Sigh, there is a lot of misleading stuff in there. First of all, the whole article relies on conclusion by examples. But if you look at the data the successful start up entrepreneurs are overwhelmingly college graduates.
Secondly, even if we look at the examples of the successful dropouts we notice that even most of them get some significant advantage out of school.
Gates is the prime example. Everyone says he is dropped out of college, but he had the advantage of going to one of the richest high schools in the nation where he had access to a computer (which was an incredible luxury at the time). It is the skills he learned there that allowed him to actually create something useful and to start his company.
Jobs dropped out, but if Jobs was all by himself he would not be Steve Jobs of Apple Computer, and there would not be an Apple Computer. Jobs is Jobs because he met Woz, and Woz went to college where he ignited his passion for electronics and gained the skills which would later enable him to create the first Apple computers.
Now about Zuck. It is utterly obvious to anyone that followed the rise of Facebook that there would be no Facebook if Zuckenberg did not go to college. Sure he dropped out, but being there allowed him to assemble the team that build the site and be part of the culture that made the site useful and used. Facebook was a college phenomenon.
So things are not that simple. To be a successful entrepreneur you have to build something people want. And to do this nowadays you usually need to deal with machines and computers. And to know how to make computers do what you need them to do you need education. Now it is not certain whether formal education does a good job at this or not, but to say that all you need to do a successful start-up is gumption, can do spirit, "street smarts", sales skills, etc., is a dangerous lie.
>"Jobs dropped out, but if Jobs was all by himself he would not be Steve Jobs of Apple Computer, and there would not be an Apple Computer. Jobs is Jobs because he met Woz, and Woz went to college where he ignited his passion for electronics and gained the skills which would later enable him to create the first Apple computers."
It's more than that. If Wozniak and Jobs had been in Topeka, there probably wouldn't have been an Apple computer because few people there would likely gambled on an order for 50 computers in 1976. Only in places like Silicon Valley were there the right demographics to support computer shops and create the sort of demand which allowed them to get their start. Later financing also was facilitated by location.
You are right there, but I am sure he learned a lot of useful stuff in college. I studied a lot of hardware and electronics myself and those fields include a lot of theory and high order math that one usually cannot learn in high school.
Comments
Sigh, there is a lot of misleading stuff in there. First of all, the whole article relies on conclusion by examples. But if you look at the data the successful start up entrepreneurs are overwhelmingly college graduates.
Secondly, even if we look at the examples of the successful dropouts we notice that even most of them get some significant advantage out of school.
Gates is the prime example. Everyone says he is dropped out of college, but he had the advantage of going to one of the richest high schools in the nation where he had access to a computer (which was an incredible luxury at the time). It is the skills he learned there that allowed him to actually create something useful and to start his company.
Jobs dropped out, but if Jobs was all by himself he would not be Steve Jobs of Apple Computer, and there would not be an Apple Computer. Jobs is Jobs because he met Woz, and Woz went to college where he ignited his passion for electronics and gained the skills which would later enable him to create the first Apple computers.
Now about Zuck. It is utterly obvious to anyone that followed the rise of Facebook that there would be no Facebook if Zuckenberg did not go to college. Sure he dropped out, but being there allowed him to assemble the team that build the site and be part of the culture that made the site useful and used. Facebook was a college phenomenon.
So things are not that simple. To be a successful entrepreneur you have to build something people want. And to do this nowadays you usually need to deal with machines and computers. And to know how to make computers do what you need them to do you need education. Now it is not certain whether formal education does a good job at this or not, but to say that all you need to do a successful start-up is gumption, can do spirit, "street smarts", sales skills, etc., is a dangerous lie.
>"Jobs dropped out, but if Jobs was all by himself he would not be Steve Jobs of Apple Computer, and there would not be an Apple Computer. Jobs is Jobs because he met Woz, and Woz went to college where he ignited his passion for electronics and gained the skills which would later enable him to create the first Apple computers."
It's more than that. If Wozniak and Jobs had been in Topeka, there probably wouldn't have been an Apple computer because few people there would likely gambled on an order for 50 computers in 1976. Only in places like Silicon Valley were there the right demographics to support computer shops and create the sort of demand which allowed them to get their start. Later financing also was facilitated by location.
Woz's passion for electronics started waaaaay before college. More like at age 11. (I'm reading iWoz right now, it's great)
You are right there, but I am sure he learned a lot of useful stuff in college. I studied a lot of hardware and electronics myself and those fields include a lot of theory and high order math that one usually cannot learn in high school.