A VC - Latest Comments in One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

fredwilson — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:39:16 -0000

You have just nailed the problem with schooling. Education is a great experience. School is sadly not very often

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

anonymouse — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:11:21 -0000

I agree here... I went to a top 20 cs school and was paying for it myself... I went 3 years and made straight a's... The whole time I was working on a business for myself and right after holidays that year I dropped out and started on it full time. I did not like the idea of working for anybody so I didn't see much point in having to pay back another 40k dollars in loans... talk about a bad ROI...

I have ended up working for companies though and not a big fan, I gave up my company and traveled the world a few years and when I came back I just worked for a few years... I am still working but working on a side project right now. I am using the money from the job as capital.

So, it was good to get exposed there...but not sure to finish...

Hey if I could just take classes and not pay to "certify" my knowledge, it would be no problem and I love to take classes, but it doesn't help at all in what I want to do though. I'm a travel junkie and working in corp world or typical jobs just doesn't do it for me, simply not enough time off.

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

mlevy23 — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 12:39:13 -0000

thank you.

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

ShaunO — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:13:27 -0000

Good call, friend.

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

ShaunO — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:52:45 -0000

Of course its a 'cherry'. its not going to just be track_record; its going to be track_record + college. Obviously its going to be improved in some way.

The question is, is it worth 4 years of your life and thousands and thousands of dollars. Not to mention that you push back the beginning of your business, which, if successful, could compound your wealth and success exponentially.

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

eit — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 06:58:01 -0000

where's the place where you learn humility?

ok, seriously, i think you are talking at cross purposes with mike.

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

PierreSmack (Pierre Bastien) — Tue, 19 May 2009 10:09:54 -0000

A college education is like insurance. It's expensive, but you get a safety net: in this case, knowledge, credentials, connections, social skills, and so on. You don't NEED insurance to be a successful entrepreneur. But it's nice to have.

This post should be required reading for anyone in college or high school. Even if you plan to attend college, you should be aware of the path not chosen. It'll help you make the most of the college experience.

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

Richard Kligman — Wed, 13 May 2009 07:27:25 -0000

I couldn't agree with you more. I would rather invest $100k in an entrepreneur over 4 years to launch a start-up then to pay for his college for 4 years. Believe me that the experience from starting and running a company over 4 years is more useful then a college degree even if he fails. And yes I am speaking from experience :) Actually I didn't graduate high-school. I left in my Jr. because I felt it was a waste of time. Got my GED though to make my parents happy.

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

fredwilson — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:24:36 -0000

I love that you are on the state education board. Someone's doing something right in your state!

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

angusdavis — Mon, 11 May 2009 23:26:43 -0000

I just stumbled onto this post and felt compelled to comment. I skipped going to college so I could join Netscape when I was 18. It worked out great for me. My dad was a big supporter - despite the fact that both he and his father had both gone to college and graduate school. My after-school jobs during high school were like being on a varsity athletic team, and the opportunity to go to work for Netscape in 1996 was like getting recruited to play for the NBA. While I would not recommend this path broadly to everyone, it worked out well for me and it could work well for many others who have the right set of skills and emotional fortitude for this path. If you are young, in HS or college, and thinking about joining a start-up or doing some other entrepreneurial thing with your life, feel free to contact me (on twitter: @angusdav; i also on linkedin, email is my first.last at gmail.)

By the way, in a twist of irony, I now serve on the State Board of Education, and I am working hard to change the system for the better, but those reforms do not move at Internet speed...

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

fredwilson — Sun, 10 May 2009 08:30:07 -0000

All good points but the anti college sentiment is telling. College education costs too much and delivers too little for too many

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

curiousEngine — Sun, 10 May 2009 08:06:19 -0000

I have never studied business management before, despite my good background in Economics during High School. I aim to become a web entrepreneur and studying at a reputable university enhances this experiences. We get to obtain feedback from the industry who come to talk to students in the campus. We have opportunity to become mature and undertake research. In my degree, there is a Practical Training session, where we have to work for short period of time. This can better develop our mind of how to properly fit in the shoes of an entrepreneur. It is difficult to understand the Psyche of an employee (which an entrepreneur hires) and without learning about industrial psychology/ human resources management, organisational behaviour at an academic institution might prove challenging for the future entrepreneur.

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

fredwilson — Sun, 10 May 2009 07:57:10 -0000

I agree that opening the mind and eyes of a young adult is a critical thing to do.

Unfortunately a college education doesn't always do that best

For the price you pay in time and money, what else could you get?

