# Why School Trained You to Be a Cog

- Channel: [Ali Abdaal – Lifestyle Business Academy](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChfo46ZNOV-vtehDc25A1Ug)
- Published: 2026-11-04
- Source video: [Watch on YouTube](https://youtube.com/watch?v=-_91L4yInaA)
- Read on ReadTube: https://www.read.tube/p/videos/-_91L4yInaA
- Language: English

## Summary

**School Trains Workers, Business Owners Build Wealth**

The video argues that school largely trains people to become interchangeable workers inside someone else’s business. If the goal is substantial financial success at a young age, owning a business generally provides more leverage than holding a job, though a few exceptional careers can also pay very well. Businesses make money by solving problems through services, products, or content, so the speaker advises building one or more of these models.

The modern education system is presented as training people to become components in larger organizations rather than independent creators. Drawing on the industrial-revolution model, it standardizes students through grades and tests, turning unique individuals into interchangeable “cogs” who perform component labor inside a business machine.

The video argues that owning the machine offers far more financial leverage than working as one of its components. Most jobs rarely make someone a millionaire in their 20s, while business ownership can generate wealth by allowing the owner to benefit from the work of a scalable organization; the speaker acknowledges that exceptional careers, such as investment banking or neurosurgery, can also produce significant wealth but usually require intense work and take longer.

A business is defined simply as solving a problem in exchange for money, and the video identifies three broad models. Service businesses charge for performing a task, product businesses make goods that can be sold to many customers, and content businesses create online material monetized through advertising. The speaker’s advice is therefore to build one or more of these kinds of businesses rather than relying exclusively on a conventional job.