Making Progress and Taking Control

As I reflect on my journey to this point, I'm reminded that every decision I've made has contributed to where I am today. It's easy to overlook the small, seemingly insignificant choices we make, but these decisions compound over time and can have a profound impact. In fact, it's often the tiny changes in our daily habits or approach to life that can lead to significant growth and progress.

I recently had the opportunity to discuss my experiences and insights with Matt Mormon of Obsessed Garage, a business-related podcast that I highly recommend checking out. Matt and I explored many of the same topics we cover here on YouTube, but his vast experience and expertise added another layer of depth to our conversation. One thing that struck me was how easily it is to get caught up in a cycle of complacency and excuses. It's easy to feel like we're just spinning our wheels or making incremental progress when what we really need is a bold, intentional approach to achieving our goals.

That's exactly why I'm committed to pushing myself even harder now that I've graduated. With no more excuses, I can focus on creating content that truly adds value to my audience. One of the things I want to explore in upcoming videos is how to make the most out of school. Drawing from my own experiences and lessons learned, I hope to share practical tips and strategies for getting the most out of your educational journey.

Another project I'm excited about is creating a series where I'll be sitting down with you guys to work through big-picture goals and plans for the next few years. We'll start by writing down every single accomplishment or goal we want to achieve, breaking them down into smaller, manageable tasks that can be tackled right now. This might seem like a daunting task, but trust me, it's incredibly liberating when you break down what seems like an insurmountable goal into tiny, achievable steps.

One thing I'm often asked about is how to stay motivated and focused on our goals, especially during periods of uncertainty or transition. For me, the key has been finding people who support and encourage me along the way. That's why I want to acknowledge my wife, Nicole – she's been an absolute rock for me over the past semester, supporting me through thick and thin. Her love and encouragement have given me the courage to push forward even when things got tough.

Nicole has also taught me the value of giving back and serving others. She's shown me that true fulfillment comes not just from achieving our own goals, but from using our talents and resources to make a positive impact on the world around us. I'm so grateful to have her by my side as we navigate this next chapter in life.

As graduation day approaches, I want to celebrate with a bit of fun! Alberto, I see you out there – let's get this party started!

For now, it's time for me to put on the gas and take off into the sunset. Thanks to everyone who's been along for the ride – your support means the world to me, and I'm honored to have such an amazing community of people cheering me on from the sidelines.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI'm literally so strong and my neck is so bulging that I ripped the button off this shirt D so I'm supposed to be graduating today but with all the stuff I've gone through with UCF I like don't trust it and I'm convinced that I'm going to like go there and I'm still not going to graduate until I walk across that stage in my head it's like not real it's over it is finished we are at California Pizza Kitchen for like a little C celebation and you will not believe when Nicole just got me get ready for it what is it it's Forza on xoo it's Xbox I'm super stoked and Xbox Live so you can play with your Connecticut but I've wanted an Xbox for so long but I made myself wait until I graduated because I knew that it would be very counterproductive and I also decided not to give it to for Christmas because a you would either impulsively buy it and not wait almost did multiple times I thought you might expect it for Christmas so do it now yeah no that was very unexpected wait it was so heavy I thought it was tools I'm so excited 3 years ago I was a freshman at UCF pursuing a mechanical engineering degree ree I was a straight A student school is easy for me and graduation was just something that was expected it was just another milestone in life you graduate high school you go to college you graduate college now rewind to 6 months ago and everything's different I'm a business management major and I find out from UCF that my plans to graduate at the end of the semester are nearly impossible because I need like six more credits that I can't even figure out how to cram into my schedule now since this is a graduation video it's quite obvious that I did figure out a way to manipulate my schedule and with the help of a really awesome Professor I was able to secure an independent study that allowed me to graduate so like what changed why did my cruise control life where everything seem so planned out and regimented turn into what it is now previously in my head I was doing what I believe to be the normal path in life I was doing what people told me I was good at I was good at math I was good at physics so I was going for mechanical engineering so I can make a lot of money hopefully strike it big with some sort of investment or invention and then maybe start a business roll around in money and just have fun doing what I do but YouTube and my clothing business like changed everything as a sophomore in college I was starting to make more making YouTube videos and selling clothing than I would as a starting engineer and after learning the engineering's less Hands-On and more paperwork and working for other people that as a career kind of lost its appeal to me so after getting advice from friends and family I did what in my head was a giant risk and I switched