The big debate in the entrepreneur community at the moment is whether or not college is needed for a successful business or career.
Journalist, Jason Smith, studies the reasons why entrepreneurs should never step foot into college, what are your opinions? Leave a comment and have your say.
The 10 Reasons Why College Is Not Meant For Entrepreneurs
1. You Will Be More In Debt
The dreaded D word, college pricing has been gradually getting out of control over the past decade. The same education that used to be higher quality and more valuable is now much more expensive whilst providing lesser value. Across the world, half the people that go to college do not get the skills necessary to succeed in life. They are basically spoon-fed an educational system of memorization that doesn’t test them and teach critical thinking.
2. Social value
You hear many people discuss the value of socialization among your peers as an essential benefit of college. So many people behave exactly the same way in college as they did in secondary education or high school. Sure, there’s always some maturity that takes place, but for the most part, even in the diverse environment, most people stick to people who share their same values and upbringing.
You can get the same social value by joining a club or an association to learn the essential values of teamwork without the college expenditure. You can also use social networking to reach out to people all over the world.
3. Restrictions on being more innovative
Do you ever hear the likes of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg ever tout their college degrees as the secret formula to their success. Of course, not, that’s because they didn’t earn college degrees. They earned money instead, it comes in much more handy.
The best way to get a college degree is to get an honorary one after you make a fortune and a name for yourself, then an institution can honor you.
4. Still unemployed after college
In most developed countries around the world, half the college graduates can’t even land jobs when they complete their degrees. The students who drop out after figuring out that they don’t fit well within the framework of the institution are not refunded any funds. They have wasted their money and time with nothing to show for it.
Skipping college and starting your own enterprise will be a valuable experience that will put you head and shoulders above your college peers.
5. The use of backwards and traditional methods
College offers traditional teaching methods which are completely outdated. Technology moves at the speed of life and is very transformative. It disrupts the very concept of investing in your college education for a stable career. Around the world, some teenager in his garage may be working on new software or technology that can change the world. The average college professor is only teaching what he or she knows which is no longer applicable in a vastly changing world.
6. Less hands on experience
You can gain expertise through launching your own enterprise. Doing something you are passionate about will be more likely to bring success.
As an entrepreneur, you set your own curriculum based on your passions and interest in life. You then develop a strategic plan to monetize your passion, you can learn the skills you require, follow the blueprint of many entrepreneurs who have succeeded without a college degree. An experienced mentor can steer you down the right path, most college professors haven’t experienced real success outside the classroom, that’s probably why they teach.
7. Rigid learning
College is a very stiff and rigid atmosphere. Life is meant for freedom of expression. College standards and strict guidelines of specialization don’t allow for natural creativity. Entrepreneurs need freedom to create and forge their own path. Textbooks can only teach theory or structure of the way things are supposed to be.
However, entrepreneurs need to think differently, outside the box of conventional wisdom.
8. Less individualism
College tries to paint you in a box to accommodate society. You are expected to simply follow along like millions of others without thinking for yourself. The structure of college prepares you for a life of simply following rules dictated by others. Human beings are supposed to be free people with their own ideas.
As an entrepreneur, you can strive to create your own rules, not government mandated teaching or outdated institutional learning methods.
9. Smaller accomplishments towards your future
As an emerging entrepreneur, you need to gain a mindset of applying real-life principles to determine the results for yourself. Every little progress you make counts as a real accomplishment in the real world.
College only teaches you how to pass exams. As an entrepreneur, if you can create a product or service to market, that’s a real accomplishment that is worthy, most college graduates may never aspire to it.
10. Less risk-taking
Entrepreneurs need to learn to push beyond their comfort zones. Risk is very important to success. You must be willing to take risk and live with your decisions. Sometimes you win, other times you may lose big, but you keep going.
College doesn’t teach the importance of risk, instead they promote security and a safe career. Entrepreneurs must take risks to determine their own path in the world. Entrepreneurs embrace the challenge of calculated risk in order to succeed.
Article By: Jason Smith | Addicted2Success.com
Its a simple narrative to point to the gates and Zuckerbergs of the world who did not need a university education to make their mark. However I would argue and the data supports the fact that the majority of successful tech entrepreneurs graduated with multiple degrees from a rigourous engineering, science or computing program (google, ebay founders as an example).
It’s pretty clear that you haven’t set foot on any of the campuses of community colleges across the nation that are involved in entrepreneurship education. If you had, you would know that they are using experiential learning, including student business incubators, on-campus businesses run by students, business plan competitions and many other methods to help students learn the intricacies of being an entrepreneur – from opportunity identification, funding, team building, etc. Some even have what are essentially VC funds to help get businesses off the ground. All of this comes at a price that does not leave people in debt up to their eyeballs. I know this because I edit the journal of the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE). I can give you example after example after example of students who have benefitted greatly and are already well on their way to success thanks to the education and support they received from their community college.
This is quite an interesting articles for a few reasons.
The way I view it is that the overall level of education has increased globally.
Graduating from a college or university in this era is like graduating from high school say 50-60 years ago. Getting a Masters or PHD now is like getting a college/university degree 50-60 years ago.
