2,422 videos 1,389,747,653 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's Life Advice: How to Build Character, Find Purpose, and Succeed Without College
Charlie Kirk shares practical wisdom for young people navigating career choices, relationships, and personal development in modern America. From founding Turning Point USA at 18 without a college degree to building a nationally recognized organization, Kirk offers advice on reading 100 books a year, developing moral courage, and understanding the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Speaking directly to high school and college students, he addresses dating as a conservative, the importance of self-control, and why the greatest battle in life is the struggle within yourself.
Starting Turning Point USA and Choosing Your Own Path
Charlie Kirk founded Turning Point USA when he was 18 years old. He never went to college, and it ended up being a great decision for him. He took a gap year, recognizing that not everyone in this country needs to go to college. In fact, Kirk believes we have way too many people going to college in our country.
His advice for those wanting to make an impact: Strive to be a better person every single day because your character is a reflection of your soul. Learn something new every single day. It doesn't matter where you go to college—it's just a piece of paper. What matters is who you are as a person. If you want to succeed, you must be willing to keep pushing on and enduring when things get really, really tough.
The Power of Recording Wisdom from Elders
Kirk emphasizes taking relationships with people older than you very seriously and memorializing those conversations forever. Smartphones may be destroying our country, but one thing they're good for is recording. They're excellent at recording voice memos or conversations. Next time you sit down with a grandparent or a business person, record those conversations. You're going to want them.
Taking Personal Responsibility
When you encounter difficulty, train yourself to blame yourself. Train yourself to say, "It's my fault. What did I do wrong?" That's hard. It's really easy to blame others. It might be somebody else's fault, but find something you could have done differently. If you get in the practice of doing that, you'll be a stronger person.
Eternal Knowledge vs. Practical Knowledge
The final foundational principle is to immerse yourself in eternal knowledge. There are two types of knowledge: practical knowledge and eternal knowledge. Practical knowledge is knowing who the governor is. Eternal knowledge consists of things that never change. We also call it wisdom. The more wise you are, the more cheerful and happy you will be.
We live in a wonderful country. We've got problems. We've got ridiculous leaders. But what a gift we've been given. Don't get into the whole mindset of complaining that everything around you is terrible and awful. Believe that your actions matter. Apply yourself accordingly. Work harder every single day. After a decade of that, you'll be in a pretty good place.
Reading 100 Books a Year
When a 17-year-old high school student and Turning Point USA chapter member asked about becoming better at debating, Kirk's answer was simple: debate less and read more. You've got to read at least 100 books a year. If you aren't reading 100 books a year, you're not serious about your intellectual journey.
You can listen to them too. Spend less money on booze, alcohol, drugs, and nightclubs, and more money on audiobooks. Your life will be better. Kirk tries to be a living example of that, reading 100 to 120 books a year. He's always listening to stuff, always reading stuff. He doesn't remember it all, but he remembers a fair amount of it. It creates you into a happier, deeper, wiser person. The more you dedicate yourself to reading, debating will become easier.
Teaching Wisdom, Not Just Knowledge
When an afterschool teacher for fourth and fifth graders asked about advice to give youth in our corrupted society, Kirk highlighted the most important element of education: it should be about developing wisdom, not just knowledge. Wisdom is the understanding of things that do not change. It's the most important thing you could teach a young person.
We are filled with knowledge-based institutions and we are lacking wisdom-based institutions. Wisdom is understanding the deeper permanent topics that will be true 200 years from now and were true 200 years prior. For example: Are human beings naturally good or not so good? What is good? What is evil? What is mercy? What is compassion? What is justice? What is truth? This is much more important than knowing the five members of the California legislature. That's fine—that's knowledge. But we are lacking in wisdom in the West. It is a crisis of wisdom.
Here's the cool thing about wisdom: anybody can access it at any time. It does not require a college degree. It doesn't require a special credential. Anybody can be wise. The most common way people get wisdom is through suffering. That's why old people are so wise—because they've suffered a lot. Through suffering, you end up getting a lot of wisdom. Good times do not make you wise. Difficult times do.
Living a Happy and Fulfilling Life
Kirk believes students don't hear enough on college campuses about how to live a happy and fulfilling life. You should be thankful for life. It's a gift. It's a beautiful thing. A true appreciation of the deeper and eternal things starts with wonder. When Kirk was landing, he saw incredible natural beauty—mountains that looked like they were literally on fire. It makes you wonder what else out there is beautiful and worth preserving. What else out there is eternal and elevated? What else out there is something that we should try to go above and beyond and make sure it doesn't get corrupted or destroyed?
That starts with gratitude. It starts with being thankful. The first thing is being thankful for life, thankful for consciousness, thankful for existence, thankful for things that are deeply objectively good. As conservatives, we want to design a society that gives preference to your choices, your actions, and your behavior—not on your complaints or your grievances or the mobilization thereof.
The Greatest Battle Is Within
It's important for people to prioritize that the greatest battle you'll experience in life is the struggle within. We must tell young people that we must understand that it's self-control, that the improvement of your own character is the thing that you must prioritize above anything else. It's a disservice to tell young people the greatest struggle in life is you against racism or some external force. No. The greatest struggle in life is whether you're going to be able to control your own impulses, to work up early, to go to work, to say that you want to become a better and more developed human being.