my major from engineering to business management specifically entrepreneurship so technically I'm going to school not for any sort of job security I'm going to school to learn how to run my own business after those first few business classes it was just just like w everything is clear now everything makes sense I'm spending all this time going to school learning new things but I'm able to use those things that I'm learning right now to make myself more money to make myself a better person in what I do and school became fun I was excited to go to class every day what I was learning was actually sinking in and for once I finally felt like I knew what I wanted to do with my life on top of that going from engineering classes to business classes I think it's almost obvious that they're a bit easier to take you know they're less time consuming they're less demanding so I was able to travel more I was able to push my business farther and I was able to continue YouTube so what changed why was this last semester so hard for me why did I make so many videos so stressed out why did I almost not graduate being a YouTuber running a clothing Channel being a BMX rider even drifting cars can almost all be like full-time jobs on their own with the amount of time that they require there are loads of other people out there probably even some of you watching this video that have equally as much stuff going on as I did maybe you have a full-time job maybe you have kids and you're trying to get your degree and like I respect that beyond belief I know how hard it is but here's why it's a little bit different for me none of those things are nineo fives there is no clear end of work any given second of the day I can be doing something to either push the clothing business the YouTube channel my BMX career or even my drifting farther there's so many opportunities I've had to pass up because of school amazing trips in foreign countries collaborations with other YouTubers I've idolized for Years big money brand deals and tons of time I could have spent riding my favorite skat parks and Street opportunity cost of going to school is so high that I firmly believe talking to you right now that if I wasn't going to school for all of 2016 and let's say I started doing daily in January and I really put all my effort into what I was doing I bet at the end of this year I could have made about $750,000 that probably sounds absurd to you but those numbers are derived from data and YouTube was such a different climate one year ago there were so many less creators and it was so much easier to grow that if I was putting the effort that I'm putting into videos now the growth would have come compounded so much that would be ridiculous at this point it's kind of like the whole concept of investing at a super young age and then being a millionaire by the time you're like 40 my goal is and always has been to make jobs rather than take jobs and as cliche as that sounds I think it's much cooler to start a company create value and put other people into employment rather than educating myself just to take a position in another existing firm now there's nothing wrong with that like I'm not trying to convince all of you to be entrepreneurs for a lot of people 9 to FS are ideal it's so much less stressful you know when you're done with working you're done with work and you can make enough money to support pretty much any sort of living standard that you want to live you just have to work your way up that corporate ladder and for some people that's really fun my education will and has helped me immensely with all my business experiences whether it be negotiating contracts being able to Market myself or even working with suppliers overseas but here's the thing like I don't need a degree for what I do if you go to LLC a company or hire people they're not going to be like well you don't have a degree so you can't do that the beauty of being an entrepreneur is there are no requirements and that's what made staying in school so tough on top of that I'm a perfectionist I like being the best at everything that I can do knowing that I'm putting all in and truthfully that's just not possible I can't put all my effort into BMX all my effort into drifting all my effort into school and all my effort into my company it's just not possible and honestly you probably saw I was on a downward spiral driving myself insane because I was trying to give all these things my all and it's just not possible life is give and take and I had to make sacrifices so I looked at everything on paper and I thought what is the most important to me where should I be putting all my time and resources is BMX was my life but the thing is I knew it's not going anywhere once I graduated I knew I'd be able to ride more and I was hoping that my BMX fans would stick with me through it all with my clothing business I was fortunate enough to hire a really good friend of mine James Harvey to manage everything and he's been able to hold down lzbmx probably just as good as I could have and for me to say that like that's a lot I am so immensely thankful for James Harvey being in my life there are very few people in this world that I would trust with my company and James has just done so well stepping into a position that he's never been in honestly James was in a really similar position to me going to school for digital design and UCF pulled some last minute crap on him and he ended up having to drop out so James if you're watching this you know how much I appreciate you because there's no way I'd be able to do what I do without all your hard work so BMX is on the back burner the clothing company is being held down by James Harvey drifting I was new to and it wasn't really a big deal cuz it's not like I've been used to Drifting a lot and although it drove me nuts having to skip events or not having time to deal with my car I was able to push that on the back burner