E32-Simon Squibb – Do You Have a Dream Or Just Debt

What I see majority of people end up having to do is work in a job they hate to pay for a house that was meant to make them happy. And it doesn't. In fact, I had it last week on the train, someone basically 47 years old, breaking down in tears, his tr-

What is it 20 million social media followers now?

Around 20 million followers and 500 million views a month on that content. I'm not a fan of people not understanding what they're signing up to as financial product.

there are parents listening to this and their kids may be going you know what actually they may be listening to you and going you know what I don't want to go to university I want to start a business.

young people who at 19 years old are signing a legal document to get into debt they do not understand.

is your dream still to change the education system.

The system doesn't want to change. It works just fine the way it is. For what it was set up to do, which is generally to get people to go work in your factory. The electric car industry only happened because an entrepreneur pioneered it and then everyone else copied it because it was financially successful.

and just pushing them back into the normal treadmill.

The purpose of life is a life with purpose.

Quick favour from me before we start. If you like the show, please subscribe and give us five stars. It all helps in bringing in the best guests. As well as the podcast, Monumental is a leadership network for men in their 40s, 50s and 60s. We meet online and in person. For more, please visit the website, monumental.global. This episode of the Monumental podcast is brought to you by Burgess Me. So look, Simon, thank you and welcome.

to the Monumental podcast. Thanks for being here. Just to give the listeners some context for those who haven't heard of you, which I guess is now in a very small minority given that you've got, what is it, 20 million social media followers now, is that right?

haven't added up lately, but around 20 million followers and 500 million views a month.

So guess I'm interested. How does it feel to be that powerful? How does it feel to have that much influence?

I I don't think about it as power, although I guess there's something powerful about it. I see it as leveraging social media for social good, which excites me. In a world where we're generally pretty negative about social media, I'm proud of the fact there's a platform that it's not about promoting me, it's about promoting people in their dreams. Just as important, educating people that they can follow their dreams too.

So I think that's one of the reasons it's done so well too. It's not me regurgitating Greek mythology and pretending I'm smart. It's not me telling people what to do. I am just literally listening to people's dreams and promoting them. so me becoming famous is the biggest pain in the ass ever. But the influence is exciting only from the context of like, if someone has a dream, there's a place that they can go to get help with it. And people that watch the content.

can be inspired to go follow their dreams too. But I guess the power thing is interesting because a lot of people are trying to pull me into politics. And I technically have more followers than all the people in parliament combined. so, know, Nigel Farage recently said, Oh, I've got a million followers on TikTok, it proves my party's going to win the next election. I think that's pretty, pretty flawed as a, as a way of measuring success, but, but also like, well, I've got 7.9 million on TikTok. So what does that mean? I'll beat you eight times over. It's, I think it is.

It is important when you do have a platform to have a sense of responsibility. so, you know, media outlets, for example, I think they've completely got corrupted with their influence and they just want money. They make up lies on getting you to click a headline. And I've been a victim of this myself, but when they make up a lie to then get clicks to generate money. And so I think there is an ethics thing when you have a big platform that plays into it. I don't want to charge people for help.

I could sell a course tomorrow, £2,000 course, and I could probably make £10 million next week. But that's not what I'm doing. That's not why I'm here to do. I don't want to sell the course. I want to give people knowledge for free. So I think it's knowing when you have a platform, reason I think I have a platform is because I have rules and a moral code that's aligning with the followers that follow me. And so if you abuse that, like I think media outlets have, you lose the trust of the people, eventually I think you're done.

really a beautiful response. is that sense? I've actually got a question about you in politics. So you've kind of answered that. But is your dream, I've been listening to a lot of your stuff lately, is your dream still to change, is your central gene to change the education system? Is that something you would still say is central to your mission?

