Inspiring Stories
Derrick Kwa’s story
The first, of what I hope will be a series, of stories from LifeGoalAction readers comes form Derrick Kwa. Derrick is a very impressive individual to say the least. I have been following his blog, Sui Generis for the last couple of months and he always seems to have an interesting angle on a topic. This is made even more spectacular because he has just…no I’ll save that bit for his story. Here it is:
My story is, like you said on your post, nothing spectacular. But just wanted to
share. I’m a 17 year old from Singapore, as you can tell from my blog. I quit school at the
start of this year, because I found it to be really restricting and repetitive, and
I wasn’t really learning much, just going through the motions. It was a
really risky thing to do, especially here in the “overly-meritocratic” Singapore.Every time the topic of me quitting school came up in conversations, it almost
always brought negative connotations. People assumed that I wasn’t doing anything
with my life, or that I was screwing up my life by doing it.The truth is, I’ve learned and gained a lot since I quit school. In starting my
blog, I’ve gotten to know really inspiring and intelligent people, such as Chris
Brogan, Peter Haslam and Sarah Deutsch. And I’ve learned a lot from blogging. It’s
trained me to think more about what I’m doing, and to see things in a different way.
In reading other blogs and news feeds for ideas on what to post about, I’ve gained a
lot of knowledge as well, that I’d never have learned in school.
Also, at the moment, I’m pursuing a web service idea. I’m in discussions with a VC
at the moment, and it’s a really good experience. Thinking through the different
aspects of the service and how I want to do it, and the business aspects behind it
has really taught me a lot.
In the additional free time since quitting school, I’ve also been reading a lot
more, which has been rewarding as well.
So yeah, basically, just wanted to share my journey since I’ve quit school. People
here seem very against the idea, and just want to stick with the safe route of
school (mainly because everyone else does it), but I’ve gained a lot since quitting.
Keep creating,
Derrick
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I think you’ll agree that anyone who has the guts to deliberately leave (rather than dropping out) of school, to pursue their own life is travelling a difficult road. Especially when we are young, the opinions of those around us are really powerful forces. Hats off to anyone who can go against the flow and deliberately take their own course.
Thanks Derrick
If you would like to write a short story about your life we’d love to hear it. Just put together about 500 words telling us a bit about your goals, challenges and how you are overcoming them. Send it to me via the contact page (the button that says contact) on any of the LifeGoalAction web pages. I can’t guarantee that I will publish every story that I receive but if it is carefully written and helpful, then you will probably find your story appearing on LifeGoalAction in the near future. For more details see the original invitation here.
Thanks
Tom
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