Should Young Entrepreneurs Go To College?
“Top 10 Billionaires Who Dropped Out of College…” – I’m sure you have come across those kind of lists before, whether you read about it on some blog or in the media, convincing you that you don’t need a college degree to become a successful entrepreneur. Sure, there are some who succeeded without having attended college but I personally don’t buy into this whole “you don’t need college” hype.
I mean, just do the maths: what’s the ratio of great companies founded by people who didn’t go to college at all versus those who went (even for just a year or two)? As a young entrepreneur, I’ll be attending college this fall and the decision was an absolute no-brainer – even if you are an entrepreneur who wants to start a business and knows exactly what you want to do with your life . I’ll give a few reasons why I chose to go (from an entrepreneurial perspective):
Meet Like Minded People At Your Age
The media love to single out people like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates as examples of billionaires who didn’t need a college degree. Well, here’s the other side of the story that they usually don’t mention: they actually went to college in the first place. And the irony is that college was absolutely crucial to their business as that is how they met their business partners Dustin Moskovitz and Steve Balmer, respectively. Not to mention Sergey Brin & Larry Page of Google and David Filo & Jerry Yang of Yahoo. College offers a great networking opportunity and is truly the most fertile place to meet your future co-founders. In fact, many colleges across the United States help facilitate this with organizations (a great example being BASES at Stanford University).
But it’s not just about business co-founders. College provides the opportunity for you to meet like-minded people who you would never meet otherwise, exposing yourself to all sorts of cultures, values, opinions and views. It’s also probably the last chance you will ever have to spend time with a lot of smart people at your age.
Once-In-A-Lifetime Experience
It’s about the overall experience. You only get to be a kid once so you might as well take advantage of that. Few will ever go to college later on in their lives and if you do choose to go later, you would have missed out on all the college experiences of growing with your peer group. Many people have told me how great their experience at college was like – the parties, the connections, the professors, the events – and how it was their most memorable time of their lives. I wouldn’t want to regret spending the rest of my life having only heard about all the great things rather than living it.
To Learn
Obviously, you’re there to learn. Sure, you can self-educate and learn as you go along, but college is more about the well-rounded knowledge with its liberal arts program rather than just professional skills. It’s not just about street smart but instead a combination with book smart.
Besides, your life won’t be permanently ruined either way. You don’t have to limit yourself to just studying at college; you can still be entrepreneurial while also being scholastic. Many of the most successful business ideas evolved out of college. For example, Facebook was derived from the “Face Book” that all freshmen get on their first day; Google and Yahoo came out of a PhD thesis project related to computer science.
College and entrepreneurship can go together, so you might as well go and have fun. What do you think? Is/was college important for you?
I couldn’t agree more Stanley. I feel college was vitally crucial to my success as an entrepreneur and I strongly support you attending Stanford University. Congratulations!
Andrew
As a bit of an entrepreneurial geek now entering my final year of University, I am pretty much hooked on continuing my business projects after graduating, despite a degree in Economics.
But, like you, the decision to continue to further education in the first place was a no-brainer. I was convinced that the people I’d meet, the friends I’d make and the experiences I’d have would be invaluable to my growth.
And I was right – I wouldn’t be where I am today without University. I became President of my University’s Entrepreneur Society which opened up so many doors which will inevitably help with life after college.
The fact that you’re off to Stanford which has an amazing world reputation for business and entrepreneurship (assuming that is what you’re set on) means that your decision should actually be very easy! Good luck.
That’s awesome Adnan! As well as becoming the president of the entrepreneur society. Great to hear that.
I think if you are able to launch a successful project when you’re an undergraduate, grade school isn’t really that necessary. So the debate for me is really to go to graduate school or not?
Good luck with your ventures!
College is definitely an integral part of anyone’s career regardless of the path you take. Just like you said, it makes you a well rounded individual. I loved college and it was the greatest time of my life and it helped me quite a bit. From the social time to the classroom, I learned more in 4 years in college than I could in a lifetime. I was still able to balance my entrepreneurial life and schooling easily. If people say you can only do one at a time, they’re lying. It’s all about balancing your time appropriately in college. You’re doing well for yourself, Stanley, and college will only help with give you more tools to make yourself successful. Good luck at Stanford!
Thanks Frank! Great to hear that college helped you in your entrepreneur life. I definitely get the feeling that it is much easier to balance entrepreneur and school during college because the two can be so closely integrated.
Hey Stanley. Great post. I am supposed to be heading to college in a few months with the rest of my peers, but I opted to take a year off and do some traveling, writing, and building up various business ventures of my own. I am still planning on attending college because, like you said, there are so many good experiences to gain from it. I think a lot of it depends on the person. If they feel confident in being able to not go to college but somehow still make the connections with other young entrepreneurs, more power to them. But I think if a person really isn’t sure about going to college then (if they can) do what I am doing – take a year off, see how it feels, because it may prove more difficult than they imagined, or it may give them the time they really needed to devote themselves one hundred percent to their idea.
Thanks for a great post. It got me thinking about my own path and what my future plans are.
Have a great time at Stanford and I look forward to hearing how it goes.
I totally get what you mean. Many of my friends (including those who want to become entrepreneurs) have decided to take a gap year just to experiment with different things.