Yes. The naive me six years ago wanted to fix the education system. The jaded, experienced person who's been on that mission for the last six years has realized that you can't put a fire out from inside the house. You have to put a fire out from outside the house. So, you know, the electric car industry only happened because an entrepreneur pioneered it and then everyone else copied it because it was financially successful. And I think when trying to fix the education system,

The system doesn't want to change. It works just fine the way it is for what it was set up to do, which is generally to get people to go work in your factory. That's what Henry Ford and Carnegie wanted, Have enough to go on holiday twice a year and buy a car from Henry Ford, but go back to the factory on a Monday because they need those workers. So I think that, you know, the system hasn't changed much. Now it's feeding the university system and it's feeding the companies at the other end.

promised them jobs if they went to university and got into debt. So, I just think there's an alternative system now that I'm building and that is working. Millions of people every day learning stuff for free and then able to apply it into their lives to follow their dreams. it is education now isn't sit in a classroom and learn. Kids are learning on TikTok. They're learning on Instagram. They're learning on Snapchat and they're learning on YouTube. Whether we like it or not. So that's what's happening.

And I just simply, at this point, six years in, provided an alternative. And I guess at this point, I'm hoping that government see what I'm doing, copy it and replace me. And so I'm running a profitable education system that's free for those that use it. So why can't that be the new playbook for the future of education in every country?

My own views are that being dyslexic, like I think you said you're dyslexic, is that right? Yeah. So education, the education whilst I had a privileged education, the education didn't necessarily in the classroom didn't work for me. I found it extremely difficult and it really caught up with me by the age of 30 and hence I'm doing what I do now. But it's something that I feel very passionate about my children and making the right decisions for them individually. for me,

Yes, I am.

financial freedom means to me, it means having a choice to do whatever I like with their education. So I've been watching a lot of coming out of the States and the AI, the kids who are going in and learning with AIs and how efficient and effective it is. you see, like in the next five, 10 years, do you see the school system falling apart as it is at the moment purely because it will be so disruptive because the better results will be coming out of AI?

It's going to hold on for dear life and, and there's a lot of money involved. So you just look at the university endowments, the debt system that's been built up around the education system. There's trillions of dollars involved in the education system. There's 264 million people in university right now spending 13 trillion right now. So that system is going to hold on for dear life. And I think it's going to try and adapt in different ways.

Right now there's a kind of ban AI. That's one way, right? That's not really learning if you're using AI. So that's the way it's presently attacking it. think without doubt though, if I look at the home education movement and the general movement towards tailor-made learning, education system as it stands right now, know, for 30 kids in a classroom just cannot compete. So as brands like Metta and other, you know, developed technology that, you you can

tend to be in a classroom with a headset on slowly but surely with you.

With you, right? know, with Terry Robbins, with all these experts.

Yeah, so so I mean it's already happening, you know, I have the most popular business video in the world on YouTube Two an hour's 26 minutes 15 million views is is the most popular I'm quite proud of it. But most popular business in the world. I'm from a small town in England You know like and I'm beating the Americans

I'll put a link in.

My community are listening in the background by the way, and just gave me a little cheer just then. So thank you, my community. But no, I think, you know, but I'm not, that's not a one-off. If you look online now, business leaders that I respect like Nouraou, he's also got a business video that's got 6 million views. You know, like people that know what they're talking about can make a video, put it up and educate people. And so I'd much rather have a video from someone I respect whose life I wouldn't mind having.

than frankly from a teacher who's perhaps not living the life I want to live. So you should only take advice from people whose life you want. And so it's kind of like, to me, it's already happening in the background with things like YouTube. I just think what's going to really disrupt the university system is ironically its own debt model. So there's so much money in university that they're also spending it. I think they'll hold on from people. People always want to go to Oxford, right? And have that on their CV for now, for the next five, 10 years.

And will just be, if they're smart, they'll allow AI into it. And they'll even of course, build AI programs, which some universities are starting to do, that will at least make them relevant from a learn AI point of view, right up until the point AI makes them irrelevant. But I think AI has some evolution. I built Assignment AI. And the reason it's so popular is because you know the source of the knowledge. Right now, if I go on ChatGPT, who knows who's giving me that knowledge? I asked ChatGPT the other day,

How should I compete with a business that's in my competitor? And it basically talked about destroying them. And it did make me think it reminded me of a second world war leader in Germany who, you know, the whole answer felt like a playbook from a very bad person. And so I didn't want to take that advice, even though it was AI advice, but I don't know the source. So I think the source of AI is going to be the next important step. And once the source is established, then people can trust it.

and then it will overtake all other education models.

