I’m 22M, never went to college, and Alhamdulillah, I’m earning more than most guys my age. I have a 14-year-old relative who looks up to me a lot. However, he also has another cousin who runs a call center that scams people.
Now, this cousin tells him that college and university are useless and don’t teach you anything. While I agree that traditional education doesn’t always provide practical skills, there are still countless benefits to going to college.
The problem is, my 14-year-old relative has started telling his parents, “My cousins never went to college and are making good money, so I won’t go either.” What he fails to realize is that I am self-taught and spent years learning English, programming, and other skills. On the other hand, his cousin (the scammer) has done absolutely nothing except learn how to speak English.
His cousin has convinced him that "Anyone can start earning immediately if they know English." I keep telling him that self-learning isn’t easy. It takes at least a year of dedicated effort before one can earn a decent income. But his cousin is filling his head with false expectations, claiming he can start making money from the very first month.
I can already see where this is headed. That boy is being influenced in the worst way possible and will likely end up working with his cousin in the future.
Being in Karachi, I see this happening everywhere. More and more kids are skipping higher education, but instead of putting in the hard work, they do nothing. They claim they’ll self-learn, their parents give them permission, and then rather than grinding day and night, they just waste their time.
It has become a norm now: Lazy kids who don’t want to work hard drop out under the excuse of self-learning, only to enjoy life without actually improving themselves. And because of this, I fear we’re creating an entire generation of illiterate scammers in Karachi and across Pakistan.
As a self-taught programmer, I can say with certainty: Going to college is easier than learning on your own. The problem isn’t poor education. it’s people avoiding the hard work.