Assisting Is Like Graduate School

I had plans to start assisting a couple of months before graduating, somehow an internship of a month turn in to a job. I started assisting last year for a photographer who I have admire for years. I have a lot of friends who hate assisting, they see it as manual labor. Some say they would rather be working on their own stuff. Others are just straight out lazy, and Just want someone to hand them a check. The more and more I am on set I realize that it's another school. Can't be late , you start at the bottom and work your way up. Ever day you learn something new and your classmates are much better than you. Yet I feel that the moment you start assisting there is a countdown for you to go out on your own. Yes, this a very hard time to be self-employed, but clients are most likely to hire cheaper and less known photographers. On the day of my first paid shoot, the 1,2,3 assistants approach me, and pretty much told they would kick my ass if I was still there after a two years. There reason why I went to Art School, and I should be creating my own images for clients instead of helping someone else make money. I think they're right, every shoot I work, I feel I need to take the most from and begin to make plans in my head of how to get to the next step.