The Dropout Decision: Why I Left College to Write 100 Books

The Motivation

My parents were clear: education is the most important thing. Study hard, get a degree, get a job, build a life.

My entire motivation — the thing that got me out of bed every day — was to prove them wrong.

Not out of spite. Out of a conviction that the world had changed, that what worked for my father's generation wasn't the only path, and that I could build something from nothing using only the one skill I trusted: writing.

The Decision

After scoring 0 in my 12th standard prelims (I intentionally didn't copy, to test myself — I knew nothing), I scraped through board exams with 65%. I enrolled in B.Com "to understand how money works." First year, I came 2nd in college. Second year, I realised a degree wouldn't help me earn money.

Then my friend Poonam said: "You write good poetry. Why not write a book?"

I dismissed it — "A poem is 1 page. A book is 300 pages."

But after running away from Thane with ₹100, desperate for income, I Googled "how to earn money" and found Amazon KDP. The idea crystallised: write books, sell them, prove everyone wrong.

What It Cost

The dropout path cost more than money:

• My parents' trust
• Financial stability (I ended up ₹2 crore in debt)
• Years in the dark when Amazon blocked my account
• My father's retirement savings, sacrificed to clear my debt

What It Proved

Before age 25, I had:

• Written 100+ books
• Earned ₹1 crore from Amazon
• Travelled to Jordan, Dubai, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia
• Founded and successfully exited a publishing company (Authorva Private Limited)

The dropout decision proved that education isn't the only path. It also proved that a path without education is brutally unforgiving of mistakes.

At 29, I returned to college — B.Com Marketing at ASM CSIT College, SPPU, Pune. Sitting with 17-18 year olds. Full circle.

The irony isn't lost on me.

— From the desk of Atharva Inamdar, March 2026