More than 20% of self-made billionaires never completed college
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Re: More than 20% of self-made billionaires never completed college
#2Hmm, that means 80% did start or complete college. Sounds like a no-brainer to me.
Re: More than 20% of self-made billionaires never completed college
#3Aah, more of this madness. The only people who can afford to drop out of college to pursue a startup are those with parents who will subsidize them while they do it, have extensive contacts or those who get very, very lucky.
It's just not practical advice and society doesn't treat folks in the status quo particularly well who do so. You might get far, but inevitably you'll get stuck in a rut somewhere along the way, if you end up out of startupland, because of your lack of an degree or sometimes, an advanced degree or two.
It's not fair, but that's the way the world is. If brilliant folks were more interested in finding ways to bust the higher ed/accreditation monopoly, rather than building the next Facebook or Twitter-killer, perhaps we can solve this problem before our kids become adults.
Re: More than 20% of self-made billionaires never completed college
#4If you look at it the other way around
80% of self-made billionaires went to college
Re: More than 20% of self-made billionaires never completed college
#5Hmm, that means 80% did start or complete college. Sounds like a no-brainer to me.
Yes, the base rate of college graduation in the general population is a good bit below 80 percent.
Re: More than 20% of self-made billionaires never completed college
#6Put another way, 70% of self-made billionaires completed college. This strikes me as higher than the national average, so completing college increases the chances of you becoming a billionaire.
Also, with a sample size of only 292, I find it hard to believe you could precisely determine what made them a billionaire. In fact, for all they measured, you could probably find 100 people of each who shared all of the same characteristics and are not billionaires.
Re: More than 20% of self-made billionaires never completed college
#7Aah, more of this madness. The only people who can afford to drop out of college to pursue a startup are those with parents who will subsidize them while they do it, have extensive contacts or those who get very, very lucky. It's just not practical advice and society doesn't treat folks in the status quo particularly well who do so. You might get far, but inevitably you'll get stuck in a rut somewhere along the way,…
I don't really see this as a problem. After college, nobody asks or cares if you went to college. So while you do need to have some skills to get a job, you don't need a piece of paper anymore. (Not in the programming industry, anyway.)
If you want to do a startup, spend the 4 years that you would have spent in college learning how to program and making money doing that. Then, you'll be able to support your own startup.
Re: More than 20% of self-made billionaires never completed college
#8I think the idea of dropping out of college fits in with the general startup mold. Startups are disruptive, they do not follow the traditional path of what's out there. Likewise, dropping out of college and leaving that safety net is certainly disruptive. It takes a special kind of person to do that. Also, it is unclear how many of these billionaires came from the world of tech startups, inherently more disruptive than say, finance.
Re: More than 20% of self-made billionaires never completed college
#9Aah, more of this madness. The only people who can afford to drop out of college to pursue a startup are those with parents who will subsidize them while they do it, have extensive contacts or those who get very, very lucky. It's just not practical advice and society doesn't treat folks in the status quo particularly well who do so. You might get far, but inevitably you'll get stuck in a rut somewhere along the way,…
I have to disagree with this. I dropped out of college, spent the winter as a snowboard bum in Colorado, moved back to Boston, and started working for minimum wage in retail. Managed to save enough money to buy a new computer. Got a better job, rinse & repeat. At no time was I subsidized by anyone else. I also don't think I was "very very lucky". Sure, I consider myself lucky in general, but the path from dropping out of college to success is all about hard work (and some natural aptitude wrt tech startup stuff).
I'd argue that if you have what it takes to create a successful tech startup (technical skills, strong drive/work ethic, determination, unhealthy willingness to work 16 hours a day, etc...) then you could do just fine dropping out of college. If you don't have those things, then I'd say stay in college for sure, but you won't start a successful startup regardless.
I'm also not sure what you want people to "fix" in higher education. I'm not saying it's perfect, but it sounds like you want EVERYONE to create startups. No matter how amazing college is, most people simply don't the right set of traits for that, and that's 100% okay! Society needs artists, call reps, grocery store managers, stay at home moms/dads, and everything else. Plus I honestly don't think sitting at the computer for 10-18 hours/day is physically or mentally healthy. So while I do it a lot, I'm really glad most people don't.
Re: More than 20% of self-made billionaires never completed college
#10Aah, more of this madness. The only people who can afford to drop out of college to pursue a startup are those with parents who will subsidize them while they do it, have extensive contacts or those who get very, very lucky. It's just not practical advice and society doesn't treat folks in the status quo particularly well who do so. You might get far, but inevitably you'll get stuck in a rut somewhere along the way,…
I don't really see this as a problem. After college, nobody asks or cares if you went to college. So while you do need to have some skills to get a job, you don't need a piece of paper anymore. (Not in the programming industry, anyway.) If you want to do a startup, spend the 4 years that you would have spent in college learning how to program and making money doing that. Then, you'll be able to support your own start…
And if you fail, go back to college and get the degree.
You say that no one cares. But job postings all over the web pretty much speak the opposite. Google doesn't just want degrees, they want degrees from top schools.
So sure, if someone wants to work for a fly-by-night operation that MIGHT strike it rich, have a blast.
But if they actually want health insurance someday, then it might be handy to get the degree about the way.
People ask if you went to college and if you graduated, after that, no one cares it's true. But without it, you better have a compelling story or have contacts that "won't care."
Ten years ago or more, you could easily get away without having a degree. But graduating NOW and expecting to do that? Yeah right.
And if it were easy to take 4 years and learn to program and "make money doing it" without the slightest clue how to get there, then everyone would do it.
College affords you more than enough free time to "learn to program on the side to make money doing it" while also giving you a backup plan, in case your brilliant plans don't work out.