'Hated my school, teachers': Zerodha's Nikhil Kamath reveals why he quit education and started working

Nikhil Kamath, co-founder of Zerodha, is famously known for starting his career as a teenager. In his recently released podcast, Kamath has spoken about why he stopped going to school and the idea of school is gradually changing. The Zerodha co-founder said in the podcast that he hated going to school that taught him to be a conformist. 

In the latest episode of WTF is with Nikhil Kamath, titled ‘EdTech What’s Broken, What’s Next?’, guests Ronnie Screwvala Chairperson and co-founder of UpGrad, Gaurav Munjal, co-founder and CEO at Unacademy, and Jay Kotak, co-head at Kotak811, spoke about all things edtech and the Indian education system. 

Speaking about his own experience of schooling, Kamath said, “I went to a terrible school. I hated my school, hated my teachers, grew up being scared of things I should not have been scared of. I was probably scared of my class teacher, this teacher, that teacher…stopped going to school beyond the 10th… I didn’t go to school, I started working and stuff like that.”

Also watch: Nikhil Kamath: From School Dropout to India’s Youngest Pledger for 'The Giving Pledge'

He said that he remembers that his school taught him to be a conformist in a manner where their ideas of what he should be, what he should learn, what is required to get a good job, and be successful, were met. “But the idea seems to be changing very quickly in the world. I don’t think you would become successful 10 years from now by being conformist anymore,” he said. 

Gaurav Munjal agreed with him and said that the definition of school is also changing, while Ronnie Screwvala said that it is unlikely that the school system would get disrupted in our lifetime. 

Munjal argued that if one asks a student of say Class 11 or 12 about what they want to be, a lot of them would say ‘YouTuber’. He said that YouTube has become a parallel school and it works because with school one can get instant gratification, which is non-linear. 

Also watch: How rich is Nikhil Kamath? All about Zerodha co-founder and one of the youngest philanthropists

He also said that he has reached where he is because of YouTube. “I didn’t crack any examinations. I went to a college which had too much fees, where the best job you could get was in one of these IT services companies for Rs 3.5 lakh…and there was no way I wanted to do that job…not saying that’s a bad job, but that’s not for me,” he said, adding that platforms like UpGrad and YouTube offers a learning experience to a lot of people who do not make it to the ivy league colleges. 

Nikhil Kamath, who recently joined the Giving Pledge, started working full time at the age of 17. He has spent 18-19 years in the stock markets domain. "I am particularly interested in contributing to areas such as climate change, energy, education, and health. In addition to these areas, I am involved with various organizations and foundations such as Rainmatter, Giving Pi, Bridgespan, British Asian Trust, YUVA, and many others. I am proud of the work that these organizations do and the impact they have made," he said in his Giving Pledge letter to the community's creators Warren Buffett, Melinda French Gates, and Bill Gates. 

Also read: Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath youngest, 4th Indian to join Giving Pledge; commits to give away majority of his wealth

Also read: ‘Domestic consumption is the sector to be in,’ says Zerodha's Nikhil Kamath

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