6 ms·

Students: You Are Probably Not Mark Zuckerberg, So Stay In School

51 points by woan 16y ago

nhangen 16y ago
I disagree with this entirely. 1. Stop comparing yourself and/or others to Mark Zuckerberg...it's an insult to both parties. 2. School is useful for connections and work ethic, but if you need neither, than there's no reason to cling to the dying ideal that school = security. 3. Any skilled hacker can find enough freelance jobs to support himself (or herself) while he builds a side project.
imran 16y ago
Students you are probably not Mark Zuckerberg, so find yourself who you are! (then decide about school)
gamble 16y ago
One commonality between many successful dropouts like Zuckerberg and Gates is that they dropped out to do something specific, not because they were too lazy or undisciplined to finish. Had the right opportunity not come along, I suspect many celebrity dropouts would have cruised to graduation.
- chris11 16y ago
  I'd also argue even including Gates in a list of typical college dropouts. He was taking graduate level computer science and mathematics classes his first and second year in college. Anyone who can take handle graduate level technical classes has shown a decent grasp of the undergraduate material.
- NiloParedes 16y ago
  That's an interesting point (re: doing something specific) which applies not just to college students. The truth is once you have clarity and vision, what ever it is you are doing seems like poor usage of your time. Having said, it's not easy arrive at that kind of clarity or vision.
  - tensor 16y ago
    One can argue that there is no clarity of vision involved. Rather, for every individual like Gates who gets lucky with a good business opportunity, there may be many equally qualified individuals who do not get a lucky break with a good idea. It is always assumed that success and failure in business corresponds directly to skill. I doubt this assumption and suspect luck has a lot to do with it. Once you get your first success earning you several million, many doors open to you.
- shadowfox 16y ago
  Of course a lot of students who are lazy and undisciplined do not think that they are lazy and undisciplined
- Jsarokin 16y ago
  I like to think of it as they went out and made the opportunity happen for themselves instead of waiting for the opportunity to present itself.
  - kenjackson 16y ago
    But they didn't drop out to find the opportunity, is his point. The uber-point is really, people who are bright enough to found $1B businesses are also bright enough to realize that you don't leave college until you have the idea moving along a good path. To put it another way, are there any $1B SW companies started by people who either didn't go to college or dropped out of college before they had started creating product for what would be this company? I honestly can't think of any (but that doesn't mean there aren't any -- and it should be easy to enumerate since there's probably only 20 or so billion dollar SW companies).
    - nostrademons 16y ago
      Twitter & Apple.
      - kenjackson 16y ago
        I'll give you half-credit for Apple. Jobs was out of school, but Woz was still at UCB and withdrew after they had already begun selling (but before the company was officially formed). And I think half credit for Twitter. I don't know much about Twitter, but it appears Dorsey was still in college when they started Twitter. But in any case two pretty good examples.
        nostrademons 16y ago
        If you count Woz as "still at UCB" because he was on a leave of absence, then you have to count Gates as "still at Harvard" and Page & Brin as "still at Stanford" even today. Officially, they never actually dropped out of their universities - they just remain on perpetual leave of absence, and could go back next semester if they wanted to. Woz was at HP because he didn't have money for the next semester of Berkeley, and he thought he would always be at HP, and even after Apple started selling things and went public, he remained officially on a leave of absence, and actually did go back after his plane crash. It's actually really hard to drop out or fail out of an elite college - I tried a couple times when I was still in undergrad. They always want you to take a leave of absence because then you don't show up in the dropout statistics that drag down their U.S. News rankings. This is why it's not really all that risky to drop out of college; you can always go back and pick up where you left off, but you'll have a much better idea of why you're there. I was definitely thinking about Evan Williams for Twitter. He dropped out of college because he always knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur, but had no idea what sort of company he would start. I don't really know about Dorsey and Biz Stone's backgrounds.
- kithal 16y ago
  In fact, I'd imagine Zuckerberg would be better off both personally and professionally had he finished his undergraduate education. Moreover, I think it's interesting to think if Facebook would be different had it been founded by post-graduation Zuckerberg. Better? Worse? I bet the Facebook experience would be richer had Zuckerberg been more mature when he crafted the initial vision.
  - jaxn 16y ago
    That is a pretty bold claim. It sounds ridiculous to me. Also, how can someone consumed with an idea finish school? It is that singular purpose that drive Zuckerberg to succeed. You can't just put that on hold and finish up a degree.
  - dmor 16y ago
