Charlie Kirk advice to men from Gen Z: Forget college, find success in your own terms
The late Charlie Kirk has spent a large part of his time as CEO of Turning Point USA not in a corner office but on university campuses, competing for students in open debate. His essential challenge was simple: “Prove me the opposite.”
One of his favorite subjects was the value of higher education itself. Kirk, who abandoned the Harper College outside Chicago before building a non -profit organization of $ 85 million a year, argued that too many young people were pursuing diplomas per habit.
“The college is supposed to provide a path to financial security and professional success,” he wrote in an editorial in 2022. “This promise is true for less and less graduates.”
Kirk thought that universities had moved away from the teaching of essential skills such as writing and problem solving, rather focusing on conformity while feeling students with debt. His philosophy: do everything you need to set foot in the door – then re -evaluate if more education is really necessary.
“You know, something that is so lacking when I speak to employers is hunger and desire,” Kirk told Fox News while promoting the launch of his book 2022: College’s scam: how American universities go bankrupt and wash the brain of the future of American youth.
“What will this piece of paper really do for you?”
Many genres agree with Kirk: the university is not worth it for everyone
While Kirk has been frank on his opinions on the decreasing return on investment in higher education for years, many Gen Zers have shared his skepticism.
Some 51% of Gen Z College graduates now consider their diplomas as a “waste of money”, according to a recent Feth survey. And it can be worse among young men: a Financial timeThe analysis revealed that men holding a university diploma now have about the same unemployment rate as young men who did not go to university.
This change has left more than 2 million young men classified as Neet, which does not mean in employment, education or training – with an average student debt approaching $ 40,000.
For young men who seek not to face the same difficulties, Kirk’s advice were simple: “do anything” except to seek a four -year diploma. Instead, make your dreams a reality by doing so in your own words, encouraging people to continue entrepreneurship.
At the same time, Kirk has often framed his arguments in ideological terms, moving that universities were dominated by “far left teachers” who, according to him, have pushed “anti-American and progressive ideologies to students”. However, he recognized exceptions.
“I would say, very safely, that maybe if you want to become a doctor or lawyer or an accountant or engineer-who, by the way, is a huge minority of people who go to colleges-maybe you should go to university but choose the right one,” Kirk continued. “But the vast majority of children, the vast majority of children who go to university, should not be there at all.”
https://fortune.com/img-assets/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/GettyImages-2179970880-e1758571066172.jpg?resize=1200,600
About The Author
