Canadian millionaire and Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary has now shifted his stance. Leary recently gave an advice to students, walking back his view that engineering was the only graduate degree worth pursuing. Leary recently shared a post on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter). In the post O’Leary mentioned that the biggest paydays in 2025 are going to the elite content creators who have the potential to drive online sales and also reduce customer acquisition costs. “Ten years ago I said engineering was the only master’s degree worth pursuing. Not anymore. The fastest wage growth today is in creative storytelling across social media, people who can lower customer acquisition costs and increase ROAS every single week,” O’Leary wrote.O’Leary emphasises that the top creators today are earring far beyond the entry-level salaries. “Those creators aren’t making $25K… they’re making $250K or $800K across multiple companies. Why? Because they’re measurable. Content is king, and the storytellers are winning,” he added.
O’Leary walks back on his 2018 advice to students
The comments mark a departure from O’Leary’s earlier stance. In a 2018 CNBC interview, he urged students to pursue engineering as the most lucrative career path, praising engineers for turning patents into companies. By 2020, however, he acknowledged on YouTuber Evan Carmichael’s podcast that his opinion had changed, pointing to social media content as the fastest-growing cost center across his portfolio of more than 50 companies.In recent years, O’Leary has argued that every business now requires an in-house media operation to tell its story online and lower acquisition costs through targeted campaigns. He has consistently highlighted the measurable impact of content creation on sales, positioning storytelling as a critical skill in today’s economy.At the same time, O’Leary has remained skeptical about the value of traditional postgraduate business education. He has said the main benefit of an MBA lies in the network and work ethic it fosters, rather than the credential itself.
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