    Both of these claims are tossed out as random assertions with no support. Why would Zuckerberg be better off if he had finished undergrad? Why would the Facebook experience have been richer if crafter by a post-college founder?
  - klbarry 16y ago
    That is one of the most absurd claims I have ever heard on HN. However, I do not think it should be downvoted, because it was made in good faith.
- exit 16y ago
  why did steve jobs drop out?
  - hyperbovine 16y ago
    To figure out who he was and what he wanted in life.
    - foljs 16y ago
      i.e to bum it for a year in India.
  - morganw 16y ago
    http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html "all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it."
    - mitko 16y ago
      but he continued listening lectures - he just stopped paying. Apparently he was smart enough to realize that the knowledge is worth much more than the degree.
risico 16y ago
I find that having the "guts" to leave the school to pursue a personal goal is more important than staying in and wait for thinks to happen.
icandoitbetter 16y ago
Students: You are probably not Mark Zuckerberg, so pay $200,000 to put up with old-fashioned syllabi and badly-designed courses employing poor methods of evaluation and professors who do their best to make feel as mediocre as possible!
- TomOfTTB 16y ago
  And that's really the question as far as I'm concerned. I think the author would be unquestionably right 10 years ago. But as Universities have become more self aggrandizing in what they teach the value of that education has gone down to the point where people are now questioning whether an education is worth it at all. I mean 10 years from now will a college education be devalued to the point of not being worth what you paid for it? I don't know the answer to that but if I were giving the advice I'd tell students to try the startup community while attending an accredited online institution. You could spend a few hours a week doing that and have a degree in 6 years while still chasing your startup dreams.
- fleitz 16y ago
  Those that can do, those that can't, teach, and those that can't teach get tenure. If this guy was an econ professor at least he would know he was just talking his book. You don't need a symposium on entrepreneurship you need to sell stuff at a higher price than you bought it to paying customers. Thats it, it's a sentence not a 2 year degree program.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - tensor 16y ago
    Those that can do, those that can't, teach, and those that can't teach get tenure. This is an extremely ignorant and insulting statement. Further, you have just asserted that the worlds best minds, and many of histories great figures, are all incapable fools. I hope you realize how this statement makes you look.
    - 16y ago
fooandbarify 16y ago
I like school, I'm not planning to drop out, but this guy isn't convincing anyone. His basic premise is that school is the "safer" path - something that I don't think the Zuckerbergs of the world have ever found terribly appealing.
ziadbc 16y ago
This is a false dichotomy that sidesteps the question, "Are universities a place where the brightest students, regardless of which campus they are attending, are able to actualize real world goals?" In many cases, for a person who has real conviction and skill about what it is they do, dropping out is merely the path of least resistance. For the 'regulars,' the ideal should be for universities to offer the resources to students who are passionate about their field, and not saddle them with administrative barriers in the name of 'getting a degree.'
invalidOrTaken 16y ago
He makes a good point about the value of business experience... ...and then advocates waiting a few years before seeking such experience.
- stretchwithme 16y ago
  Why swim to learn how to swim when you can sit and study swimming?
edge17 16y ago
the first thing every kid needs to learn is opportunity cost. the second is very basic finance and how compounding interest works. after that a lot of the decision process will naturally fall into place by itself.
fleitz 16y ago
Wasn't Zuckerberg given this same advice, that he wasn't the guy who founded Friendster, and should just stay in school? Should a business fail can't you just go back to school? How many great business opportunities does one get in life? I'm betting it's far less than the opportunities to blow two hundred grand on a piece of paper. If professors knew what business ideas would succeed and which would fail then they'd be investing instead of teaching.
- pg 16y ago
  If professors knew what business ideas would succeed and which would fail then they'd be investing instead of teaching. It's not ideas that succeed or fail, but founders.
  - netcan 16y ago
    If that is your position (pick founders, not ideas), does this preclude you from picking a future google/microsoft/ etc. except by chance? I am assuming that the really big hits are a consequence of the right idea, right time, and right people.
    - pg 16y ago
      No. The right people (eventually) find the right idea for the time.
      - ryanwaggoner 16y ago
        How could this statement be anything other than a tautology?
        pg 16y ago
        Because it's also claiming that such people exist. I'm not saying P(x) ≡ Q(x), but ∃x P(x) ∧ Q(x).
NicuCalcea 16y ago
Those students are probably not Zuckerberg too.
cophelan 16y ago
I am a complete proponent of pursuing an undergraduate degree at a traditional school. The constant networking, opportunities to round yourself as an individual from field experts, and development of general life skills are nearly invaluable to become a successful leader. MBA's are a different story.