a little bit too but the hardest thing to push on the back burner was school I had to realize Iz that being a 4.0 perfect GPA student just wasn't worth my time not needing a degree with what I'm doing not needing a perfect grade average like that's not going to help me anymore in referencing the law of diminish returns for me to get that higher grade I'd almost have to put in 50% more effort just to get like 10% better grades so I had def find a balance where I was comfortable putting in ample effort so I would pass and not be embarrassed of my grades or feel like a complete idiot so I focused on YouTube and the reason I chose that I love making videos the clothing company BMX drifting like that all wouldn't be possible without YouTube and the thing is YouTube is so high growth right now the future is so unknown and I knew for my time I will get the maximum return out of working on YouTube than I will out of working out of any other passion in my life and you know what that's something I learned in school so I guess school did help me with school because as simple as it sounds you don't really just come up with that level of thinking on your own or maybe you do you guys are really smart but I didn't and as I'm telling you this story I'm hoping that you're finding things that you can connect with finding little pieces of advice that can help you cuz that's the whole reason why I'm making this video yes I'm very proud and I want to share it with the world but this isn't me sitting here bragging this is me sitting here trying to analyze what changed in my life that was able to put me into the position that I am now what enabled me to graduate and what can I pull from that to tell the world that will help them a ton of My Success on YouTube has to do with making how-tos and tutorials I love teaching people things it feels so rewarding and that's something I really want to step more into in the future it's very hard for me to back out on commitments and I feel like graduation was just one of those things where if I didn't follow through and if I dropped out a semester early which I was so close to doing I would have regretted at 10 years down the road I feel like persevering especially with everyone knowing how much I'm giving up it really says something about my character and I'm hoping that it sets an example so if you guys are ever in a similar position you'll push through you'll stay focused and you'll think back to this video and you'll be like man I know Adam gave up to graduate I can do this too my biggest tip for you and I've reinforced this in my 335i video like about a year ago is to set goals for yourself if you have no plan if you have no goals you're just wandering aimlessly through life you have to know why you're going to school you have to know why your major is what it is and you have to be intentional about every single decision you make you need to decide where you want to be with your life in 5 years and every decision you make needs to put you one step closer to that because those decisions compound and as small and as minuscule as they may seem can have a giant impact over the course of a few years there's a business related podcast that I did with Matt Mormon of Obsessed garage and I'm going to put a link to it in the description because if you're kind of interested in hearing this stuff we draw out a lot of the same topics I'm talking about now but there's also the Insight of two people with way more experience than me with a ton of good insight and stuff to share there's so many decisions that I've made and the crazy thing is you guys probably know 99% of them and you can imagine that if just one of those decisions slightly changed I probably wouldn't be sitting here right now making this video I cannot thank you guys enough for sticking with me this past semester has been so difficult and it just kills me knowing that I'm not able to put my 100% efforts into YouTube and with so many people making awesome content on YouTube it means so much to me that you guys stuck around that you still watch the videos and my reward to you is going to be to push myself even harder to do more crazy cool things because I have no excuses now there's no more complaining about school I can be intentional about almost every decision in my life and there's nothing in the way for me reaching my dreams I can't cram everything into this one video and there's two more that I want to make one is just kind of focusing on things that I found to be really helpful in school how to get the most out of school kind of drawing from my experiences and the other is going to be me literally sitting down and showing you guys how I'm planning my life now that I'm out of school it's so easy to be lazy it's so easy to not be intentional about what you're doing if you don't know where you want to be it's going to be a lot of fun we're going to sit down together we're going to have a piece of paper and I'm going to write every single big accomplishment or goal that I want to work towards over the next couple years we'll break them down into smaller more achievable tasks and I'll kind of show you guys how something that seems so absurd where you are right now seems way more doable when you break it down into things that well you can start working towards right now I'm super excited to make those videos even if it only really resonates with like 10% of you I'm excited to know that I can have that type of impact because those type of things are really what impacted me and put me where I am right now I can't make a video like this without neglecting to acknowledge Nicole I probably should have listed her being my wife and our relationship in those list of priorities but in my head it's like a totally separate subcategory but honestly like our relationship is another big thing that takes away from my time that I could be putting into these other things and I probably put it more on the back