Just a quick interruption here. If you can give me 20 seconds to highlight the supporter of this episode, I'd be really grateful. Today's podcast is sponsored by Burgess Me, the family law firm supporting men and women through the emotional and legal complexities of relationship breakdown. When your world feels like it's falling apart, Burgess Me offers calm, expert guidance, helping you move forward with clarity and dignity. Learn more at BurgessMe.com. Now back to the conversation. Really interesting.

And also obviously a lot of that is digitally based and talking about, you know, a different education model outside of a classroom. just bringing in like this morning's headlines, if you like, from Australia where they're banning social media and the minister said, we stand firm on the side of parents and not on the platforms. And of course we know these platforms, CEOs don't let their kids anywhere near phones and the platforms. I'm just wondering, what is your...

Look, I'm an expert in business. Okay. So, you you asked me anything about business. pretty much have an answer for it. You asked me about mental health and that side of life. Um, I mean, stats can be used, you know, the 86 % of stats are made up. So, you know, stats and, and the nuance matters. what age group are we talking about? And can we say it directly correlates to social media? So for example, yesterday I get in the car with my son, he's eight years old.

And I turn on the radio, the first thing they say is mass shooting in a school, kids murdered, you know, blah, blah. My eight year old's hearing this. You don't think that causes him mental health issues? So the radio, radio has been causing mental health issues for everybody in England, in my opinion, for the last two decades. Every time I turn that, it's like 11 o'clock in the morning or something. You know, and we're talking about all the murders that happened the day before and the massacres.

During COVID every single day, 10,000 people died today and the weather today will be rainy. It's like we can blame the latest media system if we want. I know they're an easy target and I am not here to defend them. I don't own shares in these companies. I'm leveraging them because I see products like TikTok. These are just fridges. Imagine a fridge. If I put bad food in that fridge and eat it, the fridge is evil, is it? If I put good food in that fridge,

and eat it, the fridge is good, is it? So I see it as more like an input output thing. TikTok isn't innately bad. It wants to make money, a capitalistic system, right? But if you're putting good content in there and then a young person, and I have this every day, a 16 year old is consuming my content and then they who don't like school like you and me when we were young, suddenly sees a new way that was never taught to them. Let's call it entrepreneurship for want of a better word. Suddenly their mental health was reduced because they're not alone. I'm dyslexic.

I could do this. I don't have to get a job. I don't have to go to university. my God. I would argue that that moment on social media helps their mental health. Now the next thing they swipe to is the news talking about how many people got murdered today. My God, I'm back into my mental health tailspin. I think we've got distracted by blaming the outlets, the fridge, and we're not blaming the people that make the food, directly people that making the food as well sometimes, but Donald's food is shit.

That product is probably causing mental health because people are malnutritioned eating things that aren't actually good for you. So yes, there are things that cause mental health issues. would argue diet is one of them, but we're not telling Mark McDonald's that called that mental health issue, have we? And I would argue that definitely media in general has a role to play. mean, all I ever hear about is how awful humanity is, right? So that's going to play, that's going to bring it. And then if you're living in England right now, England is shit according to everything you hear.

So here you are, you know, eating badly, listening to people getting murdered every day, and then you're hearing about how the place you live is shit. Honestly, if I listen to that for three days in a row, I'm going have mental health issues. But you want to blame YouTube. All right, fine. Looks like you're taking action, doesn't it? You got something you can... We're standing behind the parents. shut up. Not standing behind the parents. Let the parents be parents then. The parents should be making guidelines on this. My son consumes content on my phone with me.

Right? I am a parent. I will decide what on YouTube is good for him to watch up until the age he's allowed to decide himself. Banning YouTube will just make VPNs more popular. Right? It's just dumb. You look at the surge in VPN use in the UK recently, you wonder why. You think you stopped people going on porn? You think the government banning porn stopped people going on porn? Shut up. Wake up. It's just dumb. It's dumb. It's not nuanced.

