Success has to be fun in order for you to want to achieve it.

The only reason people become successful is because it comes as a byproduct of working very hard, with leverage, over an extended period of time, without slowing down or losing momentum; if anything, only gaining momentum.

Most people think that the only way to make money is to work for someone or to start a boring business but this isn't even close to true.

The fact is that you can start a business in any industry in the world - yes that also includes those tiny little industries you don't pay attention to like waste management and gardening.

Maybe even oil brokering or middlemanning some sort of trade deal where you get a profit due to a price arbitrage between countries. 

You can literally do anything in your life, and that's the best part about real life - there are no limitations. 

The only problem is that people are boxed in from a very small age.

They're told that they're supposed to go to college and then get a job, but nobody had ever told them that a gap year exists.

It's best to take a gap year between you graduating highschool and going to college and seeing how you fair in the real world.

Some might see this as bad advice, but won't it be better going to college knowing how the real world is?

Atleast you're attending your classes knowing what to expect and knowing where you place in the international scope of competition in the business marketplace. 

I'd rather be able to have a 10% chance at genuine financial independence before I even start college and be able to make real business connections

while everyone else is procrastinating and waiting around gaming while waiting to go to a college and get a degree that won't differentiate them from 10,000 other people doing the exact same thing in their country - not to mention the millions of others around the world. 

Most individuals that go to college don't even know that the degree alone won't do jack.

They just go through college just like in school, expecting everything to go well. When in reality, they won't even get a good intership without impressive projects under their belt.

One thing I know is that taking that gap year will be more effective than whatever projects

I'm able to do in the 5 years of college since I'd focus on college most of the time - since grades are so clearly dominant in there. 

Life is straight forward. Work hard and you'll reach your goal. Work smart only when you can work hard.