Put simply, as conservatives we believe that happiness is a choice. We're happy regardless of how bad things are falling apart in our country. We're happy to be alive. We're thankful for our existence. Happiness is a choice. If you go around trying to find happiness, all of a sudden you'll seek pleasure over virtue. If you try to find happiness as a state, it's nonsense. Happiness is a choice. It's a state of mind. It's something that you must commit yourself to. You must work at it too. You must say, "What am I thankful for today?"
Kirk isn't trying to diminish suffering—everybody has something they're going through, and it's a serious thing. But what does it mean to live a fulfilling life? Is it to walk around always looking at something worthy of protesting, tearing down, deconstructing, or disassembling? Or is it saying, "Man, if I made these 10 choices, if I stopped drinking, if I stopped doing drugs, if I stopped complaining, maybe my life will improve a little bit. Maybe if I start taking responsibility for my actions, I'll start to see the fruits of those choices."
Character Is Developed in the Challenge
The real struggle we must all understand is that it's you against you. If you devote yourself to saying you'll be happy as soon as we get universal healthcare or this person elected, that's never going to happen. The reason we have so many people searching for purpose in our country is because we have said to so many students: don't go find responsibility, go find immediate pleasure and gratification.
We must instead prioritize things that make you challenge yourself. Character is developed in the challenge. Strength rejoices in the challenge. Sometimes it's a good thing that you get to live a little bit tougher of a circumstance as a 17, 18, or 19-year-old. It'll make you a tougher person in the long run.
Finding Success Without a Traditional Path
When a college senior asked how to become successful without college, Kirk first clarified an important point: when we say college is a scam, that's saying they're charging too much money and the value proposition is inverted. But don't use that as a victim mentality and say you can't get any value from it. Find the value. Hold on to the value.
Kirk then asked the student what he was good at. The student said he loved talking, dialogue, and exchanging differences. Kirk pointed out that he was already in the 1% of the country—99% of people hate talking. The greatest fear in America is public speaking, more than death. Now he's in a whole different category.
Believe it or not, every single job at every single company on the planet needs somebody that's good at communicating. Whatever you do, try to gravitate towards the thing that you like and that you're good at. The biggest thing: be a lifelong learner. Don't stop learning just because you might not be in college. Since the student was already a senior, Kirk's advice was to finish the degree. It would be stupid not to after already investing that much. Then try to find things that are the intersection of your skill and your passion. That's where you're going to succeed the best in life.
Dating as a Young Conservative
When asked about dating struggles and dating apps for young conservatives, Kirk shared an opinion he knows will upset people: you should not date people that have different politics than you. You should not. The reason is that you should date with the intent to marry. Dating is not a hobby. Dating is an interview process. Kirk knows that is a minority opinion on most college campuses where dating is a mechanism for companionship amongst other things.
It's going to be tough. You're going to have to hopefully only date people in alignment with your values. That doesn't mean you can't have friends with people that disagree with you, but dating is a very serious thing. Try to associate or marry or date somebody that does share your deeply held values.
What Women Look for in Men
Kirk addressed what he sees as a crisis of masculinity. Most men are beta males with very little to any detectable testosterone. Men, especially in this time of moral and societal chaos, need to get back into what it means to be a physically and mentally strong man. Kirk believes this includes stopping watching pornography and working out on a regular basis.
According to a survey of Turning Point listeners, the most desirable quality that young ladies look for in men is self-control. Young ladies say they cannot find a young man who can control himself. That's a big deal.
Put that all together—what are you supposed to do? Try to be the best version of yourself. Then be very clear with women and respectful about what you want and your intent. A lot of men are intimidated by women, and Kirk gets it. Our entire culture has basically conditioned men to be intimidated by women. Kirk encourages men to be very direct. Don't do the "we're going to try the friend thing for a while." Just be a man and say, "I like you. I want to take you on a date."
Advice for a 13-Year-Old Homeschooler
A 13-year-old homeschooled student named Grace, who has been listening to Kirk's podcast and taking Hillsdale College's online Constitution course, asked for advice on becoming a more informed and involved citizen as she moves into adulthood.
Kirk's response: Learn something new every single day and focus on what it means to be a good person and a person of strong character, especially when you get into the world of trying to be around social approval. Courage is what's missing in our country. We have a courage crisis right now. Moral courage is the most necessary yet absent characteristic in men.
George S. Patton and Aristotle both emphasized that courage is the ultimate virtue. Without it, there are no other virtues. Think about that. If people aren't courageous, you don't have honesty. You don't have justice. You don't have beauty. You don't have wonder. If people don't have courage to act, nothing else matters.
At age 13, Kirk wants young people to commit themselves to a life of courage. Courage is doing the right thing when you don't know how it's going to work out. Courage is committing yourself to the correct course of action regardless of the cost associated with it.
The Homeschooling Explosion
Kirk is given hope by the amount of young homeschooling children rising up in our country. When people ask what success looks like, Kirk envisions this New York Times headline in 2050: "America's sudden, shocking and inexplicable right turn can be traced back to homeschooling explosion during COVID-19." That's what success looks like.
