Let me tell you my own personal story. Take from it what you will.

My first passion in computers was programming. Before any games (other than Microsoft Flight Simulator), it was programming. I started when I was 8, in QBASIC. By the time I was 14, I was hacking away at 3d graphics, physics sims, my own OS kernel, etc. That was also the age at which I completed my highschool, as I was homeschooled after 5th grade.

It was at this point that my parents wanted me to go to college, but I didn't want to. We fought over the issue a lot. I ended up going and dropping out of 3 or 4 different universities. My longest stay was around 3 years' living away from home on campus. That was my first time really being out in the world by myself. I learned a lot, made friends, played video games seriously for the first time. I failed or barely passed most of my courses (even the computer science ones), withdrew from a lot of quarters (they didn't have a semester system). But when I participated in coding competitions I felt the most alive I had ever been and I usually won them. During all this time I had the dream of starting my own company, something which I had known since before I had graduated highschool.

That's how my teens years passed. I was a very ambitious, headstrong, rebellious, and emotional teenager and early-20s guy. I dealt with depression and some probably bipolar-like symptoms. All this combined into a cycle where my parents kept pushing me to go to college and complete it, and I would relent and accept, but I wasn't able to go through with it. Around the time I was 18 I started to look for work online, and I found an online project from a small company. I ended up entering into a long-time remote working relationship with them, doing projects here and there. I was getting some income (but not much).

When I was around 22 I was back at community college as otherwise my parents would have kicked me out. I was a bit more emotionally stable now, so I was able stick my classes, but overall, I very, very much disliked the college experience. It was here, at community college, that I met a guy who told me about the hot iPhone app market. I started hanging out with him and I started coding on his laptop (he didn't know any technical stuff). Eventually I ended up building my first app in Xcode. I decided to partner up with him and form a company. My own company! I thought. This is the dream coming true! But I had no experience in setting up a business, and the only reason I partnered up with this person was because I was very excited. No rational thought went into it. We started off slow, then it just took off. At one point we had more than one app in the top 25 of our category, and even one in the top 5! We were so excited and the money was just rolling in. But that's when the internal problems came to a head. The more money we made the more problems. He wasn't pulling his weight, I was doing all the work, he was acting the "boss" etc etc. Eventually we broke up, I left. The app plummeted in ranking as our quality of work suffered and the updates stopped coming. At one point, I had spent 2 months sleeping nights at the office and coding in the day because of the pressure from my business partner on me to "work". It took a huge toll on me mentally. I finally realized he was just using me and decided to break away. But I wasn't up to the task of fighting him for the company, I just wanted to make a clean break ASAP because of my mental state. Well, I did it. It was such a relief. I put it behind me and continued on. I went back to working remotely with that small company I used to do projects for before. For about a year that kept me going.

Which brings this story to the present. Now I'm 26 years old. That small company wasn't able to keep paying me, so I searched for 2 months for a job. I got one recently. The pay is decent, flexible hours, have to work at the office though, nothing too exciting, but I'm satisfied. I have some stability in my life. I was going to a university again. I had decided not to pursue computer science as a major again, instead going for physics or mathematics. But I quit that once again so I can do this job. Now, on the side, I have a startup project going again, with another person I worked with at my previous startup. We're taking things slow (a little slow right now), but it's nothing I can't manage working the weekends. I still have that dream and that passion. In fact, I have many dreams, the smallest of which is to have a successful tech company. But my now 26 year old brain is a bit more emotionally mature. I have some practical real world experience behind me. No matter what anyone says, that real world experience is invaluable. I have decided not get my degree after all. What would have happened had I stuck to the "normal" path, and not fought my parents over going to college? I would probably have had a degree at 18, and with my skills a really good job at a big tech firm lined up when I graduated. In eight years I would have been making at least 4x what my current (first real) job is giving me. I might even have been married with kids. But that wouldn't have been ME. This is me. This is the path I have made for myself, and I honestly regret nothing. I will keep trying. At 26 years old I feel kind of old. How old will I be when my company is successful? 28? 30? 40? I don't know... that's kind of disappointing, but I'm gonna keep at it.

I think many here will tell me - I should still go back and get a degree. But I've made my decision and I'll live with it. And my life also doesn't revolve entirely around me being a hacker or having my own startup or wanting to be the next Instagram or what have you. I have many passions around which I base my identity. If my next startup fails, I won't lose myself in the process. And I'll still be financially stable with a regular job. Keep that mind as you forge your own path in life. Don't focus everything you have on one little thing. Give yourself something to fall back on financially. And have your sense of self rooted deeply AND widely - so that a failure in any one part doesn't make you personally feel like a complete failure. I came close to that in my first startup. And I can't imagine what I would have been like mentally had I not had other passions in which I could still feel successful. Well, I guess now I'm lecturing you and I kind of promised not to do that in my first sentence... But I'm not telling what to do. Take whatever path you want, but I think you should keep these things in mind.