And I just think that these things sound good, a bit like tax the rich, ban YouTube. It's just like putting a plaster over a plaster that's bleeding a lot. It's bullshit.

I think you do have the answers, by the way, on the mental health side. Your response there is passionate. mean, you do know, you've got a real opinion about it and it's really interesting to hear it. I was even just walking down the beach, mom and dad, 79, 76, and they're talking about exactly what you're talking about, the UK, and how much issues, problems were in and all the rest of it. said, it's rubbish in, rubbish out. If you continue to listen,

that media and watch the news twice a day and read the paper, generally, know, the mail, telegraph, times, et cetera, you're going to feel bad. And I guess that's just my question was, if the children cannot basically control what they're watching, how can we have any control over their mental health? But you're saying back to the parents, so you'll be responsible.

No, no, no. Again, know, vaping is a problem, right? 13 year olds are smoking, right? And it's like, been a... Where I live, there's a vape shop right near the school. That's perfectly fine.

not.

It's not exactly. I feel like we don't, we don't look at things holistically. What we do is we take buzz as politicians in particular, take buzzwords and try to apply a policy to it. Instead of looking at the actual issue and mental health is a very complicated issue. And I don't think I know how it works. I can see that it's obvious if millions of people in England are eating McDonald's every day. That is, that is not real food. I don't think it's, you know, it's, it's pretty obvious, isn't it?

And then if we make proper food, the most expensive food, organic food when I was younger was the cheap food, right? It was the food that was, know, funny shaped and all that. Now it's the most expensive food. How have we taken natural food and made it the most expensive food and the processed awful crap is the cheap food. That to me is a bigger issue. I don't want to repeat myself, but I would argue, running on when you say mental health issues have spiked.

What age are we talking about? Because I'm right now doing a documentary on university. And what I've noticed is a huge mental health strain on young people who at 19 years old are signing a legal document to get into debt they do not understand. They're getting into compound interest debt for a student loan, all under this guise of like, you're going to university, or you're going to love it, you're going to sign here. Debt for the rest of their life.

on their back. And I feel it when they come out of university, they can't get a job. 52 % of people in England right now coming out of university can't get a job, nearly a million kids, right? Promise a job, four years of their life doing a degree, going into debt, can't get a job. Qualified for like normal jobs that say, you know, working at Tesco's or something. So they're sitting on this like, this debt. Now that's going to cause you mental health issues. You can blame Instagram if you want.

But why don't we blame Tony Blair for creating a university default system that's fucked up kids? Well said.

So can hear there are parents listening to this and they're going and cause they haven't given it, perhaps haven't given it as much thought as that. you're, you're direct and very to the point and their kids may be going, you know what, actually they may be listening to you and going, you know what, I don't want to go to university. I want to start a business, but the parents are just pushing them back into the normal treadmill. What would you say to those, what would you say to those parents? What is in the next five, 10 years, or if you're setting your kids up, right?

They're 19 now. You're seeing the next 10, 20 years, know, visionary that you are. What are you seeing is useful for children to learn now? What is it that humanity is going to be useful for and have purpose in?

You say it at the end there, I was waiting. I think purpose. Like the purpose of life is a life with purpose. Trained to do a job is an artificial conveyor belt that we have made. Maybe, you know, originally for the industrial age. I just think we don't need to be on that treadmill anymore. Now, what people want is purpose. And if you sense that being a nurse is your purpose, then there is a path.

that purpose and you should follow it. And right now that path is go to university and then it's get an internship. I'm not sure what it's called inside a hospital. know, like that's the path to follow your purpose. So I'm actually not saying everyone should be an entrepreneur. People totally misunderstand me. I'm saying everyone should have the right to be. And so I'm saying it should be one of the tracks, one of the options. I am, I was involved recently in a competition. One of my dreamers, a guy called Harrison is 15 years old. He started a business on the side while going to school.

The business has worked, he just won a competition where he won 200,000 pounds. And so should he keep going to school? He's got a business that he loves that's working. I don't think he should. Unless he wants to, right? He wants to. He can read, he can write, and he is learning every day just in his way. He's not not learning. You know, it's not like he's sitting there on his thumbs, not doing something. I think that's the bigger problem, not doing something.

