Recently, I was listening to The Diary of a CEO by Stephen Bartlett. One episode in particular really stuck with me—it featured the founder of Snapchat. At first, I thought it was the WhatsApp founder (oops!), but no, it was the Snapchat guy. He shared a story that made me pause and think deeply about education, success, and what it all means.
He was studying at Stanford when he started Snapchat, and as the business exploded, he naturally had to put his studies on hold. It got too intense to do both. That part didn’t surprise me. It’s something we hear all the time in startup stories. What did surprise me was what happened later.
He went back.
In 2018, years after Snapchat became a household name, he returned to Stanford and completed his degree. And the reason? He didn’t want to one day have a difficult conversation with his son about why he hadn’t finished. He didn’t want his child to look at quitting as an acceptable option just because things got successful.
That reason alone moved me. But what really stayed with me was how he spoke about creativity.
He said his son loved drawing, and he talked about creativity not as an end goal, but as a starting point. Drawing, he said, is a tool. A way to express how you see the world. And nurturing that creativity matters more now than ever.
It made me reflect on my own university journey. People often criticize higher education, saying it doesn’t teach you “real-life” skills or help you succeed in the “real world.” I get it. I’ve heard it. But here’s the thing: university isn’t supposed to give you all the answers. It’s supposed to help you ask better questions.
University, for me, was a framework. A way of thinking. A structure that planted seeds of curiosity, of critical thinking, of creativity. And no, you don’t eat the seed. You eat the plant after it’s had time to grow. Learning takes time. Maturity takes time.
People say, “University didn’t prepare me for success.” But maybe that’s not its job. Maybe its job is to give you the soil, the water, the light, so that when you are ready, you can grow into something only you can be. I’m glad I went through my course. Sure, it meant I didn’t earn as much money or save like some of my friends who worked two jobs during uni. But I wouldn’t trade the growth I went through for anything. I came out of that journey a better person.
Wiser, more thoughtful, more aware.
That, to me, is success worth having.