Things They Don’t Teach You in School
Think school taught you everything? From dislocating vacuum nozzles to managing budgets, here's what they don't mention in the graduation speech.
You know that scene in superhero movies where the protagonist finally gets their powers? There's usually a dramatic flash of light, some epic music, and suddenly they're transformed. That's kind of how I imagined graduation would feel.
Reality had other plans. After walking across the stage at Mizzou's journalism school, shaking the dean's hand, and collecting my diploma, I went out for pizza. Then I went home to pack—badly. Very badly. The superhero transformation wasn't happening. Instead, my brain felt like an iPhone with too many apps running, complete with that spinning wheel of death that signals an impending crash.
The peak of this post-graduation brain drain? Standing at a car wash the next day, repeatedly trying—and failing—to use a vacuum. Picture this: me, a freshly minted journalism graduate (from the world’s number one journalism school no less), jumping up and down like a caffeinated kangaroo, somehow managing to disconnect the vacuum nozzle not once, but twice. My mom watched from the driver's seat, probably wondering if there was a return period on my diploma and tuition.
That's when it hit me: school might be over, but the real learning was just beginning. And unlike college, there would be no syllabus, no office hours, and definitely no grading curve for life's pop quizzes.
But First, Quick Note About Higher Education
Before I share what I've learned since that fateful day at the car wash, let's acknowledge something important: Higher education is both valuable and transformative. Like a cement foundation for a house, it gives you something solid to build on.
College taught me how to write well (and fast), manage competing deadlines, and function on four hours of sleep and copious toasted raviolis. I learned what I liked (storytelling) and what I didn't (advanced statistics—sorry, prof). I developed critical thinking skills, built lasting friendships, and how to live on my own.
But here's the thing about foundations: They're essential, but you still need to build the house. And that's where these lessons come in.
Learning How to Learn
Remember those college syllabi that mapped out every reading, assignment, and test? Yeah, the real world doesn't come with those. Instead, you get thrown into situations where you have to figure things out on the fly.
Case in point: In the early days at ANCORE, we needed to design packaging for the upcoming release of our flagship product, the ANCORE Pro. Up until then, we'd been using basic Uline boxes—functional, but not exactly brand-building material. As the marketing guy, this task landed on my desk. Small problem: I had exactly zero experience in packaging design.
But here's where learning how to learn becomes your superpower. One Saturday morning, armed with coffee and determination, I dove into YouTube tutorials about packaging design. I studied boxes in the wild like they were rare specimens. I sketched, I measured, I designed. To test my concept, I even printed a tiny version and folded it into what was essentially a mouse-sized ANCORE box. Was it elegant? Not exactly. But it worked.
This is what learning looks like when you leave the classroom behind. No professor giving you a rubric, no textbook with the answers in the back. Just you, your curiosity, and the endless resources of the modern world. Sometimes it means watching YouTube videos until your eyes blur. Other times it's reading, highlighting, and reviewing (shoutout to my Kindle and Readwise combo that keeps my brain from leaking knowledge).
The key is understanding that learning is now about developing (and continually honing) your own process for figuring things out. It's about following your curiosity down whatever rabbit hole it leads you, then emerging with new skills and knowledge you never knew you needed.
And here's the beautiful part: once you crack the code on learning how to learn, you can figure out almost anything. Want to design packaging? Done. Need to master a new marketing platform? You got it. Have to build a website from scratch? You got this.
The frameworks and theories you learned in school are useful, but they're just the starting point. The real skill is learning how to learn when there's no syllabus to guide you.
High-Agency Problem Solving
High agency is a fancy way of saying "if there's a problem, I'll figure out how to solve it." It's the opposite of waiting around for instructions or permission.
I learned this lesson early in my career as an intern at The Richards Group. The agency had just won a major jewelry account, and the account lead was heading off on her honeymoon. Instead of putting things on hold, they turned to the intern (yes, me) and said: "The client is visiting in a few days. Figure it out.”
No detailed instructions. No handbook. Just a few basic requirements: schedule the meeting, coordinate with the creative team, arrange catering, and make sure everything runs smoothly. For an intern, this was like being asked to land a plane after watching Con Air.
But here's where high agency kicks in. Instead of freezing up or waiting for more detailed instructions, I started mapping out what needed to happen. I tracked down the office catering expert to learn about trusted vendors. I coordinated with different departments to ensure the right people would be there. I even arrived early to the large conference room to greet the client like I moonlighted at Walmart.
My dad always told me, "You have to be an advocate for yourself." But it's more than that. You have to be willing to solve problems without being told exactly how. The world is full of people who can identify problems. The valuable ones are those who come with solutions.
Here's the thing about being high agency: you don't have to get it perfect. You just have to start. Bring a solution along with every problem you raise. Take initiative even when you're not 100% sure. The worst case? You show you care enough to try. The best case? You solve problems nobody else was willing to tackle.
Being high agency means seeing obstacles as puzzles to solve, not roadblocks to stop you.
Expecting (and Embracing) the Unexpected
You know what's worse than a bad day? A perfectly good day that suddenly turns terrible.
Picture this: It's a beautiful April evening, and I'm out for a run. Like any marketing nerd, I check my phone to see how the ANCORE store is performing. I love seeing those purchase notifications roll in. Instead, I get an email from Meta that makes my stomach drop: unknown users had accessed our ad account.
