2,387 videos 1,376,944,188 views US Joined Aug 30, 2018
Charlie Kirk is the Founder and President of Turning Point USA, the largest and fastest growing conservative youth activist organization in the country with over 250,000 student members, over 150 full-time staff, and a presence on over 2,000 high school and college campuses nationwide. Charlie is also the Chairman of Students for Trump, which aims to activate one million new college voters on campuses in battleground states in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election. His social media reaches over 100 million people per month and according to Axios, he is one of the "top 10 most engaged" Twitter handles in the world. He is also the host of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” which regularly ranks among the top news shows on Apple podcast charts.
Charlie Kirk Reveals Why He Reads 100 Books a Year and Skipped College to Build Turning Point USA
Charlie Kirk shares his unconventional path to success, explaining why he chose reading and hard work over traditional college education. Speaking candidly about his decision to skip college and dedicate himself to building Turning Point USA, Kirk discusses how he reads 100 books annually, travels relentlessly, and made sacrifices that allowed him to achieve a four-year head start on his peers. He challenges young people to choose wisdom over partying, offering book recommendations and practical advice for those wanting to make a real impact.
Charlie Kirk doesn't mince words when it comes to his views on higher education. When asked about book recommendations, he launched into a passionate explanation of why he opposes the traditional college path for most people. According to Kirk, college doesn't teach much of value, and students are better served by taking control of their own education.
Kirk emphasized that in today's world, wisdom is a choice. Six hundred years ago, access to knowledge was limited, but now everyone carries a supercomputer in their pocket capable of delivering millions of hours of information on any topic imaginable. The question becomes: how will you use that access?
The Hard Choices That Lead to Success
Kirk laid out a stark choice for his audience: spend Saturday nights getting drunk with friends or stay in and consume deep, intellectually rich podcasts and content. He made clear that he's not judging those who choose to party and drink, but warned that such choices come with consequences. You won't be as successful, you won't be as happy, and you need to be honest about your values.
For the past 12 years, Kirk has made the decision not to party, drink, or do drugs. Instead, he's committed to reading 100 books a year and listening to two to three hours of podcasts daily. He challenged his audience directly: if you're not doing the same, you're making a decision to be ignorant. And before anyone claims they're too busy, Kirk pointed out his own schedule—three hours of radio daily, managing 550 staff members, raising $100 million annually, and caring for two children under the age of two.
Essential Reading List
When it comes to book recommendations, Kirk offered several titles he considers essential reading:
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis
Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis
That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis
The Book That Made Your World by Vishal Mangalwadi
1984 by George Orwell
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler
Any of Winston Churchill's 50+ books
Kirk set a clear standard: if you're reading fewer than 25 books per year, you're not taking learning seriously. He emphasized that college often forces students to read "absolute crap" unless they attend institutions like Hillsdale or Liberty University.
Building Turning Point USA From the Ground Up
When asked by a student from Clark County, Washington about how he built Turning Point USA from his garage, Kirk shared the key factors behind his success. First and foremost was his decision not to attend college, which gave him a four-year head start on his peers.
While his high school classmates were accumulating debt and studying subjects that didn't matter, Kirk was traveling the country, meeting new people, and speaking at events. By age 22 in 2016, when his peers were just graduating college, Kirk was on a first-name basis with then-candidate Donald Trump and had built an organization with 75 employees.
The Formula for Success
Kirk's success didn't happen overnight—it was a 12-year overnight success story. His formula included several key elements:
Outwork everybody—there is no replacement for hard work
Be willing to travel extensively (Kirk has traveled 3,000 days in the last decade, including 330 days a year at his peak)
Be willing to ask for help
Pray for the favor of God, who Kirk credits for Turning Point USA's success
The Power of Individual Action
In his closing remarks, Kirk addressed what he sees as one of the enemy's most effective tactics: convincing people that their individual actions don't matter. He took the opposite position, arguing that everything you do matters—from how you talk and dress to how you communicate and what words you use, and whether you fight for good or evil.
Kirk emphasized that it doesn't matter whether you think you're making an impact; what matters is whether you do the right thing. The impact will come. When 600-plus people are simultaneously doing the right thing, creating a force multiplier effect on campuses across the country, that's what gives him hope.
His message was clear: young people have the power to take back the country, but it starts with each individual making the choice to pursue wisdom, work harder than everyone else, and commit to doing what's right regardless of whether the impact is immediately visible.