And so I think the way to, the way I look at it with my son, like I'm, I am very anti-uni. I think it's really bad how it's become a default and it's caused this whole problem where it used to be a promise that you earn more if you went to university. Not true anymore. Statistically, it's not true. The numbers do not, that no longer is true. A combination of minimum wage rising and the amount of people available has caused the market to decline, as in the value of a university degree has declined in value.

alongside the rise of AI meaning the jobs generally less, right? As a mathematical equation, that promise that you'll earn more if you go to university is no longer true. So as a parent, you need to educate yourself. What worked 20 years ago, go to university and buy a house, no longer actually applies to this world. Today, ironically, it's follow your dreams, go on, start a TikTok shop. People are gonna hate me for saying this, but like, you know, and that could literally be the way you end up being able to buy a house because you can make money online, you're not getting into debt.

you're, you by the time someone comes out of university, you're four years, five years having built something. You get your costs down just like you would have to if you were a uni student, you're used to living cheap. I think it's a viable option. And frankly, if you're coming out of university and you can't find a job, the only option you've got is to start a business of your own. That's it. So learn how to do it because then you don't have to sit around waiting for someone to give you a job. can make one yourself. So it's not.

I have this fantasy that the whole world is going to become entrepreneurs. I think there's no choice. Again, my fans are great with me. just gave me a little...

That ding ding ding. There's also the other part that you just mentioned there about you're not a fan of getting into debt to buy a house, you?

I'm not a fan of people not understanding what they're signing up to as financial products. I actually think that every university student who was 19 years old and signed a document with a uni degree should get a refund because they didn't understand what they were signing. If that was a car loan or a bank loan directly under the money, they'd be in serious trouble because they haven't explained the financial mechanism. And I think a mortgage and a house purchase, no one's actually explained to people.

that it is not necessarily the financially smart thing to do when you're young. Now there is probably a point in life where when you have a family, for example, I can completely understand how maybe things change. But as a financial model, if you actually look at buying a house, by the you put down deposit, which means you no longer have that capital available to invest to make your money, and then you actually then maintain that house, and then you're stuck in the location where that house is. Again, I know all the arguments that people push back on this later about, can rent it out. No, people buy a house, they want to live in it.

90 % of people, they're not looking to then rent it out and move somewhere. They want to live in it. That's their home. They invest in it. And it kind of ties them down when you're young. Like I moved to Hong Kong when I was 23 years old. If I had a nice little house and my own curtains, you know, I might not, I I love my little house. want to live. You've to go with the opportunities when you're young. And so I think that when you're young, it's really financially irresponsible to push someone into huge amounts of debt for the rest of their life. Before they've had a chance to figure out, or is this the place they want to live?

I mean, truly, have they seen the world? Have they figured out what they want to do and is this where they want to do it? And then financially, what I see majority of people end up having to do is work in a job they hate to pay for a house that was meant to make them happy. And it doesn't. So you don't want to be caught in a situation where you've got a monthly cost fixed, rent you can just move somewhere else or you can move in with a buddy or stay with a friend or travel the world. You can stop it. When you own something, it's much harder. You have a sunken cost as well, mentality.

The point I'm making is like, you then have to do that job every month. And know millions of people are doing this, a job they hate to pay for that house because they cannot stop for even one month to take a breather and think, what would I like to do? No time for that. Get back to work because you've got your mortgage to pay. If you don't pay your mortgage, you're going lose your deposit and that equity you've built up, gone. So people don't have time. They're stuck in fight or flight to think about anything but that. And that's the hidden cost of home ownership that no one talks about.

lost, you know, the eye here in men in their 40s and 50s and 60s. doesn't just, you know, it doesn't just stop them going somewhere in their 30s. mean, a mortgage is literally a lifetime, right? It's a lifetime of sacrifice for that house.

