Welcome to our special section, Thrive on Campus, devoted to covering the urgent issue of mental health among college and university students from all angles. If you are a college student, we invite you to apply to be an Editor-at-Large, or to simply contribute (please tag your pieces ThriveOnCampus). We welcome faculty, clinicians, and graduates to contribute as well. Read more here.
Dropping out of college to pursue your passions is one thing. But doing it when almost no one believes in your vision and supports you is a completely different beast. For Nick Rogers, deciding to drop out of the University of Pittsburgh after feeling that he wasn’t supposed to be there would prove to be a great decision. But, not having the support of the people closest to you can be demoralizing and derail any progress made towards your goals.
Regardless of who supported him or not, Nick had a relentless mindset to back him up. He picked up a job at a local car dealership to support himself while he began dropshipping, and he put his head down and grinded until he became successful. After months of failure with dropshipping, there came a point where most people would throw in the towel and move on. For Rogers, he was able to face this time of uncertainty head on and overcome self-doubt to break through and find success with dropshipping.
Investing thousands into the venture and seeing little return for an extended period of time taught Nick how to not only stay positive, but gave him valuable lessons in patience and keeping a positive mindset while he learned from his failures.
Nick’s willingness to take a risk and bet on himself equipped him with the skills and mental strength to make his true passion a success. In October of 2018, Nick launched Business Driven Dream, a business education brand for young entrepreneurs. Within 4 months of launching the Instagram page, he was able to grow to 100k followers. The brand has since expanded to every major social media platform, and a website that features business news, articles from contributors, and courses crafted with industry professionals.
With all of Nick’s early struggles with dropshipping, it would be easy for him to get complacent after his success with BDD. Falling back on a successful Instagram page in today’s digital age is feasible, but Nick stayed hungry for more. He knows that a lot of young entrepreneurs can go down a bad path chasing quick and easy money, but he’s stayed committed to his goal of building a meaningful, impactful and long lasting brand. This is a testament to Nick’s character and his commitment to his core values, regardless of how much success he accumulates with his brand.
In today’s age of instant gratification, getting impatient with success is easy. Seeing influencers on social media flaunt their cars and fancy vacations and comparing your own lifestyle to theirs is toxic, and is debilitating to progress in any venture. Speaking on progress, Nick says, “I’m only 20 with two growing businesses and BDD is about to take over the business education niche, but I still feel like I’m behind. Patience is something I had to learn at the start.” Rogers would be the first to admit that he still needs to work on his patience, but he’s become more disciplined with experience and trusts his long term process of establishing Business Driven Dream as a leader in the business education niche.
Making the decision to go against the status quo and drop out of college to pursue his passions has given him the ability to build and create whatever he wants. This didn’t come without facing challenges and uncertainty, but the risk was far worth the reward for him. He’s been picking up massive momentum throughout the past year, and he hopes that Business Driven Dream will be able to help other people realize that this can be possible for them too!
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More on Mental Health on Campus:
What Campus Mental Health Centers Are Doing to Keep Up With Student Need
If You’re a Student Who’s Struggling With Mental Health, These 7 Tips Will Help
The Hidden Stress of RAs in the Student Mental Health Crisis