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Student Entrepreneurs: If Peter Thiel Calls, Hang Up

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Re: Student Entrepreneurs: If Peter Thiel Calls, Hang Up

#6
Seeing how successful companies work is extremely valuable. No company is perfect so you get to see what works and what does not. If your idea is something highly technical, then the degree (or equivalent experience) is very important. Name one highly successful company whose product is highly technical where the founder was not also technical? I cannot think of one myself.

Re: Student Entrepreneurs: If Peter Thiel Calls, Hang Up

#7
...Says the man who went to school when the opportunity cost wasn't a decade in debt (at the very least).

If you succeed, then you didn't need school. If you fail, then you can always go back to school afterwards. I don't see the downside of the Thiel fellowship, at least on its surface.

Re: Student Entrepreneurs: If Peter Thiel Calls, Hang Up

#8

Also, yes, hiring is difficult. Do you really think you are learning how to do it properly by working at Big Corp first?

There's value in learning from how others have screwed up the world. Learn what sins not to repeat. Sometimes you can only see the brokenness from inside the system.

Some people are geniuses and can run billion dollar companies when they are 16. Other people can benefit from learning by doing for a few years. Everybody is different.

Re: Student Entrepreneurs: If Peter Thiel Calls, Hang Up

#9
post #2

If Peter Thiel calls you, it might make sense to at least hear him out. Slamming doors is rarely a good approach to life. And school will always be there to go back to.

I don't think it's really worth going back to school. I dropped out to join the military. (Later left that too) 10 years later, every time I think about going back I think, "why?". I've already got a job, and I make decent money. I'd learn much more, faster, by taking on more responsibilities here than I would in some sandbox environment. Unless I went to, like, Harvard or something.

Re: Student Entrepreneurs: If Peter Thiel Calls, Hang Up

#10

"Management is a tremendously undervalued skill on the tech startup scene, and that single fact contributes, I believe, to the failure of more companies than any other factor." Truth.

If a company let's children be managers without any prior experience or training, the company should force all their child prodigies to at a minimum read http://www.amazon.com/Great-Danes-Barrons-Dog-Bibles/dp/0764...
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