stretchwithme 16y ago
You're probably not Mark Zuckerburg, so find your own passion. And think twice about exhortations to follow in the footsteps of the masses too.
pg 16y ago
It's a fallacy that one should avoid ambitious choices because few succeed at them. On average the odds of starting a successful startup are low, but the reason that's so is that it's an average of a few people for whom the probability of success is high (not 100%, but still high considering the risks) and a large number for whom it's practically zero. I suppose in a sense he's doing students a favor with this article, because the ones who don't perceive the fallacy are probably the ones with a low chance of succeeding.
- jacques_chester 16y ago
  It is also a fallacy that one should make ambitious choices because some well-known few have succeeded. In either case you are making a decision out of emotion (fear or hope). edit: better noun.
  - AJ007 16y ago
    Exclude the "well known few" from the list of successful entrepreneurs and you still have a list of people that is quite large. I am very fortunate I did not listen to anyone who told me their opinion when I was preparing to drop out of college some 5 years ago. As difficult as it was to do back then, the choices I have to make to run my company and keep my employees employed make that one decision appear pathetically simple and obvious. Being an entrepreneur is about making decisions for yourself because no one else can tell you what to do (and once you become successful everyone will have an their opinions of what you should do.) If you are incapable about making challenging decisions to run your own life you are not going to be a successful entrepreneur and you should listen to what other people tell you.
    - jacques_chester 16y ago
      I was not aware that weighing up advice, and sometimes taking it, was an inability to make challenging decisions. I am glad you were successful, however your experience remains only anecdotal. I have one too: my father did not go to university, worked hard at his trade, started a business, and went bankrupt.
keen 16y ago
I resent this kind of thinking. "students may come up with great ideas and start a company, but they aren’t going to be able make it big unless they have the educational foundation." College isn't the only way to get this educational foundation. I'd rather learn through trying to succeed in business, even if it means failure at first.
kevin_morrill 16y ago
The list of business titans who either never attended or dropped out of college is so long it makes you wonder if graduating from college is actually a liability. Paul Allen, Richard Branson, James Cameron, John Carmack, Andrew Carnegie, Michael Dell, Barry Diller, Walt Disney, George, Eastman, Thomas Edison, Larry Ellison, Henry Ford, Bill Gates, David Geffen, J. Paul Getty, William Randolph Hearst, Steve Jobs, Ingvar Kamprad, Kirk Kerkorian, Ray Kroc, Ralph Lauren, Craig McCaw, John D. Rockefeller, Steven Spielberg, Dave Thomas, Ted Turner, Ted Waitt, Steve Wozniak, Frank Lloyd Wright, Orville and Wilbur Wright, and Mark Zuckerberg. Some lesser known billionaires: Eike Batista, Ronald Burkle, Richard Schulze.
- tybris 16y ago
  If you have what it takes to become a billionaire, you don't need college to become rich. As for you and me...
samjohn 16y ago
I wish he had addressed the fact that school is incredibly expensive. It's much harder to start a business when you are 100k in debt from your expensive MBA (or your undergrad for that matter).
IsaacL 16y ago
"To build a business, you need to understand subjects like finance, marketing, intellectual property and corporate law. " And you can only learn these topics in university. "Most importantly, if students don’t learn the importance of finishing what they start, they will never achieve success—this requires perseverance and determination." And you can only learn perseverance at university. "And by dropping out of college, they won’t have the alumni networks that they need to help them later in their careers and in business." And you can only make friends at university. To me, the only real reason to stay in university until I graduate (aside from inertia) is the belief that being a dropout instead of a graduate will hurt my future career. (I speak as one who's been tempted to drop out a few times)
rvb 16y ago
For what it's worth, I dropped out of college, ended up starting a company, and had a decent exit (fortunately). But I'm using the freedom that gave me to go back to school. I was able to manage before by teaching myself out of books, but there's something to be said for learning with expert guidance and a community of peers. I am also gaining exposure to a variety of fields which lend themselves less well to self-instruction than programming does (for example, molecular biology) and in which I believe a lot of the action for the next fifty years will be happening. So, yeah, unless you already have a product that has traction and that demands your fulltime attention to continue growing, there's no reason to drop out of school. My advice to students is: imagine that you were forced to drop out of college against your will, and then were given a chance to go back five years later after slogging it out in the real world. Would your attitude be different than it is now? Would you perhaps go to more office hours, skip less class, explore more subjects, play less Xbox, join more clubs?