burner than I should have I'm not perfect I make mistakes and and I'm just lucky enough to be with someone that understands I 100% would not be here without Nicole either she's helped me become such a better person she's shown me the love of giving back I've learned so much from her and I really attribute a large amount of My Success to the person I've become as a direct result of her being in my life she's given up so much for me just to really help me she's given up so much just to see me walk across that stage and words cannot express the amount of appreciation that I have for her enough she's almost been a mother to me over this past semester in the way that she's helped me streamline my life so every single thing that I'm doing is pushing me towards my goals while she's giving up hers as much as I would have liked for that to not have been what went down I don't think I could have done it without her I love you Nicole you know you mean the world to me and every single one of you watching this does too but graduation calls for celebration I'm looking for any excuse I possibly can find to burn some rubber so let's end this video with a graduation burnout and a big thumbs up on that like button you guys are the best if you're watching this this means I graduated I have to give my car in so Alberto can do the cage so I filmed this before I actually graduated I got to do a graduation burnout CAU Adam I can't see you anywhere be coming out of the smoke where are you where's my cup it's over here I'm poison when you said when you said when you that you love me that youI'm literally so strong and my neck is so bulging that I ripped the button off this shirt D so I'm supposed to be graduating today but with all the stuff I've gone through with UCF I like don't trust it and I'm convinced that I'm going to like go there and I'm still not going to graduate until I walk across that stage in my head it's like not real it's over it is finished we are at California Pizza Kitchen for like a little C celebation and you will not believe when Nicole just got me get ready for it what is it it's Forza on xoo it's Xbox I'm super stoked and Xbox Live so you can play with your Connecticut but I've wanted an Xbox for so long but I made myself wait until I graduated because I knew that it would be very counterproductive and I also decided not to give it to for Christmas because a you would either impulsively buy it and not wait almost did multiple times I thought you might expect it for Christmas so do it now yeah no that was very unexpected wait it was so heavy I thought it was tools I'm so excited 3 years ago I was a freshman at UCF pursuing a mechanical engineering degree ree I was a straight A student school is easy for me and graduation was just something that was expected it was just another milestone in life you graduate high school you go to college you graduate college now rewind to 6 months ago and everything's different I'm a business management major and I find out from UCF that my plans to graduate at the end of the semester are nearly impossible because I need like six more credits that I can't even figure out how to cram into my schedule now since this is a graduation video it's quite obvious that I did figure out a way to manipulate my schedule and with the help of a really awesome Professor I was able to secure an independent study that allowed me to graduate so like what changed why did my cruise control life where everything seem so planned out and regimented turn into what it is now previously in my head I was doing what I believe to be the normal path in life I was doing what people told me I was good at I was good at math I was good at physics so I was going for mechanical engineering so I can make a lot of money hopefully strike it big with some sort of investment or invention and then maybe start a business roll around in money and just have fun doing what I do but YouTube and my clothing business like changed everything as a sophomore in college I was starting to make more making YouTube videos and selling clothing than I would as a starting engineer and after learning the engineering's less Hands-On and more paperwork and working for other people that as a career kind of lost its appeal to me so after getting advice from friends and family I did what in my head was a giant risk and I switched my major from engineering to business management specifically entrepreneurship so technically I'm going to school not for any sort of job security I'm going to school to learn how to run my own business after those first few business classes it was just just like w everything is clear now everything makes sense I'm spending all this time going to school learning new things but I'm able to use those things that I'm learning right now to make myself more money to make myself a better person in what I do and school became fun I was excited to go to class every day what I was learning was actually sinking in and for once I finally felt like I knew what I wanted to do with my life on top of that going from engineering classes to business classes I think it's almost obvious that they're a bit easier to take you know they're less time consuming they're less demanding so I was able to travel more I was able to push my business farther and I was able to continue YouTube so what changed why was this last semester so hard for me why did I make so many videos so stressed out why did I almost not graduate being a YouTuber running a clothing Channel being a BMX rider even drifting cars can almost all be like full-time jobs on their own with the amount of time that they require there are loads of other people out there probably even some of you watching this video that have equally as much stuff going on as I did maybe you have a full-time job maybe you have kids and you're trying to get your degree and like I respect that beyond belief I know how hard it is but here's why it's a little