It is, again, I meet so many people in their 40s and 50s who, in fact, I had it last week on the train on someone basically 47 years old, breaking down in tears that they're going to work that morning to do a job they hate to pay for the house that his wife wants. And he's spoken to his wife and said, can we downsize so I could stop this job I don't love? And no, they're used to that lifestyle now. They've got lifestyle inflation. He's trapped.

To the point where I honestly felt like by the end of the conversation, like I'm a bit scared for his, like, what's he going to do? He's trapped. He's having to work in a job he hates with people he hates, bullies, the way he was describing to me, while at the same time paying for a house he doesn't really want to make everybody else happy.

You're right to be worried, statistically you should be right.

I know, I know. And I feel it when I speak to people. So, you the people that have gone through it know, people in the middle of it don't know, and young people are still being told to go and buy a house. you know, check the full lifestyle of the person giving that advice before you follow that advice. And I'm not saying don't buy a house. For some people, it's totally appropriate, just like going to university. For some people, it's totally appropriate. But just, you know, I interviewed a load of university students the other day. They'll tell me the jobs they want. And then I said, have you actually ever met someone doing this job?

No, none of them have ever actually spoken to someone with the job they think they want. So I'm like, go find out if that is a lifestyle you want. It's just common sense, isn't it? Why are you going to spend four years getting into debt, studying something you don't even know you really want to do?

buying that house and staying and living in somewhere you don't want to live. And to that point, Simon, if I may just round up on this, we're in Hong Kong at the same time. I can understand like, you know, the streets are dripping with opportunity. It's just, you can just smell it and feel it. You came back here, you've become incredibly well known and successful since you've come back to the UK. I'd say at the moment, feeling a little bit in the minority in and around that. Given that you're

job given that you are online, could be anywhere in the world. And I guess I'm looking for a sort of positive here, but it may not be. Why do you stay in the UK when you could be anywhere?

Why do I stay in the UK? Why do I stay in You know, I think with life, grass is always greener on the other side. And so, you know, I've been married 23 years and, you know, some days we're annoyed at each other, but I love my wife. She's a good person and I kind of feel the same way about England. You know, like the grass is always greener where the other side, but the truth is the grass is always green where you water the grass. So I think there's something really powerful in just

making the best life possible wherever you are. And so I can move at any time. And some days when it's pouring with rain and freezing cold and it feels depressing, I'm like, I just want to go live back in Asia. But my son who's eight, he loves it here. He goes playing in the forest and the nature and the whole like seasons. He loves it.

You know, in fact, he's just walked in the door behind me. And you know what? As a parent, I actually am more focused on him at this stage, in this stage of my life. So if it was just me, I think I would struggle to say, don't I just go live in a warm climate all year? But I think stages in life, it's now about my son. That's number one. The second thing in the byproduct is because I am here, I want to make a difference where I live. I want to water the grass where I live.

And England is actually my home. And so I don't like this image that we are telling the world we're crap. If you go to Hong Kong or you go, and I was just recently in Amsterdam and when I'm there, they love England. People love England. It's us telling people we're crap. Now as a marketing, if I was doing marketing for England, I'd be like, I'll get my marketing team, the 68 million people in this country, I get you all together. Right, listen guys, stop saying we're crap.

We have got good rule of law. you look at crime, general crime is down by about 50 % over the last 15 years. Now social media has made crime more visible, but that doesn't mean there's more crime. Right? And so that's why, when I see the political divide, people are wolf-whistling and assuming people aren't doing their research to get them to hate immigrants, for example, without blaming them for crime, for example.

without the data backing up that lie. Because the data would show something very different. Okay. So I think I look at England as a bit of a project for me now. And like, my son loves it here. I am English. Let's fix this shit. I want this country to get fixed and I am here to try and help make it better. yeah, I could leave. My son will probably be happy wherever he has his loving family with him. But I do generally think this country has a lot going for it. And I think it is my responsibility to try and help while I'm here.

do what I can to fix the country.

Beautiful. Lovely way to, think your son is definitely wanting you to come to lunch or maybe play some football or something like that. It's a lovely way to end anyway. Thank you. Thank you very much for your time, Simon. I've really, I really enjoyed that.

I will.

Likewise, thanks for having me on.

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