51 points by woan 16y ago

I disagree with this entirely. 1. Stop comparing yourself and/or others to Mark Zuckerberg...it's an insult to both parties. 2. School is useful for connections and work ethic, but if you need neither, than there's no reason to cling to the dying ideal that school = security. 3. Any skilled hacker can find enough freelance jobs to support himself (or herself) while he builds a side project.

imran 16y ago

Students you are probably not Mark Zuckerberg, so find yourself who you are! (then decide about school)

gamble 16y ago

One commonality between many successful dropouts like Zuckerberg and Gates is that they dropped out to do something specific, not because they were too lazy or undisciplined to finish. Had the right opportunity not come along, I suspect many celebrity dropouts would have cruised to graduation.

chris11 16y ago
I'd also argue even including Gates in a list of typical college dropouts. He was taking graduate level computer science and mathematics classes his first and second year in college. Anyone who can take handle graduate level technical classes has shown a decent grasp of the undergraduate material.
NiloParedes 16y ago
That's an interesting point (re: doing something specific) which applies not just to college students. The truth is once you have clarity and vision, what ever it is you are doing seems like poor usage of your time. Having said, it's not easy arrive at that kind of clarity or vision.
- tensor 16y ago
  One can argue that there is no clarity of vision involved. Rather, for every individual like Gates who gets lucky with a good business opportunity, there may be many equally qualified individuals who do not get a lucky break with a good idea. It is always assumed that success and failure in business corresponds directly to skill. I doubt this assumption and suspect luck has a lot to do with it. Once you get your first success earning you several million, many doors open to you.
shadowfox 16y ago
Of course a lot of students who are lazy and undisciplined do not think that they are lazy and undisciplined
Jsarokin 16y ago
I like to think of it as they went out and made the opportunity happen for themselves instead of waiting for the opportunity to present itself.
- kenjackson 16y ago
  But they didn't drop out to find the opportunity, is his point. The uber-point is really, people who are bright enough to found $1B businesses are also bright enough to realize that you don't leave college until you have the idea moving along a good path. To put it another way, are there any $1B SW companies started by people who either didn't go to college or dropped out of college before they had started creating product for what would be this company? I honestly can't think of any (but that doesn't mean there aren't any -- and it should be easy to enumerate since there's probably only 20 or so billion dollar SW companies).
  - nostrademons 16y ago
    Twitter & Apple.
    - kenjackson 16y ago
      I'll give you half-credit for Apple. Jobs was out of school, but Woz was still at UCB and withdrew after they had already begun selling (but before the company was officially formed). And I think half credit for Twitter. I don't know much about Twitter, but it appears Dorsey was still in college when they started Twitter. But in any case two pretty good examples.
      - nostrademons 16y ago
        If you count Woz as "still at UCB" because he was on a leave of absence, then you have to count Gates as "still at Harvard" and Page & Brin as "still at Stanford" even today. Officially, they never actually dropped out of their universities - they just remain on perpetual leave of absence, and could go back next semester if they wanted to. Woz was at HP because he didn't have money for the next semester of Berkeley, and he thought he would always be at HP, and even after Apple started selling things and went public, he remained officially on a leave of absence, and actually did go back after his plane crash. It's actually really hard to drop out or fail out of an elite college - I tried a couple times when I was still in undergrad. They always want you to take a leave of absence because then you don't show up in the dropout statistics that drag down their U.S. News rankings. This is why it's not really all that risky to drop out of college; you can always go back and pick up where you left off, but you'll have a much better idea of why you're there. I was definitely thinking about Evan Williams for Twitter. He dropped out of college because he always knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur, but had no idea what sort of company he would start. I don't really know about Dorsey and Biz Stone's backgrounds.
kithal 16y ago
In fact, I'd imagine Zuckerberg would be better off both personally and professionally had he finished his undergraduate education. Moreover, I think it's interesting to think if Facebook would be different had it been founded by post-graduation Zuckerberg. Better? Worse? I bet the Facebook experience would be richer had Zuckerberg been more mature when he crafted the initial vision.
- jaxn 16y ago
  That is a pretty bold claim. It sounds ridiculous to me. Also, how can someone consumed with an idea finish school? It is that singular purpose that drive Zuckerberg to succeed. You can't just put that on hold and finish up a degree.
- dmor 16y ago
  Both of these claims are tossed out as random assertions with no support. Why would Zuckerberg be better off if he had finished undergrad? Why would the Facebook experience have been richer if crafter by a post-college founder?
- klbarry 16y ago
  That is one of the most absurd claims I have ever heard on HN. However, I do not think it should be downvoted, because it was made in good faith.
exit 16y ago
why did steve jobs drop out?
- hyperbovine 16y ago
  To figure out who he was and what he wanted in life.
  - foljs 16y ago
    i.e to bum it for a year in India.
- morganw 16y ago
  http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html "all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it."
  - mitko 16y ago
    but he continued listening lectures - he just stopped paying. Apparently he was smart enough to realize that the knowledge is worth much more than the degree.

