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I started writing The Dropout Manifesto as a junior in high school. I worked with an incredible editor, Steph Spector, who turned a wily 17-year-old's voice into something worth publishing.
In May 2018, I published the book, and ten days later, dropped out of high school.
Without college. Without a real high-school diploma.
The Dropout Manifesto set my path for the future. It was a defining volume of hundreds of books I had read up to that point, hoping to solidify my belief in myself that I could go about life a different way. And I wrote it to remind you that you can, too.
It’s not a book convincing you to ditch school. Rather, by the end of this book, you should put it down and say, “The obstacles are not real. I can distort reality.”
After all, that's what a piece of paper is trying to do.
The Dropout Manifesto is about dropping in to your own education, your life, your real goals.