bit different for me none of those things are nineo fives there is no clear end of work any given second of the day I can be doing something to either push the clothing business the YouTube channel my BMX career or even my drifting farther there's so many opportunities I've had to pass up because of school amazing trips in foreign countries collaborations with other YouTubers I've idolized for Years big money brand deals and tons of time I could have spent riding my favorite skat parks and Street opportunity cost of going to school is so high that I firmly believe talking to you right now that if I wasn't going to school for all of 2016 and let's say I started doing daily in January and I really put all my effort into what I was doing I bet at the end of this year I could have made about $750,000 that probably sounds absurd to you but those numbers are derived from data and YouTube was such a different climate one year ago there were so many less creators and it was so much easier to grow that if I was putting the effort that I'm putting into videos now the growth would have come compounded so much that would be ridiculous at this point it's kind of like the whole concept of investing at a super young age and then being a millionaire by the time you're like 40 my goal is and always has been to make jobs rather than take jobs and as cliche as that sounds I think it's much cooler to start a company create value and put other people into employment rather than educating myself just to take a position in another existing firm now there's nothing wrong with that like I'm not trying to convince all of you to be entrepreneurs for a lot of people 9 to FS are ideal it's so much less stressful you know when you're done with working you're done with work and you can make enough money to support pretty much any sort of living standard that you want to live you just have to work your way up that corporate ladder and for some people that's really fun my education will and has helped me immensely with all my business experiences whether it be negotiating contracts being able to Market myself or even working with suppliers overseas but here's the thing like I don't need a degree for what I do if you go to LLC a company or hire people they're not going to be like well you don't have a degree so you can't do that the beauty of being an entrepreneur is there are no requirements and that's what made staying in school so tough on top of that I'm a perfectionist I like being the best at everything that I can do knowing that I'm putting all in and truthfully that's just not possible I can't put all my effort into BMX all my effort into drifting all my effort into school and all my effort into my company it's just not possible and honestly you probably saw I was on a downward spiral driving myself insane because I was trying to give all these things my all and it's just not possible life is give and take and I had to make sacrifices so I looked at everything on paper and I thought what is the most important to me where should I be putting all my time and resources is BMX was my life but the thing is I knew it's not going anywhere once I graduated I knew I'd be able to ride more and I was hoping that my BMX fans would stick with me through it all with my clothing business I was fortunate enough to hire a really good friend of mine James Harvey to manage everything and he's been able to hold down lzbmx probably just as good as I could have and for me to say that like that's a lot I am so immensely thankful for James Harvey being in my life there are very few people in this world that I would trust with my company and James has just done so well stepping into a position that he's never been in honestly James was in a really similar position to me going to school for digital design and UCF pulled some last minute crap on him and he ended up having to drop out so James if you're watching this you know how much I appreciate you because there's no way I'd be able to do what I do without all your hard work so BMX is on the back burner the clothing company is being held down by James Harvey drifting I was new to and it wasn't really a big deal cuz it's not like I've been used to Drifting a lot and although it drove me nuts having to skip events or not having time to deal with my car I was able to push that on the back burner a little bit too but the hardest thing to push on the back burner was school I had to realize Iz that being a 4.0 perfect GPA student just wasn't worth my time not needing a degree with what I'm doing not needing a perfect grade average like that's not going to help me anymore in referencing the law of diminish returns for me to get that higher grade I'd almost have to put in 50% more effort just to get like 10% better grades so I had def find a balance where I was comfortable putting in ample effort so I would pass and not be embarrassed of my grades or feel like a complete idiot so I focused on YouTube and the reason I chose that I love making videos the clothing company BMX drifting like that all wouldn't be possible without YouTube and the thing is YouTube is so high growth right now the future is so unknown and I knew for my time I will get the maximum return out of working on YouTube than I will out of working out of any other passion in my life and you know what that's something I learned in school so I guess school did help me with school because as simple as it sounds you don't really just come up with that level of thinking on your own or maybe you do you guys are really smart but I didn't and as I'm telling you this story I'm hoping that you're finding things that you can connect with finding little pieces of advice that can help you cuz that's the whole reason why I'm making this video yes I'm very proud and I want to share it with the world but this isn't me sitting here bragging this is me sitting here trying to analyze what changed in my life that was able