Try harder in school, achieve some modicum of success so I’m not such a loser

... by some measure, the trying harder in school is what makes one a loser.

I think most of the very successful people I know, left school early.

I wish I'd realised earlier what bunk school [including college] is. 3 times they bait-n-switched me offering one course next year, then doing something different (from Chemistry and the entire periodic table to just hydrocarbons, from art to knitting, from digital arts to web design). In that first year after I table-flipped on formal education, I learned more on my own (with an internet connection and a library card) than I had in the entire prior 14 years of formal education. [(And in that 14 years, they never figured out I'm dyslexic! + other horror stories.)]

2nd chance, no chance I'd stay in school. (Not just because I already retained skills and memory from it, but because I know now it's bunk and I can do at least 14 times better myself.).