I sprinted to the car and high-tailed it home. When I logged in, it was pure chaos. In just 30 minutes—the time it takes to watch a sitcom episode—someone had burned through $13,000 running spam ads. All our standard security measures? Bypassed. Our carefully managed ad account? Hijacked.
The punch to the gut wasn't just about the money. It was the realization that if you'd asked me that morning "What's the worst that could happen with our ad account?" I would have said something like "Maybe our conversion rates drop" or "Ad costs spike." Not "Someone could nuke $13K in the time it takes to get coffee."
Here's the thing about the real world that school never teaches you: Things will go wrong. But more importantly, they'll go wrong in ways you never even considered possible. It's like preparing for a test on Shakespeare and getting handed quantum physics equations instead.
But there's a silver lining to these unexpected disasters. Every problem you solve becomes another hurdle between you and your competition. After our Meta adventure, we learned our lesson on cyber security and built protocols so thorough they'd make Fort Knox blush.
That's the key to embracing the unexpected: Don't just solve the problem, build something better because of it. Let every crisis be a catalyst for improvement. Because here's the truth: These challenges aren't unique to you. Everyone faces them. The difference is in how you respond.
Think of each unexpected challenge as adding another length between you and the competition in the race. While others are still stumbling over the same hurdles, you've already built a system to leap over them.
Making Decisions Without Complete Information
School trains us to look for right answers. Multiple choice: A, B, C, or D. True or False. Even essay questions usually have a "correct" interpretation. But F. Scott Fitzgerald nailed the reality of the real world when he said, "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function."
In other words, welcome to the messy world of decisions without complete information, where multiple "right" answers exist simultaneously. Take Ferrari and Chevrolet. Both successful car companies with completely different approaches. One sells dream machines at premium prices, the other puts reliable vehicles in millions of driveways. Both strategies work brilliantly.
Making decisions in this environment is less like taking a test and more like flying a plane. A pilot doesn't just check one instrument - they monitor a whole dashboard of readings. Airspeed, altitude, fuel levels, weather conditions. Every gauge tells part of the story, but no single reading tells the whole truth.
This is where Charlie Munger's concept of a "lattice of mental models" becomes invaluable. The idea is to collect frameworks, experiences, and insights from everywhere—books, podcasts, other industries, history—and use them to make sense of complex situations. The more mental models you have, the better equipped you are to navigate uncertainty.
Because here's the truth: you'll never have all the information. You'll never have perfect certainty. But you can build a decision-making framework that helps you navigate the fog. It's about being comfortable with ambiguity while still moving forward.
Real-World Money Mechanics
Remember how in business class they taught you to make a yearly budget in Excel, like you could somehow predict next December's expenses while eating leftover holiday cookies in January? Real-world budgets are more like a game of Tetris constantly shifting, requiring quick decisions, and occasionally making you break into a cold sweat.
Your budget is a living, breathing thing that changes constantly. At ANCORE, I check our ad spend weekly, generate monthly P&Ls, and do deep dives quarterly. By the time Q3 rolls around, I'm already mapping out what's working, what isn't, and where we need to adjust for the coming year.
But the real secret to managing money in busines is being an advocate for every dollar. Here's what they don't teach you in school: The only guaranteed way to not get a discount is to not ask for it. I've learned to treat every business dollar like it's coming from my own pocket.
That means:
Negotiating annual vs monthly pricing (you'd be amazed what vendors offer when you commit to a year)
Challenging incorrect charges (yes, even when it's awkward)
Regularly auditing subscriptions (if you haven't used it in three months, cut it)
Fighting for refunds when services don't deliver
Think of it like this: Every dollar you save is a dollar you can invest somewhere else. And sometimes the best ROI comes from simply saying "no" to unnecessary expenses.
The key is striking a balance between being frugal and being smart. Sure, you could cut every expense to the bone, but that's like trying to win the Indy 500 on a single tank of gas. Instead, you need to constantly ask: If I spend this dollar, what am I getting back? Every expense should tie to either generating revenue or saving valuable time.
It's not always comfortable. Nobody teaches you how to tell a vendor their pricing doesn't work for you, or how to push back on an unexpected charge. But getting comfortable with these conversations is part of growing up in business. Your budget is a tool for growth, and you need to wield it like one.
The Long View
Remember that brain-drained graduate trying to vacuum his car before heading to Dallas? The one who scheduled his internship less than a week after graduation? (Pro tip: Don’t do this. Give yourself a break between major life transitions. Future you will thank you.)
Looking back, I had to smile at my eagerness to jump straight into the next phase. But that's the thing about learning - it doesn't end when you turn in your last final exam. In fact, that's just the beginning.
Think about it: Most of us spend somewhere between 17 and 25 years in formal education. But if you graduate at 22 and live to the average life expectancy of 72, you've got 50 years of learning ahead of you. That's at least double the time you spent in school.
The difference? Now you get to choose what you learn, how you learn it, and when you learn it. Yes, it's messier than a structured curriculum. Yes, you'll disconnect a few vacuum nozzles along the way. But that's where the joy comes from. You get to build your own path, one lesson at a time.
These five lessons aren't a complete guide to post-graduation life (those don't exist). They're just what I wish someone had told me while I was busy trying to vacuum my car before racing off to my too-soon-scheduled internship. Take what works for you, leave what doesn't, and keep adding your own lessons to the list.
Because that's the real secret they don't teach you in school: The best learning happens when the formal education ends. You just have to be willing to embrace the journey, vacuum mishaps and all.