to put me into the position that I am now what enabled me to graduate and what can I pull from that to tell the world that will help them a ton of My Success on YouTube has to do with making how-tos and tutorials I love teaching people things it feels so rewarding and that's something I really want to step more into in the future it's very hard for me to back out on commitments and I feel like graduation was just one of those things where if I didn't follow through and if I dropped out a semester early which I was so close to doing I would have regretted at 10 years down the road I feel like persevering especially with everyone knowing how much I'm giving up it really says something about my character and I'm hoping that it sets an example so if you guys are ever in a similar position you'll push through you'll stay focused and you'll think back to this video and you'll be like man I know Adam gave up to graduate I can do this too my biggest tip for you and I've reinforced this in my 335i video like about a year ago is to set goals for yourself if you have no plan if you have no goals you're just wandering aimlessly through life you have to know why you're going to school you have to know why your major is what it is and you have to be intentional about every single decision you make you need to decide where you want to be with your life in 5 years and every decision you make needs to put you one step closer to that because those decisions compound and as small and as minuscule as they may seem can have a giant impact over the course of a few years there's a business related podcast that I did with Matt Mormon of Obsessed garage and I'm going to put a link to it in the description because if you're kind of interested in hearing this stuff we draw out a lot of the same topics I'm talking about now but there's also the Insight of two people with way more experience than me with a ton of good insight and stuff to share there's so many decisions that I've made and the crazy thing is you guys probably know 99% of them and you can imagine that if just one of those decisions slightly changed I probably wouldn't be sitting here right now making this video I cannot thank you guys enough for sticking with me this past semester has been so difficult and it just kills me knowing that I'm not able to put my 100% efforts into YouTube and with so many people making awesome content on YouTube it means so much to me that you guys stuck around that you still watch the videos and my reward to you is going to be to push myself even harder to do more crazy cool things because I have no excuses now there's no more complaining about school I can be intentional about almost every decision in my life and there's nothing in the way for me reaching my dreams I can't cram everything into this one video and there's two more that I want to make one is just kind of focusing on things that I found to be really helpful in school how to get the most out of school kind of drawing from my experiences and the other is going to be me literally sitting down and showing you guys how I'm planning my life now that I'm out of school it's so easy to be lazy it's so easy to not be intentional about what you're doing if you don't know where you want to be it's going to be a lot of fun we're going to sit down together we're going to have a piece of paper and I'm going to write every single big accomplishment or goal that I want to work towards over the next couple years we'll break them down into smaller more achievable tasks and I'll kind of show you guys how something that seems so absurd where you are right now seems way more doable when you break it down into things that well you can start working towards right now I'm super excited to make those videos even if it only really resonates with like 10% of you I'm excited to know that I can have that type of impact because those type of things are really what impacted me and put me where I am right now I can't make a video like this without neglecting to acknowledge Nicole I probably should have listed her being my wife and our relationship in those list of priorities but in my head it's like a totally separate subcategory but honestly like our relationship is another big thing that takes away from my time that I could be putting into these other things and I probably put it more on the back burner than I should have I'm not perfect I make mistakes and and I'm just lucky enough to be with someone that understands I 100% would not be here without Nicole either she's helped me become such a better person she's shown me the love of giving back I've learned so much from her and I really attribute a large amount of My Success to the person I've become as a direct result of her being in my life she's given up so much for me just to really help me she's given up so much just to see me walk across that stage and words cannot express the amount of appreciation that I have for her enough she's almost been a mother to me over this past semester in the way that she's helped me streamline my life so every single thing that I'm doing is pushing me towards my goals while she's giving up hers as much as I would have liked for that to not have been what went down I don't think I could have done it without her I love you Nicole you know you mean the world to me and every single one of you watching this does too but graduation calls for celebration I'm looking for any excuse I possibly can find to burn some rubber so let's end this video with a graduation burnout and a big thumbs up on that like button you guys are the best if you're watching this this means I graduated I have to give my car in so Alberto can do the cage so I filmed this before I actually graduated I got to do a graduation burnout CAU Adam I can't see you anywhere be coming out of the smoke where are you where's my cup it's over here I'm poison when you said when you said when you that you love me that you\n"