I still think that there’s some value in education, but ultimately it’s how you make of that experience. Was it really a waste to go to college? Did you really learned and gained nothing out of it? Sometimes I think that it’s certain life experience that gives you the perspective of what you want or don’t want in life. It gives you a sense of realization. Perhaps you needed the journey to make some decisions to get to where you are today.
So, should you go to college or university or not? That’s a question that you have to ask and answer yourself.
Very good and relevant. I hope your message reaches more people.
My Take: I do believe we need to go through our first 12 years of school. (K thru 12th grade)
We do need to learn to read, write, math and socialization skills. I did go to college straight out of high school in 1978. I am 53 years old. So, I can say this. I got my BA degree and when I graduated after 4 years and now to think about it I paid for so many stupid classes that had nothing to do with what I wanted to be, do or have. I had an English degree, minors in Political Science and Law. Now, what do you with an English degree? I went to work for a restaurant chain (i.e. Burger King as a Manager) I was working for someone else making their dreams come true, not mine. After getting sick and tired of working for corporate America in 1999 I decided to start my own businesses. In school and in college they never taught us “Leverage”
Over our lives we change our careers as many as 20 times because we are searching for what we really wanted to do. Even at 36 years old went back to college to increase my skills in business and accounting. I thought about this the other day. How much did I remember from college? Not much that had nothing to do with what I am doing now. I still found myself trading hours for dollars. We find ourselves going in a circle and end up in the same place we started. Also, when you own a business, the business owns you. In the past year someone showed me a different way to make $$ and realize my dreams. I believe we need to teach our kids a different way of making a life, not make a living. We need to teach them leverage. We all have all types of insurances (Life, car, house, rent, medical, pet) But there is no such thing as “Income Insurance” It took me a half a century to figure it out. I finally found something that pays me what I am worth and pays me for my hard work. College did not teach me this.
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I’m intrigued by your story, can you explain further please?
Hi Susan. Totally get what you are saying. However, I also think that sometimes it’s those life experience that gives you the perspective of what you want or don’t want in life. It gives you a sense of realization. It helps you to realise what you want or don’t want to do. Perhaps that’s the journey that everyone has to go through in order to find a sense of purpose or meaning in life. Thank you for sharing your story.
Win or lose = growth = win
The way I see it, if you want to take on a job title that society is already familiar with, then go to school. If you want to be an entrepreneur and forge your own path, then go out in the world and experiment because experimenting is how people usually attain unfathomable success.
This is right and wrong at the same time.do you go to college to train your insticts or your social life?
Some of the sentence structure in this article makes me think the author could have benefited from some college-level english instruction.
This is a completely bs article. The author assumes that Bill Gates and Co are some sort of norm. Let me assure you, they are far far far exceptions. People who drop out or do not go to college do not do well. Sure, some might end up more creative for it, and even do something awesome, but to assume this is normal is idiotic at best.
Entrepreneurs need to be able to think creatively and harness their creativity into real world products. There are plenty of institutions that understand and foster this. Maybe the author went to a state school and learned a trade but to generalize college as such is ridiculous.
A final point, companies like Vemma are not bringing in “entrepreneurs” as they try and promote. Selling somebody else’s product is not and never will be entrepreneurship. It is a sales job like every single other one, you are rewarded based on how much product you sell. Bringing people in to sell under you (while almost a pyramid scheme) is also not entrepreneurship. Just like a COO of a big company does not claim to run his own company when he hires a new employee or starts a new division. Reps for these LLM companies do not realize that nobody cares if they make a bunch of money, its the fact that they try and manipulate their friends and family into working for them that is annoying as hell.
but ya dumb article.
I completely agree with this post. Everything I’ve ever tried in college never worked for me because It was never meant for me. Feels good to be an entrepreneur
Maybe in a Developed economy, one does not need education. But in a third world country..if you don’t get education or get to rub shoulders with fellow University students, who will soon be in positions of power then your chances are pretty much doomed before you even begin. In the third world you are not born speaking the language of English..you have to learn it, and of course business is done in that language.
agreed
I’m not a college graduate, I knew nothing about starting a business. My number one rule is, talk to other business people who have been there and done that. You can always tell the real successful from the ones who are not. Truly successful people will tell you everything you need to know and not fear the competition.
As an entrepreneur currently running a small business while preparing the launch of a second brand/venture im the same wrestling market (scholastic) an going to school full time.. I completely agree with every point. But still i am still trying to juggle both running a start up and going to school. My parents, mother mostly has been biggest influence to continue with school. As for me i see benefit in both because I am working on my BSD in industrial design and im currently designing and preparing to launch these wrestling products into the market. Where s the line you ask? Well i would say once it hits the level of profitability that i can manage all those school loan bills. Then again I ask myself how much of school i can continue to put up with knowing what I have learned from getting to where im at.
I don’t believe that all career paths need a piece of paper. For the people that said you need to go to school to figure it out. Well I will give another point of view. Almost every single person that I went to HS with that attended a 4 year college is now in a dead end job. With the exception of one lawyer, a couple teachers, and a few in the medical profession. Those of us that skipped the wasted time of a 4 year degree are self employed. Most of us in art & music. The others in construction. While a degree will in fact get you a job its not necessarily a good one.
Maybe not, but there is nothing wrong with an educated society. A piece of paper won’t promise you a job, but it will give you a sense of pride about yourself and that’s priceless!!!!
LOL i hope your pride pays your bills