Landis Bargatze is moving forward.
Taking advantage of every opportunity and always thinking about the future is how he sees himself being successful. His Snapchat stories and Instagram feeds are a fairly continuous flow of financial advice and resources for teenagers and messages such as “No days off.”
Bargatze is from the sect of our generation that staunchly believes that entrepreneurship and self-advancement are the keys to success, and he is following that to a tee. Inspired by his Freshman year algebra teacher, Mr. Schmidt, entering high school in Brentwood drastically changed Bargatze’s mindset and approach to life.
A rigorous course that I myself have been through instills Schmidt’s teaching style is one that encourages exploration and opportunistic thinking. The initial class periods are spent less focused on any actual algebra than the idea of “growth mindset.” A fairly common phrase repeated in the math department here at Brentwood is, for many students, a source of much chagrin. But Bargatze took this message to heart and has incorporated it into his daily life.
Either stocking shelves as a crew member at the grocery store Trader Joe’s or aiding golfers as a caddy, Landis has been working since the second he could. He is currently in the entrepreneurship program known as “catalyst,” in which he and his friend Chaim Duffe-Holmes have been working to start their own project. He plans to end up at Mizzou and pursue computer science because he sees that field as having the most opportunity. Bargatze said, “You can pick up a computer, and a lot of people don’t know the potential that they hold in their hands.”
No matter where Bargatze finds himself in the future, it is clear that he will continue to incorporate an entrepreneurial spirit into whatever falls at his feet. Towards the end of our conversation, he said to me, “There are so many people who are where they want to be in life, and almost every one of them says that it takes effort, dedication, and putting your best self forward.” It’s clear that that is exactly what Bargatze wants for himself: results from dedication and perseverance. He doesn’t want anything handed to him on a silver platter, and he is well aware that it won’t.
