🎓Dropout Graduation
🌞 Welcome to Full Stop. Sharing my brain so you can dive deeper into yours.
🌞 Hey, May — it's graduation season.
This past weekend, I attended a… non-traditional… version of cap-and-gown glory: a little event called Dropout Graduation.
In the land of startups and “doing things differently,” I’m surrounded by people who skip the linear paths in favor of pursuing their vision with a kind of relentless clarity—and often, risk.
On Saturday, at the Marina Theatre on Chestnut Street in San Francisco, I watched nearly 100 young people throw on Amazon-purchased caps and gowns, buzzing with excitement. As we waited for the speeches to begin, the room was full of energy—and elevator pitches. Some even had laptops out, ready to demo at a moment’s notice. It felt like a pitch day meets milestone celebration, but what stuck with me wasn’t the hustle.
It was the reminder.
Max Mullen, Co-Founder of Instacart, took the stage as a keynote “dropout ally” (he graduated from USC, but we let it slide). He posed a simple question to the room of mostly 18-22 year olds:
“What do you hope to get out of your 20s?”
The answers came fast:
“Start a company.”
“IPO.”
“Overtake Instacart” (damn…)
Ambitious? Yes. But I’ll admit—I was a little taken aback.
Sure, maybe it’s hard to admit you want to find purpose in your 20s, especially in front of strangers. But to swing to the other extreme, to define success only in terms of IPOs and acquisitions?
That’s not just narrow—it’s exhausting. And let’s be real, it’s not sustainable.
Luckily, Mullen gently rerouted the room.
What if success was about discovering what lights you up—and the people who help you do it?
That landed.
📌 His message went on to outline a few truths that hit harder than any startup platitude:
Keep one foot in the future. It’s easy to get caught in the weeds of building—fixing bugs, pitching investors, answering Slack messages at 10pm. But carving out time to dream, to think forward, is what fuels bold ideas. It’s how you build something that outlasts the daily grind.
Surround yourself with people who elevate you. You become the average of your circle. So seek out excellence, empathy, integrity—and watch your own standards rise.
You are the sum of your experiences. Steve Jobs’ calligraphy class didn’t matter at the time. Until it did. Until it shaped the very soul of Apple’s aesthetic. You won’t always know what’s shaping you now—but trust that it’s happening.
SHIP your ideas. Don’t overthink. Don’t wait until it’s “perfect.” Launch messy, learn loud. Real feedback from real people trumps a bookshelf of theory every single time.
What he delivered wasn’t just inspiration—it was a recalibration.
It’s easy, especially in ambitious rooms, to conflate the outcome with the purpose. To believe success is your startup’s valuation or your shoutout on TechCrunch. But that’s not growth. That’s performance.
Real growth? That’s process. That’s execution.
That’s shipping before you feel ready, and iterating because you care about the people you serve—not just the clout you collect.
And perhaps most important of all, it’s about who you build with.
Meeting ambitious, kind, thoughtful people—people who challenge you, push you, expand how you think—isn’t just a bonus. It’s the very infrastructure of whatever future you’re trying to build.
Being in that room reminded me that courage is contagious. And so is perspective.
These students—these dropouts—chose the harder, lonelier, and sometimes riskier path. That’s admirable. But what I saw is also what I sometimes forget in myself: that at this age, and in this era, we need mentors who don’t just champion our ambition—but who gently remind us what that ambition is for.
Because I’m guilty, too. I lose the forest for the trees. I chase milestones instead of moments. I confuse momentum with meaning.
But what Mullen offered was a quiet, necessary truth:
If we want to build things that matter, we have to focus on how we build, not just what it gets us.
🌞 If this resonates, send it to someone you love.
Maybe they need a little (compassionate) kick in the ass too.
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Hi friends, I’m Natalie—a recent Brown University neuroscience grad now living in San Francisco. Through 🌞Full Stop, I share my mind so that you, amazingly insightful reader, can take the risk of exploring yours. Thank you for reading and being part of this journey.
so awesome