risico 16y ago

I find that having the "guts" to leave the school to pursue a personal goal is more important than staying in and wait for thinks to happen.

icandoitbetter 16y ago

Students: You are probably not Mark Zuckerberg, so pay $200,000 to put up with old-fashioned syllabi and badly-designed courses employing poor methods of evaluation and professors who do their best to make feel as mediocre as possible!

TomOfTTB 16y ago
And that's really the question as far as I'm concerned. I think the author would be unquestionably right 10 years ago. But as Universities have become more self aggrandizing in what they teach the value of that education has gone down to the point where people are now questioning whether an education is worth it at all. I mean 10 years from now will a college education be devalued to the point of not being worth what you paid for it? I don't know the answer to that but if I were giving the advice I'd tell students to try the startup community while attending an accredited online institution. You could spend a few hours a week doing that and have a degree in 6 years while still chasing your startup dreams.
fleitz 16y ago
Those that can do, those that can't, teach, and those that can't teach get tenure. If this guy was an econ professor at least he would know he was just talking his book. You don't need a symposium on entrepreneurship you need to sell stuff at a higher price than you bought it to paying customers. Thats it, it's a sentence not a 2 year degree program.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- tensor 16y ago
  Those that can do, those that can't, teach, and those that can't teach get tenure. This is an extremely ignorant and insulting statement. Further, you have just asserted that the worlds best minds, and many of histories great figures, are all incapable fools. I hope you realize how this statement makes you look.
  - 16y ago

fooandbarify 16y ago

I like school, I'm not planning to drop out, but this guy isn't convincing anyone. His basic premise is that school is the "safer" path - something that I don't think the Zuckerbergs of the world have ever found terribly appealing.

ziadbc 16y ago

This is a false dichotomy that sidesteps the question, "Are universities a place where the brightest students, regardless of which campus they are attending, are able to actualize real world goals?" In many cases, for a person who has real conviction and skill about what it is they do, dropping out is merely the path of least resistance. For the 'regulars,' the ideal should be for universities to offer the resources to students who are passionate about their field, and not saddle them with administrative barriers in the name of 'getting a degree.'

invalidOrTaken 16y ago

He makes a good point about the value of business experience... ...and then advocates waiting a few years before seeking such experience.

stretchwithme 16y ago
Why swim to learn how to swim when you can sit and study swimming?

edge17 16y ago

the first thing every kid needs to learn is opportunity cost. the second is very basic finance and how compounding interest works. after that a lot of the decision process will naturally fall into place by itself.

fleitz 16y ago

Wasn't Zuckerberg given this same advice, that he wasn't the guy who founded Friendster, and should just stay in school? Should a business fail can't you just go back to school? How many great business opportunities does one get in life? I'm betting it's far less than the opportunities to blow two hundred grand on a piece of paper. If professors knew what business ideas would succeed and which would fail then they'd be investing instead of teaching.

pg 16y ago
If professors knew what business ideas would succeed and which would fail then they'd be investing instead of teaching. It's not ideas that succeed or fail, but founders.
- netcan 16y ago
  If that is your position (pick founders, not ideas), does this preclude you from picking a future google/microsoft/ etc. except by chance? I am assuming that the really big hits are a consequence of the right idea, right time, and right people.
  - pg 16y ago
    No. The right people (eventually) find the right idea for the time.
    - ryanwaggoner 16y ago
      How could this statement be anything other than a tautology?
      - pg 16y ago
        Because it's also claiming that such people exist. I'm not saying P(x) ≡ Q(x), but ∃x P(x) ∧ Q(x).

