As a teenager, Haley Joel Osment already had a career that other actors would kill for. He had worked with Steven Spielberg, been nominated for an Oscar at the age of 11 and performed alongside some of the biggest stars in Hollywood. 

But despite his success — and the reported 7-figure paydays that came with it — Osment says his parents always made sure he knew he could walk away from acting whenever he wanted.

"Both of my parents had a very healthy suspicion of Hollywood and the industry," he recently told CNBC Make It. "They had a policy making sure that me and my sister, who is also an actor, knew 'If this isn't fun, you can quit tomorrow and go back to school.'" 

A quick glance at the 36-year-old's IMDb page shows that Osment indeed took a conscious step back from the limelight in his teens even as he was one of the hottest young actors in the industry. Instead of leveraging his fame and success to star in bigger projects, he opted to leave Hollywood and focus on his education.

"There was an understanding that I would have to finish college," Osment, whose mother is a sixth grade teacher, said. "I knew that up to the age of 22, that part of my life was very much set in stone." 

The breakout star of "The Sixth Sense" didn't mind stepping away from the cameras that had been a regular part of his life since he was five years old. In fact, he got as far away from them as possible, crossing the country to attend New York University.

"I had the privilege of being in a comfortable position and only working because I wanted to," he said. "Having worked since I was a kid, I think it was important for me to step back and figure out whether this was what I wanted to do for my entire life." 

Osment studied experimental theater at the Tisch School of the Arts, an experience he says helped him realize that he couldn't visualize a career path for himself that didn't have something to do with the arts. 

Now that he's spent the vast majority of his life in the industry, including a recent turn in Zoë Kravitz's "Blink Twice", Osment says he occasionally wonders what his career and bank account might look like if he had worked throughout his college years. 

"I think about it sometimes, where if I had just worked it really hard when I was 18 and tried to get a bunch of high profile stuff it probably would have been a much smarter business decision," he says. "But I had the luxury of trying to protect my relationship to the art as much as I wanted to."

Osment has worked steadily since college, and the Academy Award nominee has his sights set on adding new titles to his job description: namely writer and director.

"It's a really challenging job," he says of directing a movie. "It also looks like the most fun and satisfying job in the world when you get to realize your vision that way."

With an Oscar nomination already under his belt, Osment knows exactly the type of success he's chasing: a long and productive career in the film industry.

"I want to be in at least 100 movies, and someday I'd like to have directed 10 films," he says. "If I can put that amount of work into the world, I'll feel really fulfilled."

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