Failed Pre-Med, Became a History Major
The Story
Trung initially pursued pre-med in college at McGill University. He struggled academically in the first semester and pivoted to history and sociology. He’s since said he scheduled his classes to begin after noon.
This “failure” gave him something that would prove far more valuable than a medical degree: a deep grounding in storytelling, historical patterns, and human behavior. His history background is the hidden engine behind his viral Twitter threads, which take complex business topics and frame them through narrative and surprise.
Lesson for Creators
Your “failed” first path often gives you the unusual combination of skills that makes you stand out later. Trung’s pre-med failure led to a history degree, which gave him storytelling instincts that most business writers lack. The detour is the advantage.
Related
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- The Airbnb Rejection That Sparked Everything — A clear rejection redirected energy toward something better, mirroring how Trung’s pre-med failure opened the path to history and writing
- Weed Review Site - First Startup at 18 — Built something real without formal credentials, proving that unconventional backgrounds can be strengths rather than weaknesses
- Economics Student Who Taught Himself to Code — Harry’s economics degree was irrelevant; self-taught coding, design, and writing became his real education