We learn calculus we’ll never use but not how to figure out who we actually are. Horvath’s book reveals the education system trains us to fit in, not become ourselves. He shows how to break free through individuation and self-education.
The story
Ever wonder why you spent years learning calculus you’ll never use but nobody taught you how to figure out who you actually are?
Attila B. Horvath’s “The Journey – What I wished I knew before I was 21” starts with a gut punch: the education system isn’t built to help you become yourself. It’s built to make you fit in.
In the first two chapters, Horvath lays out something most of us feel but can’t name. We’re trained to chase grades, climb ladders, follow blueprints written by people who don’t know us. Meanwhile, our actual talents and perspectives – the stuff that makes us unrepeatable – get buried under someone else’s definition of success.
Here’s the shift: Horvath introduces individuation. Not as some abstract self-help concept, but as practical rebellion. It’s the process of becoming your authentic self instead of the person everyone expects you to be.
The path forward? Self-education. Not more courses or credentials. Real learning means using your own uniqueness as the filter for what advice to keep and what to toss. It means unlearning the conditioning that tells you to play it safe and relearning how to trust your own judgment.
Horvath doesn’t sugarcoat it. Nobody else can do this work for you. Not your parents, not your teachers, not your boss. Mistakes aren’t failures – they’re fuel. Persistence isn’t optional – it’s how you get there.
The system was designed to make you fit in. But fitting in means giving up the one thing that actually matters: standing out as yourself.
If you’re tired of following someone else’s map, these chapters are your starting point.
For more about Chapters 1-2 of Attila B. Horvath’s book, “The Journey – I wish I knew this before I was 21”, visit https://attilahorvath.net/the-journey.
