Thinking about taking a year break off of schooling

I really wanted to try and get my dream job, live streaming. Ive wanted to have this job for years now and i can finally afford to get a pc that can handle it. Ive told my friends about this and they said i would never become one because the market is so saturated and that i wouldnt want to go back to school after i took a year break. But i think it would work out because i would be dedicated to streaming (8+ hours a day, everday) and that i would get somewhere but it would take time. What do you think i should do?

 

Without a doubt in my mind; stay in school.

For starters, the amount of people who watch twitch during the day when everyone is at school/work is nearly 33%-50% what you'll see in the evening. There are plenty of popular livestreamers who juggle both streaming + school/work.

Secondly, everyone wants to be livestreamer. There are literally thousands of people streaming at any given time, most with <10 viewers. Just because you stream for 8+ hours a day doesn't mean anyone is going to watch you. What is your niche? Why would anyone watch you over Doublelift/Amaz/Sodapoppin? There are TONS of top ranked LoL/Hearthstone/CS players who have less than 100 viewers when they livestream.

Plenty of people livestream + go to school/work, I'm not sure at what point you are in school (HS or College), but this is prime time for you to lay your foundation for your future.

If you really want to livestream, treat it as a part time job, especially since you have NO current viewerbase. Find your niche, go to school/work during the day and livestream during the evenings/weekends.

 

Listen to your friends. Steaming is not a viable option at all for anyone brand new to it to make a living from

 

Even though I'm all for finding yourself, definitely choose school over streaming. My best advice is to stream til your heart is content over the up and coming winter (or summer for aussies) break. A solid month will give you a better gauge. Keep in mind, streaming is not a realiable source of income unless you're very popular, and it also likely won't be a sustainable source of income over the years. Make the wiser choice and only stream part time while focusing on school full time.

 

It is way too much of a gamble. What makes you think that you are better than the other streamers out there (maybe you are)? Why not continue school while streaming? I guarantee a lot of streamers do not drop everything in their life to focus on streamlining. Maybe the ones that are making thousands.

 

I had the same mentality and here I am, still doing nothing, procrastinating. It's better to go straight to college.

 

Thanks for all of the info guys, ill take it into consideration

 

It's also really hard to get back into schooling once you take some time off. Just finish your schooling, try streaming on the side and then see what happens. If anything you can finish school, take a year working an easy part-time job, try streaming, and if it doesn't work out got start your career.

 

follow your dreams. there is no point in not doing something that you love. If it can make you money great if not - atleast you really gave it your best shot. I don't believe college is for everyone. I do believe you should do what makes you happy though.

 

Yeah thats why i was only going to take a year break and attempt to do it. Like i dont want to work a regular 9-5 job like everyone. I wanna do what i love.

 

Let me give you a piece of advise, school is always going to be the better option. Yes I know streaming is an amazing job and a dream for most, but it's almost impossible to do that. You probably look at B0aty (if you play rs) and think you can become a professional streamer within a year, but b0aty has been making video's and streaming for years. Trust me, it's better to stay in school.

 

I know its going to take time to become a steamer. I dont think im going to get 100 views in the first week of streaming, hell i dont think ill even break 10. I just want to give it a shot and if it doesnt work ill go to school and attempt to do it on the side.

 

Do you realistically think streaming has a future? Do you think you can retire off of money made from streaming? Even for very successful streamers i'm sure there will reach a point where they will need to get a real job unless they manage to get a sponsor or something.

 

Why not stream like 2 hours a day and slowly build up and if it goes somewhere then do it more often? You don't have to quit school to stream 16 hours a day every day.

 

Its not like im quitting school, im just going to take a year break and see if i can do this and in my opinion i think streamers need to stream consistently for decent period of time and i dont think 2-3 hrs a day will cut it.

 

A year is a long time. Perhaps take one semester off and go for it? Even then that's a lot of time wasted and IMO. the risk/reward isn't worth it because of the low probability that you will go successful. There are tons of content by PROFESSIONALS that only gets a peak of 50 viewers. Good luck to you though!

 

If i was to go to school right out of high school i would legit have 0 motivation to do it. So i think it would benefit me by trying to become a livestream and taking a break off of school at the same time.

 

You'd be surprised. College holds a lot of twists and turns. I know I wasn't too excited as I didn't really want to go through 4 more years of more intense education; however, I've since found out that the people that I've become associated with are awesome. I'm meeting new people and having the time of my life. You'd be really surprised what college has to offer.

 

Just like everyone else already said. Dont drop out!
Heres what I would do if I were in your position:
Continue with schooling, live-stream every day during peek time for about an hour or two max(depends on how much time you actually have remaining to dedicate to streaming). Take streaming seriously during summer breaks and such. Maybe even weekends. Trust me, If you stream 8hrs + a day from the very beginning, you will end up frustrated of watching twitch or other platforms COMPLETELY empty, and by the peek time, you won't be mentally as enthusiastic as you would have been if you started at peek time because of earlier frustration. So, to sum it up,

Dont leave school.
Stream ~1-2hours during regular school days.
Stream as much as you want during weekends/breaks/off-days.

About the decision to leave school;
It is not a bad idea to drop out from school to pursue your passion. That is EXACTLY why we have our education system. To teach us, to expose us to as many fields as possible so that we may become passionate about one thing and pursue it.
When is it advisable to drop out from school to pursue passion?:
When your passion is approaching a stability, proceeding towards growth. In your case, I would say, do not drop out until you have a decent amount of viewers AND donations(extremely important). Sometimes, you gotta make a choice between what you like and what you are required to do. It maybe tough, but often wise to stick to what you are required to do until you have enough power to do what you like.

Sorry I've made this post pretty darn long. I hope, you now have a better understanding about your situation. After all, the decision is entirely in your hands ultimately!

 

It is a dangerous idea. Many people get comfortable when they "take a year off". Half of my friends that said they were going to take a year off before pursuing further education never ended up pursuing further education lol.