NicuCalcea 16y ago

Those students are probably not Zuckerberg too.

cophelan 16y ago

I am a complete proponent of pursuing an undergraduate degree at a traditional school. The constant networking, opportunities to round yourself as an individual from field experts, and development of general life skills are nearly invaluable to become a successful leader. MBA's are a different story.

stretchwithme 16y ago

You're probably not Mark Zuckerburg, so find your own passion. And think twice about exhortations to follow in the footsteps of the masses too.

pg 16y ago

It's a fallacy that one should avoid ambitious choices because few succeed at them. On average the odds of starting a successful startup are low, but the reason that's so is that it's an average of a few people for whom the probability of success is high (not 100%, but still high considering the risks) and a large number for whom it's practically zero. I suppose in a sense he's doing students a favor with this article, because the ones who don't perceive the fallacy are probably the ones with a low chance of succeeding.

jacques_chester 16y ago
It is also a fallacy that one should make ambitious choices because some well-known few have succeeded. In either case you are making a decision out of emotion (fear or hope). edit: better noun.
- AJ007 16y ago
  Exclude the "well known few" from the list of successful entrepreneurs and you still have a list of people that is quite large. I am very fortunate I did not listen to anyone who told me their opinion when I was preparing to drop out of college some 5 years ago. As difficult as it was to do back then, the choices I have to make to run my company and keep my employees employed make that one decision appear pathetically simple and obvious. Being an entrepreneur is about making decisions for yourself because no one else can tell you what to do (and once you become successful everyone will have an their opinions of what you should do.) If you are incapable about making challenging decisions to run your own life you are not going to be a successful entrepreneur and you should listen to what other people tell you.
  - jacques_chester 16y ago
    I was not aware that weighing up advice, and sometimes taking it, was an inability to make challenging decisions. I am glad you were successful, however your experience remains only anecdotal. I have one too: my father did not go to university, worked hard at his trade, started a business, and went bankrupt.

keen 16y ago

I resent this kind of thinking. "students may come up with great ideas and start a company, but they aren’t going to be able make it big unless they have the educational foundation." College isn't the only way to get this educational foundation. I'd rather learn through trying to succeed in business, even if it means failure at first.

kevin_morrill 16y ago

The list of business titans who either never attended or dropped out of college is so long it makes you wonder if graduating from college is actually a liability. Paul Allen, Richard Branson, James Cameron, John Carmack, Andrew Carnegie, Michael Dell, Barry Diller, Walt Disney, George, Eastman, Thomas Edison, Larry Ellison, Henry Ford, Bill Gates, David Geffen, J. Paul Getty, William Randolph Hearst, Steve Jobs, Ingvar Kamprad, Kirk Kerkorian, Ray Kroc, Ralph Lauren, Craig McCaw, John D. Rockefeller, Steven Spielberg, Dave Thomas, Ted Turner, Ted Waitt, Steve Wozniak, Frank Lloyd Wright, Orville and Wilbur Wright, and Mark Zuckerberg. Some lesser known billionaires: Eike Batista, Ronald Burkle, Richard Schulze.

tybris 16y ago
If you have what it takes to become a billionaire, you don't need college to become rich. As for you and me...

samjohn 16y ago

I wish he had addressed the fact that school is incredibly expensive. It's much harder to start a business when you are 100k in debt from your expensive MBA (or your undergrad for that matter).

IsaacL 16y ago

"To build a business, you need to understand subjects like finance, marketing, intellectual property and corporate law. " And you can only learn these topics in university. "Most importantly, if students don’t learn the importance of finishing what they start, they will never achieve success—this requires perseverance and determination." And you can only learn perseverance at university. "And by dropping out of college, they won’t have the alumni networks that they need to help them later in their careers and in business." And you can only make friends at university. To me, the only real reason to stay in university until I graduate (aside from inertia) is the belief that being a dropout instead of a graduate will hurt my future career. (I speak as one who's been tempted to drop out a few times)

rvb 16y ago

For what it's worth, I dropped out of college, ended up starting a company, and had a decent exit (fortunately). But I'm using the freedom that gave me to go back to school. I was able to manage before by teaching myself out of books, but there's something to be said for learning with expert guidance and a community of peers. I am also gaining exposure to a variety of fields which lend themselves less well to self-instruction than programming does (for example, molecular biology) and in which I believe a lot of the action for the next fifty years will be happening. So, yeah, unless you already have a product that has traction and that demands your fulltime attention to continue growing, there's no reason to drop out of school. My advice to students is: imagine that you were forced to drop out of college against your will, and then were given a chance to go back five years later after slogging it out in the real world. Would your attitude be different than it is now? Would you perhaps go to more office hours, skip less class, explore more subjects, play less Xbox, join more clubs?