David Karp, the founder of tumblr (at 19) quit HS at 16 and moved to tokyo to live and work

he's 21 now. kids his age are graduating from college and he's already done a lot of living

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

fredwilson — Sun, 10 May 2009 07:47:07 -0000

That's exactly how I feel about elementary, middle, and high school. The things that make it valuable for my kids are not being supplied in the classroom

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

brianerickson — Sat, 09 May 2009 12:37:23 -0000

I am a 22-year old entrepreneur who started a company during college and began working on it full-time upon graduation.

If you are in fact a bright, curious self-starter, I think the lessons you learn by your own exploration at a university will greatly overshadow what you've been taught by professors.

A college education is important to entrepreneurs for a variety of reasons outside of what is "learned" in class: free time to think about the problems with the world, living in a community of people your own age, (many of whom may also be interested in making an impact on society), free advice from a host of extremely knowledgeable experts (your professors), and the greater likelihood of networking with your school's alumni are all "side effects" that enhance the entrepreneurial experience.

So I would have to say NO, I did not learn anything life-changing from graduating with a 4-year business degree from a reputable university. I was not a person who attended class on a regular basis, nor did I spend much time worrying about homework.

But I would not have had the crucial experiences such as networking events with alumni to find Angel investment and creating an impromptu board of advisors of my college professors to give me the guidance to start a company. I also would not have met any of my current co-founders.

If it was possible to recreate this type of environment outside of the college experience, then I would agree that schooling was overrated.

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

Guest — Sat, 09 May 2009 06:05:09 -0000

This is such a great post. It shows us that the real question is how can education innovate to be helpful to the new generation of entrepreneurs. Schools need to facilitate a young adults future to maintain their validity. And with tuition rates soaring well above financial aid limits, they need to prove their worth.

But, I think what needs to be highly, highly stressed is that this type of decision is about the whole personhood of a young adult. The over simplifications here are very misguiding.

I think that if an 18 year old asks if they should begin a start-up with their great idea or go to college, the questions to ask them should not resemble that Forbes.com test in any way.

A more important questions at that point in life is "Who are you?" How much do they know about other cultures or world views? Do they have the global insight for any sense of corporate responsibility? Theses are questions of identity that too many business people do not ask themselves.

I was fortunate to go to school on scholarship, which gave me enormous flexibility. I would not give up the extensive research I did in Asian art history for the world. It has nothing to do with what I do with my career, but much to do with who I am. The latter is more important.

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

fredwilson — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:49:49 -0000

Schooling is overrated, particularly for bright curious self starters

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

great_mind20 — Fri, 08 May 2009 12:25:14 -0000

Education is important. Its an experience one cannot do without . No matter how good you are, the lack of it will rear its ugly head one day. It may be in a gathering or anywhere where '' book-link'' will still be a plus.Internally, you will be telling yourself, I wish I went to college.To the best of my knowledge, the classwork,assignments,math problems are supposed to check one's balance and make one prepared to be a solver of problems.Likewise in the real world. You went to school to gain knowledge and be solver of problems.While I was growing up,I had problems choosing between, commercial, Art and sciences courses, because I am good in all of them.What I did was to study how courses are chosen. I discovered that lesser numbers chose sciences. In sciences , lesser number choose Engineering. In Engineering , Mechanical Engineering has the highest cut -off(the most competitive). I went for it, got more than the cut -off mark, got admitted to study the course(Mechanical Engineering).My love solving maths problems,planes and automobiles is a plus for my interest in the course.

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

bsiscovick — Fri, 08 May 2009 12:12:08 -0000

I know I am two months late to the convo, but Fred’s tweet this morning prompted a re-reading of this thread.

I understand and appreciate Fred’s point – you don’t need a college education to be a great entrepreneur.

I do, however, find many of the comments on this thread unnerving. For all of the shortcoming and pitfalls of higher education, the strong anti-college sentiment on this thread is troubling.

There are a number of critically important benefits that higher education offers that have been shortchanged through much of this dialogue:

