life, on

my life.

Is it insanely difficult to become an entrepreneur from scratch?

Not if you want it badly enough.

Doing anything worth doing is difficult, but just because something is difficult does

not mean it’s not worth doing.

I’m gonna make it work, one way or another, without a degree.

I don’t care how hard it gets or what kind of hell I have to go through for how

many years to get there.

I’ll make it work.

Watch me.

By the way, I’m telling you everything post-factum.

You can’t change my mind about this.

I already purposefully failed all my exams this semester so there would be no way

I could get my degree.

I already purposefully failed all my classes.

I already officially dropped out of the university.

You’re probably not very happy about my decision.

You’re probably very mad at me at this point.

Just remember that no matter how mad you’ll be at me, I’ll still always love you

very much.

Please don't disown me yet though.

I really need a place to stay before my start ups get funded.

I don't even have money for food right now.

I’m literally almost always broke.

I literally get the “Your account is below $15” email from Bank of America on a

weekly basis.

I currently have in my possession 1 US Dollar, 10 Canadian Dollars, and about 20

bucks in my bank account.

That’s all the money I have in the world.

That’s like two and a half Chipotle burritos and then I might actually die of

hunger.

Last week I was trying to buy two sandwiches from Bagel Place and the cashier

handed me back my debit card and said I could only buy one sandwich

because my “gift card” ran out of money…

I don’t even have any money to buy any of this society’s dreams right now.

That’s why I’m building my own.

This is what my heart told me to do.

This is me ignoring the society’s ridiculous rules about life and truly following my

heart’s most intimate desires.

27 million people have watched Steve Job’s 2005 Stanford Commencement

Address but how many people do you know who actually took his advice literally

and followed their heart?

Well, now you know at least one.

Am I absolutely crazy? Probably. It’s the crazy ones that change the world

though, remember?

Dear Mom, I would not be anything near the person I am today without you. I

would be completely lost in this world if you had not educated me. I can't even

really express how much I love you. Thank you for always standing by my side and

supporting me no matter what.

Dear Stepdad, I don’t know what I would have done if you had not come into my

life and saved me. You have been my greatest inspiration my entire life. You grew

up in one of the worst time periods ever in Soviet Union Georgia, a time when

most of the country did not have money or food or electricity most of the time.

But regardless of your circumstances, because of your unending hunger for more

and more knowledge, relentless work ethic, and unbreakable dedication and

determination for a better life, you made it from impoverished Georgia to a PhD

in Germany and then an amazing job in Silicon Valley. I am proud to call you my

father.

Also tell my little sister I love her.

I don't know if her reading skills are good enough yet to completely understand

this message.

(That's a joke. She's around 13 and probably smarter than me.)

Love,

Your son.

That’s all.

I just wanted you to read the email I wrote to my parents.

By the way, education needs to be free for everybody immediately.

Anybody can become a computer scientist for almost free online without paying tens of

thousands of bucks in an “education.”

I almost never went to any class ever after freshman year.

I literally became the Valedictorian by learning everything by myself at home and then only

showing up to the exams.

Nobody needs to pay tens of thousands of bucks to sit in class either bored or asleep for 4 years.

Remember how boredom is the opposite of passion?

Every single second that you are bored in class is a second of your life wasted.

To be completely honest with you, literally none of my professors were able to inspire me in any

way.

Even the director of my Hinman CEOs Entrepreneurship Program insulted me and told me that I

wasn’t good enough to become an entrepreneur because my 3.94 GPA “could be higher.” Is

that a joke?

I’m sorry University of Maryland, your campus is absolutely beautiful and I created amazing

memories there, but I give you zero credit for my education.

The only people that deserve any credit for my success so far are my parents, my sister, my

puppy, David Potter, Abb Kapoor, Camren Sonneveldt, Jonathan Galitzer, Michael Victor Blake,

Andrew Creighton, Don Koller, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Sean Parker, Sergey Brin,

Larry Page, Jimmy Wales, Larry Sanger, Ben Horowitz, Marc Andreessen, Obama, Ellen

DeGeneres, Jeff Cavaliere, G-Eazy, Drake, Big Sean, Kendrick, Logic, Eminem, Lil Wayne, 2

Chainz, Snoop Dogg, Meek Mill, Rick Ross, Busta Rhymes, K.A.A.N, iamtherealak, Kanye, and

StackOverflow.

I was able to complete all my computer science major and technology entrepreneurship minor

requirements in three years of college and became the Valedictorian, but because I did not

waste any time going to classes, I also had time to work out every single day, pledge a fraternity,

play sports, go out three times a week, and do a lot of other things…

Time is your most valuable, most precious, nonrenewable resource.

Please don’t waste any of it doing things you don’t enjoy.

I look at life as a really cool 4D 5-sense video game.

Completely open-world.

You can do whatever you want.

You create your own missions.

When you're facing a lot of monsters, challenges, difficulties, and enemies, that means you're

going in the right direction.

When you make mistakes and are set back a little, you learn how to defeat those monsters

better next time.

You never give up on your goals and you always play the game till the end.

You're always happy, even when you have to do really challenging missions and face really

hard bosses that take many tries to kill.

You even have virtual trophies and achievements. That’s like your bucket list of really special

memories and adventures: having sex in crazy interesting places, secretly blacking out in airports

in Mexico over spring break, hotboxing cars, houses, hotels, sailboats, igloos, ice cream trucks,

Etc.

I’m sorry but I have to cut this message a lot shorter than I want to.

I’m already extremely late to happy hour.

If you need any additional inspiring, I wrote a rap about entrepreneurship during my freshman

year that you can listen to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB3tWQnc92I

Have fun at graduation.

Gio Managadze.

Ex-Valedictorian of University of Maryland.

The College Dropout.

Self Made Entrepreneur.

What’s that? Facts.

These things happen when it’s dark out.

I Decided.

More life.

DAMN.