With the expenses of college, students can relate to feeling like they are surviving off only pennies, but for Ryan Trahan, it was by choice.
Ryan enjoyed and excelled in high school, not only in academics but cross country. While in his junior and senior years of high school, Trahan noticed a gap in the market and decided to create a hip yet functional water bottle–The Neptune. With the goal of reducing plastic in the ocean and providing his fellow classmates with a sleek drinking vessel, Ryan and his friends jumped in to promote their product. During this time, Ryan had also started posting running content on Youtube, a platform he used to advertise his product. As Ryan grew in popularity, more people took notice of his product. Ryan entered college as an NCAA division I athlete, hopeful for the future and his growing business.
As much as Ryan enjoyed college, his academics began to suffer compared to his high school years. He had finally been able to make enough on Youtube and his waterbottle business to be financially independent until the unthinkable happened. Only a couple of months into the school year, the NCAA gave Ryan an ultimatum–Ryan either had to give up his water bottle business and Youtube channel, or he would no longer be able to be involved in NCAA. Faced with this opposition, Ryan made the risky choice of dropping out of college to pursue his YouTube channel and business full-time–with only 20,000 subscribers. 
Ryan’s entrepreneurial spirit, drive, unique personality, creativity, and wide range of content all contributed to his vast amount of growth. From running, to commentary, to mainstream content, Ryan dabbled in all genres of YouTube. In 2017, Ryan launched one of his best ideas yet–surviving on only a penny.
Ryan documented his journey, traveling across the United States starting with only a penny. His videos captured his audience as Ryan demonstrated creative and fun ways to make enough money to eat and move on to the next city.
Ryan’s journey of trial and error, his creativity, and his willingness to try a variety of venture ideas are an inspiration. His courage to take risks and his great appeal to his audience prove that it is possible to succeed in an area of passion.
It’s amazing how Ryan made money for himself, despite not having the conventional college degree. I think it’s interesting that he not only relied on YouTube for money, but also made his content go viral with an innovative idea. He catered to what his audience wanted to see and ultimately was rewarded financially with more revenue from YouTube.
Trial and error and never giving up is an important part of success. This is great representation of having a unique, nearly impossible seeming idea and bringing it to life. Breaking the mold and being different pays off!
What really stands out to me was how Ryan was able to be successful without a college degree. Usually the notion is pushed down everyone’s throats that a degree is required for success so it is refreshing to see someone so young go against the norm and make a name for themselves.