1) Optionality - True, a great entrepreneur will have the innate creativity and drive to solve and overcome challenges faced. But what about the 99% of people who are not natural-born entrepreneurs by the age of 18? Having a college degree provides individuals with optionally – the ability to position oneself as a viable candidate for any one of a number of jobs. While optionality might be value-less for a successful entrepreneur who doesn’t need or care about having multiple career options, it is invaluable for one who finds himself struggling to succeed.
2) Knowledge – You don’t need traditional schooling to gain knowledge, but many of the higher-education mechanisms do a fairly good job at imparting knowledge in an efficient and effective manner. My #1 reason for attending business school was to gain a holistic and broad-based understanding of business. In contrast to *most* (or vast majority) of jobs in which ones business exposure is relatively myopic, school allowed me to gain both a breadth and depth of exposure. This scope of perspective is a critical advantage at this stage of my career.
3) Exploring new interests and opportunities – College provides a unique forum in which to explore and discover new interests and passions. It is remarkable how often we hear stories of students taking one-off classes on a whim, falling in love with the subject and then dedicating their careers to it. Even if the newly discovered passion does not lead to a career, it offers life-long benefits to the person in real and meaningful ways. From my experience in the workforce, it is much more difficult to meaningfully explore new subjects and interests with the looming time-and mind-crunch of work deliverables hanging over. For this reason alone, many find the personal development aspect of the college experience invaluable.
4) Creative environment – While I can respect and appreciate many of the criticisms of higher education on this forum, I strongly challenge the notion that college or grad school stifles creativity and innovation. In my experience, academic institutions are, in many ways, unique bastions of creative expression and innovation. My college professors constantly encouraged us to question established theory and accepted practice, to tackle difficult problems with creative solutions and to challenge ourselves to push the limits of what we thought was possible. It was an environment where innovative (albeit sometimes outlandish) ideas flowed freely. While not all colleges are created equally, there are many out there that are wonderful creative environments.

My point with this long comment is not to suggest that everyone should attend college. People are beautifully unique and different, and many do not need, desire or value the benefits of traditional higher education. And of course, there are many flaws with the current systems that must be corrected. That said, let’s appropriately recognize and respect what traditional higher education can bring to the table.

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

Jim Shook — Fri, 08 May 2009 12:09:25 -0000

Seems to me that being successful requires a very strong desire to keep learning. This quality does not come from a college education.

Secondarily though, I think an ability to think analytically and in a structured manner is crucially important. Some of the smartest people I know, who didn't care much for doing well in school, do have a difficult time organizing their thoughts.

So I think the value in higher education is not in the substance but in how it teaches you to bring structure and organization to decision-making.

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

Andrew Holt — Fri, 08 May 2009 09:11:56 -0000

As with an MBA, the actual knowledge gained from classroom learning has little value for an entrepreneur. I use about 1% of the knowledge taught in my lectures at school. However, while college certainly isn't a requirement for an entrepreneur, I disagree wholeheartedly with any advice to young entrepreneurs that they skip college. The highly successful entrepreneurs who flat out skipped college are a tiny minority, and you're leaving a LOT up to chance by deciding to forgo a degree.

First, college only "cranks out workers" if you let it. While the actual knowledge taught in lectures didn't help me much, the challenge of working on some extremely hard problems with very smart people undoubtedly structured my thought process. I didn't go into college planning on working for someone else forever, and I didn't leave college with that mindset either.

Second, most of my network stems from colleagues, alumni, or people with whom my degree holds clout.

I'd say an undergraduate degree has the same value as an MBA. If you go to a top school, the clout and the network have a lot of value. If you go to any other school, you're probably better off stopping out or skipping IF you're mature enough to build knowledge and a valuable network on your own.

I always shudder when I hear some young folks boasting about skipping college. A lot of you should think twice, unless you're already working on something you're extremely passionate about. Not starting college and not graduating college are very different things.

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

Bill DAlessandro — Fri, 08 May 2009 09:08:01 -0000

I'll weigh in with what seems to be the minority opinion here - college helped me tremendously, and it's not the class I'm talking about. There is far more to an education and a college experience than the degree you receive. When I look at the person I was when I graduated high school, and the person I am now 1 year out of college, the difference is drastic. The things I learned in college that were most valuable are not things you'll find on my degree:

- Hard work, how to push through and meet a deadline, and how to juggle multiple assignments at once

- Social skills: being around lots of like minded, intelligent people sparked my intellect outside of class, and taught me to express my ideas about a variety of topics. I also learned how to interact and get along with a wide variety of personality types, from the type-A go getter to the stoner frat guy.

- Networking: through my classes and extra-cirriculars, I now have a network of smart, driven people that I'm connected with across America and across multiple industries

- Freedom: College gave me four years during which my "real" responsibilities were relatively minimal. I was able to use this time to explore a number of different entrepreneurial ventures (one of which I was able to exit), with no pressure to earn a living, and relatively little outside distraction

- Personality: Had I not gone to college, I wouldn't have a word to say when a conversation turned to literature, I wouldn't know a word of Spanish, and I would likely never have developed my interest in music beyond listening to the radio

In summary, college may not be for everyone, and I don't think it is by any means a prerequisite for success. However if you have the opportunity to attend, don't pass it up lightly. You may learn more than you're expecting to.

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

fredwilson — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 06:53:13 -0000

luck

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

Ahmed A. — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:21:55 -0000

By the way, I just got the leave of absence approved. Wish me luck. Thanks!

Re: One Thing You Don't Need To Be An Entrepreneur: A College Degree

Ahmed A. — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:14:16 -0000

That's cool, glad you liked it.